Cajun Shrimp Shepherd’s Pie
This recipe may change your mind about trying Meatless Mondays.
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We love to play with the recipes for some of our favorite comfort foods. A classic comfort food recipe is shepherd’s pie, for all the obvious reasons: beef and veggies soaked in a delicious gravy and topped with creamy and rich mashed potatoes. It’s practically food-heaven in a dish! We’ve taken a meatless twist on our beloved shepherd’s pie recipe and it’s pretty darn delicious. Seasoned with cajun spices and packed with hearty vegetables, our Cajun shrimp shepherd’s pie is truly a delicious meal.
We’ve substituted the usual ground beef with two alternative ingredients that help to create a “meaty” filling that is absolutely drool-worthy. Mushrooms are a great way to give a meatless dish some heartiness in both flavor and texture, and we couldn’t resist adding beautiful and slightly sweet shrimp to the mixture to create a filling that is as lovely as our original recipe. To kick up the flavor factor, we’ve added ginger, garlic, and Cajun seasoning for a little heat and spice. The combination here, mushrooms, shrimp, veggies, and a little spicy heat are topped with creamy mashed potatoes and baked together in the oven to comfort food perfection.
A shepherd’s pie is a meat-and-potatoes dish that defines classic comfort food. Our meatless version rivals the original, as it still retains all that comforting goodness that we expect in a shepherd’s pie. We’re definitely still going to make this dish with beef, but from time to time, it’s nice to serve up something that’s a little bit lighter but equally as comforting, and our Cajun shrimp shepherd’s pie is a wonderfully delicious way to breathe new life into some of our beloved comfort foods.
Cajun Shrimp Shepherd's Pie
Yield(s): Serves 6
45 minutes
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 pound mushrooms, minced
- 4 carrots, peeled and diced
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and diced
- 1-2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Mashed Potatoes:
- 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Boil potatoes until tender. Drain then return to pot. Add sour cream, melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Sauté onions, carrots, mushrooms, and herbs and cook until vegetables are softened. Add garlic, ginger, and the Cajun seasoning. Stir until well blended.
- Add flour and stir until flour is cooked through.
- Add tomato paste and vegetable broth, stirring to release any bits of flavor from the bottom of the pan.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce begins to thicken. Remove the sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Stir in frozen peas.
- Quickly toss shrimp with the vegetable mixture and stir in red pepper flakes. Transfer vegetable-shrimp mixture to prepared baking dish. Cover with a layer of mashed potatoes.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Cool briefly before serving, 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Pinch Of Yum.