Jamie Oliver Slow Cooker Vegan Shepherds Pie

Source video by Jamie Oliver on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

Jamie's vegan shepherd's pie is built almost entirely from store-cupboard and freezer ingredients. The flavour base is rosemary and garlic in olive oil, then mushrooms (button and a few dried porcini for depth), then a bag of frozen chopped veg fried hard until concentrated. A glass of vegan red wine deglazes, then lentils and chickpeas go in as the protein. The stock is a Jamie cheat: dried porcini steeped in boiling water with Marmite, soy sauce and miso for umami. Sun-dried tomatoes go in last for pops of sweetness. The whole filling moves to the slow cooker to reduce and meld; mashed potato (with olive oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg) tops the dish, gets a thyme-herb-oil drizzle, and finishes 35 to 40 minutes in a hot oven for the crust. Slow cookers can't brown a top, so the oven finish is non-negotiable.

Ingredients

• 2 tbspextra virgin olive oil
• fresh rosemary, nice little pile, roughly chopped
• garlic cloves, sliced
• button or portobello mushrooms, broken up roughly
• 1 tbspground coriander
• frozen chopped veg (celery, carrot, onion mix), whole bag
• vegan red wine, a good glass
• cooked or tinned lentils, drained
• tinned chickpeas, drained
• 11 tomatoessun-dried tomatoes
• to tastefine salt, to taste
• to tastefreshly ground black pepper, to taste

• dried porcini mushrooms, little handful, steeped in boiled water
• Marmite, little spoon
• soy sauce, thimble
• miso paste

• 1.5 kgfloury potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender, then mashed (add late)
• extra virgin olive oil, instead of butter, into the mash (add late)
• fine salt (add late)
• freshly ground black pepper (add late)
• ground nutmeg, little bit (add late)

• fresh thyme, leaves picked (add late)
• 3.5 tbspextra virgin olive oil (add late)

Method

1. Heat the 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan on medium. Add the chopped rosemary, give it a moment to crackle, then add the sliced garlic.

   ~2 min

2. Add the mushrooms, season with pepper, and stir in the tablespoon of ground coriander. Turn the heat up and fry until the mushrooms shrink and start to colour.

   ~5 min

3. Tip in the whole bag of frozen chopped veg. Turn the heat up high and fry for about 15 minutes, Jamie wants the volume to drop and the mix to go dark and caramelised.

   ~15 min

4. Pour in a good glass of red wine and let it sizzle down to a dry pan again.

   ~3 min

5. Steep a little handful of dried porcini in just-boiled water for a few minutes to make a quick stock. Add Marmite, soy sauce and miso to taste for umami.

   ~5 min

6. Add the lentils and chickpeas to the pan, then the sun-dried tomatoes, then pour in the porcini stock and tip in the soaked mushrooms.

   ~2 min

7. Use a potato masher to crush some of the chickpeas, just enough to break their blatant shape.

   ~1 min

8. Transfer everything to the slow cooker. Cover.

   ~2 min

9. Cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3 hours. Taste at the end and adjust seasoning.

   ~300 min

10. About 40 minutes before serving, boil the 1.5 kg of peeled potatoes until tender. Drain, mash, beat in olive oil, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

    ~25 min

11. Heat the oven to 190 to 200 C. Transfer the filling to an oven dish. Pile the mash on top, leave it rustic.

    ~5 min

12. Mix the picked thyme leaves with the 3.5 tbsp olive oil and squeeze through your fingers over the top of the mash for a herb-oil drizzle.

    ~1 min

13. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and blipping at the edges. Rest 5 minutes before serving with steamed greens.

    ~40 min

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