Darshana Thacker Wendel
Darshana Thacker Wendel is a whole-food, plant-based chef and former culinary projects manager for Forks Over Knives. A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, she is the author of Forks Over Knives: Flavor! She created the recipes for Forks Over Knives Family and was a lead recipe contributor to the New York Times bestseller The Forks Over Knives Plan. Her recipes have been published in The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook, Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook, Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health, and LA Yoga magazine online. Visit DarshanasKitchen.com and follow her on Instagram for more.
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Comments (28)
Can this recipe be frozen to serve at a later time?
Hi Carol,
Yes it can! Make the recipe through step 4 and then put it in an airtight container to freeze. When you’re ready to eat, thaw it in the fridge for a few hours before continuing on with step 5. You may need to add a little extra bake time just to ensure everything is heated through. Let us know how it goes!
Just reading the recipe made m3 want to make it. I added mushrooms to replace meat.
My husband isn’t a mashed potato fan (he’s all about textures-same with bananas). Would small dice potatoes be good in this recipe?
I made this and it turned out really well. I made the mashed potatoes in the instapot with veggie broth and add mushrooms to the veggies also used vegetable broth instead of water. Also added a few spices that I like.
Thank you for the recipe I will definitely make it again. My mom loved it!
I’ve purchased gluten free oats in the past.
Ha! Well, I wrote this as a response to someone’s comment about gluten-free oats, but it looks like Fork over Knives deleted the comment I was replying to. I think the person was just concerned about gluten…perhaps they had celiacs.
Has anyone made this the day before ? How did it hold up
Yes! Make the day before and bake the next day (or two).
I love this recipe, but like other commenters have noted, it is a little bland. I add one vegan bouillon cube to the vegetables with the rest of the spices and instead of Italian seasoning, I use 3/4 tsp of herbs de Provence and 1/4 tsp each of basil, garlic, and sage. The flavor turns out wonderfully deep with a slight, warm sweetness. I also add peas and chopped leeks.
This is a great base. I’ve made this several times and these are my adaptions.
The potatoes are the star usually when I make this and people go crazy over the potato topping.
I chop up 2 cloves of garlic and put them in the (1 C.) of milk and heat the milk up before adding to the potatoes. It infuses the milk. The garlicky “Cream” really takes these potatoes up 10 levels.
Also, I heat up the second cup of milk separately before combining into the dish. I again infuse it with the 3 cloves of garlic, Rosemary and some sliced mushrooms. Although I’m not a HUGE fan of Rosemary, I replaced the Italian herb blend with chopped fresh rosemary. I like much prefer fresh but I’ve used dried as well – Use fresh if you can, it really makes a big difference. The sliced mushrooms add a nice flavor as well. The combination of mushroom and rosemary together make this a richer and more flavorful “gravy’. NOW at this point, the vinegar acts as a true counterbalance cutting the earthiness of the mushrooms, and the boldness of the rosemary. White wine vinegar is very nice in this dish indeed. However, I like a nice sherry vinegar or champagne vinegar. They tend to complement the mushroom flavor just a tad bit more. I hope you’ll give this technique and execution a try. I think you’ll find this dish to be pretty incredible and quite elevated from it’s original.
Thanks for the great tips!
A touch bland but sauteing (in water or low sodium broth) the onions (add extra) along with mushrooms and adding more of a mushroom gravy to the filling might do the trick. This actually is a pretty forgiving recipe so I think I would use it as a base and then build a nice WFPB style shepherd’s pie out of it.
It wasn’t terrible but we found it pretty bland. I added some peas and fennel seeds, but to no avail. I wouldn’t make it this way again, but I might try to doctor it with some of the other users’ suggestions.
FOK also has a London curried shepherd’s pie recipe that is to die for! Try that one instead.
I just learned a secret for plant based shepherds pie— a little fennel seed. The fennel seed gives a texture of meat— especially when using lentils!!! I just made a Shepherds Pie Yesterday— for a potluck we attended today—- it was a “hit”. For the topping I use Yukon gold potatoes, butternut squash, plant based butter, and garlic salt.
How much protein per serving? What is the source?
32 grams total in this recipe. I assume most of the protein comes from the oats and plant milk, though there’s a bit of protein in most foods.
Fantastic base recipe to adapt from. With some more seasoning and my own mashed potato recipe, this thing really came to life.
It’s ok. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be so bland but, it be bland. I would opt for more/different seasoning, some garlic in the potatoes, and maybe a bit of broth to simmer the veggies, possibly a gravy on top.
Quite flavorful. Made it exactly as the recipe is written & we all really enjoyed it. Next time, I will try adding peas as I do think that would be a nice touch.
Very Nice! Shepherd’s Pie usually has english peas in the dish as well, So I added a few peas. This turned out much better than I thought or hoped for.
Why when a recipe needs oat flour why can’t it have both options? – how much oat flour or how much oats added to blender and made into flour. I keep oat flour on hand so I don’t have to make it and dirty my blender every time a recipe calls for oat flour.
A quick google search shows you the it’s a 1:1 ratio!
Is the nutritional information available for this recipe?
Why vinegar?
Any type of acid helps brighten up the flavors. Vinegar or lemon juice is usually added to any soup or stew to finish it off.
Is the white wine vinegar necessary? Or is it just for flavoring?