Cajun Shrimp Shepherd’s Pie

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

45 minutes to prepare serves 6

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

  1. Boil potatoes until tender. Drain then return to pot. Add sour cream, melted butter, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
  3. 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.
  4. Add flour and stir until flour is cooked through.
  5. Add tomato paste and vegetable broth, stirring to release any bits of flavor from the bottom of the pan.
  6. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce begins to thicken. Remove the sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Stir in frozen peas.
  7. 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.
  8. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool briefly before serving, 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Pinch Of Yum.