Our favourite Shepherdess Pie recipe has all the best vegetarian foods: the beans are sautéed with red pepper and onion, garlic and courgettes, topped with a good amount of tangy feta and then baked under a layer of buttery potato mash! All spiced with Cajun seasoning, it is an ultimate winter warmer!
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If there is one thing I’d change about living in North Wales is the weather. Yesterday, we have survived storm Eunice (I swear they’ll soon run out of names!) without much damage, and overall it is raining more than it is not. The flip side of the bad weather is that we got pretty good (if we do say so ourselves) at creating comforting, soul-warming recipes here in our kitchen. One of these, we are sharing with you today.
Cajun Seasoning for the Pie:
We used shop-bought Cajun Seasoning, which you can get in most large supermarkets (at least here, in the UK). Failing that, Amazon has a good variety too, like this one here. However, if your spice cupboard is well stocked, there is no reason why you cannot make the seasoning yourself. Here’s the blend that we have tried and loved:
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 2 tsp mixed dried herbs
This will make a small batch of Cajun seasoning, and you will need about a tbsp worth of it to make the Shepherdess Pie.
How to Make Our Bean Shepherdess Pie?
Preheat the oven to 180° C Fan. Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender (15-20 min).
In the meantime, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan. Add the sliced red onion and fry on medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and courgette chunks and carry on frying for 3 more minutes, stirring often.
Add half of the kidney beans and Cajun seasoning to the pan and stir.
Mash the other half of the kidney beans in a small bowl. Add them to the pan alongside 100ml of water and a tbsp of tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes. The mashed beans will create a thick sauce.
Once cooked, spoon the vegetable and bean mixture into an ovenproof dish. Crumble half of the feta on top.
Once your potatoes are tender, drain them, add the milk and a generous knob of butter and mash. Mix in the spring onion. Spread the mashed potato on top of the veg and feta mixture. Scatter the remaining feta on top and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until the top is starting to turn golden brown.
For other vegetarian comfort food, have a look at our recipes below:
- Vegetarian Glamorgan Sausages with Rich Tomato Relish
- Vegetarian Wellington with Kale & Red Peppers
- Kale & Feta Cannelloni
Shepherdess Pie with Spicy Beans
Ingredients
- 600 g potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
- 200 ml milk
- knob of butter
- 1 spring onion sliced
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp Cajun seasoning see above how to make your own
- 1 courgette cut into chunks
- 1 red pepper sliced into strips
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 400 g tin of kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 200 g feta crumbled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180° C Fan.
- Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until tender (15-20 min).
- In the meantime, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan. Add the sliced red onion and fry on medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and courgette chunks and carry on frying for 3 more minutes, stirring often.
- Add half of the kidney beans and Cajun seasoning to the pan and stir.
- Mash the other half of the kidney beans in a small bowl. Add them to the pan alongside 100ml of water and a tbsp of tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Once cooked, spoon the vegetable and beans mixture into an ovenproof dish. Crumble half of the feta on top.
- Once your potatoes are tender, drain them, add the milk and a knob of butter and mash. Mix in the spring onion. Spread the mashed potato on top of the veg and feta mixture. Scatter the remaining feta on top and drizzle with a little olive oil.
- Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until the top is starting to turn golden brown.
Nutrition
