Remember those pre-vegan days when milk came from an animal and you couldn’t imagine giving up your 2% or skim milk (tasteless as is was, am I right?)? And then you went vegan and were introduced to oh-so-many plant-based milk varieties: soy, almond, coconut, oat, flax, hemp, and more! What a delight!
Now there’s a new nut milk on the block – macadamia milk – and you can find it in Kroger stores in the U.S. and Loblaws in Canada! (And many other stores: Check out this store locator.)
I attended Natural Products Expo West last month and swung by the Suncoast Gold Macadamia Milk booth where I was delighted to see my friend Tess Masters, The Blender Girl, serving up delicious smoothies made with macadamia milk. There’s something delightfully hearty and creamy about this milk that makes a smoothie feel, well, like a meal. Think about biting into a macadamia nut – it’s got crunch, it’s light to the point of being nearly sweet, but it doesn’t quite hit that sweet spot.
I immediately realized that this could be a great addition to my wildly popular white bean gravy recipe in my book Vegan Pressure Cooking: taking creamy to a whole new level! So when Suncoast Gold offered to sponsor a post so that I could do a very special giveaway (Ready for this? ONE MONTH of free macadamia milk! Enter below!, I immediately said yes. It gave me the opportunity to get in the kitchen to update my bean gravy recipe.
And to create a twist to a familiar recipe. (Because there’s only one thing better than vegan shepherd’s pie and that’s vegan shepherd’s pie with a thick layer of creamy bean gravy!)
Thanks to Suncoast Gold, I’m sharing both recipes with you today: A macadamia milk Creamy Bean Gravy and a Lentil and Collard Green Shepherd’s Pie with Creamy Bean Gravy.
And good news, home cooks:
- Pressure cooking enthusiasts: you can make the beans for the gravy in your pressure cooker (soak dry cannellini beans overnight and they will cook up in 6 – 8 minutes!) and you can make the lentils and potatoes for the shepherd’s pie in the pressure cooker, too (place potatoes in water and cook for five minutes; cook up brown lentils for 8 – 10 minutes).
- No pressure cooker? No problem! Use canned beans for the gravy and use canned or cooked lentils and make the mashed potatoes in a pot on the stove!
Ready for the recipes? Go!
Go!
Creamy Bean Gravy
by JL Fields
- 4 tablespoons vegan butter
- 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup Suncoast Gold Macadamia Milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (or tamari)
- 1 can cannellini (or other white) beans, rinsed and drained (or 1 1/2 cups cooked beans)
Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add the garlic and onion and sauté until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add sage and pepper and stir well. Stir in the macadamia milk, broth and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the beans, using a slotted spoon.
Blend the gravy using either an immersion blender in the saucepan or transfer to a blender and pulse for 20 to 30 seconds. (If using a blender, return the gravy back to the saucepan once blended.)
Stir in the nutritional yeast, cover the saucepan, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
Serve over mashed potatoes, biscuits, french fries (poutine!), or in (and on!) vegan shepherd’s pie.
Yield: 3 – 4 cups gravy
Now, how about that pie?
Lentil and Collard Green Shepherd’s Pie with Creamy Bean Gravy
by JL Fields
Here we go! First
- Make mashed potatoes (mash them with a splash of macadamia milk!) – you will use 2 cups mashed.
- And make Creamy Bean Gravy (recipe above) or not, if you plan to use a packaged vegan gravy – you will use 1/2 cup gravy.
- Then heat oven to 350F and spray a 1.5-qt casserole dish with extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.
Now cook up this lentil/collard mix:
- 2 tablespoons beef-style vegan broth
- 1/4 cup diced onion
- 1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1/4 cup Suncoast Gold Macadamia Milk
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 cup cooked lentils
- 4 cups loosely packed shredded collard greens
- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
- Extra beef-style vegan broth (or water)
- Fresh ground black pepper
Heat broth in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until translucent (3 – 5 minutes). Add mushrooms and macadamia milk and mix well. Sprinkle in nutritional yeast and stir quickly (it will become thick like a roux). Add lentils, collard greens, sage and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well and add a splash of broth or water to keep from sticking.
Transfer lentil and collard mix to the casserole dish. Then spoon 1/2 cup gravy over the mix. Spread 2 cups mashed potatoes over the gravy layer. Sprinkle with black pepper.
Transfer casserole dish to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes (until bubbling and golden).
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes before serving (this helps the pie set).
Yield: Serves 4
Hot out of the oven!
And ready to eat!
Now, enter this giveaway (open to those with shipping addresses in the U.S. and Canada) for a chance to win an entire month’s worth of Suncoast Gold Macadamia Milk so you can get to cooking!
28 thoughts on “Lentil and Collard Green Shepherd’s Pie with Creamy Bean Gravy (Win a MONTH of macadamia milk!)”
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I would use it in my oatmeal.
it is COLD here now, so your shepherds pie sounds glorious! I would love to use this in a luxuriously rich pudding pie!
Smoothies
I’d use it on cereal, in baking, in coffee/tea, possibly straight out of the carton… it might not last a month!
So my summer cold-brew coffee addiction has begun, and first of all macadamia milk sounds like it would be AWESOME in coffee! I’d also like to try it in my smoothies, which I tend to have for breakfast in the summer, and I’d like to try your shepherd’s pie recipe too!
I’d love to try this macadamia milk. I’ve never seen it, & we don’t have any Kroger store chains around us. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for it. JL, you shepherd’s pie looks amazing on this cool, rainy day! I’d definitely make this if I won a supply, plus some creamy Alfredo-style pasta sauce & use it in smoothies.
Well first would be trying this recipe, but then I think it would be great to try to use it to make a vegan mac and cheese, I bet the flavor would go great.
I hope my Kroger has it! I would use it in ANY recipe. If it was cold it would be so good in cocoa. I guess cold Chai lattes will have to do for now. 🙂
I would use it to make lattes!
I am in love with shepherd’s pie. Anyway, to your question, since I switched my breakfasts to overnight oats, instead of empty calories via bagels or English muffins, I go through a lot more soy milk these days. And the DH and I are frequent smoothie-ers.
Definitely have to look for that milk and the pie looks delish JL.
Smoothies, oatmeal, coffee, baking, chia pudding… I love macadamias and would love to try macadamia milk!
I’ve never tried it before. My brother is a vegan so he’d love it but I think I would try it first in my cereal.
Would try it first with steel cut oats made in the pressure cooker!
I would use it in smoothies, oatmeal, nice cream and recipes that call for other milks. I wonder how it would taste in mashed potatoes.
Well I’d start with my morning smoothie every day, and then I’d think about baking some goodies for my friend who is allergic to many tree nuts but NOT macadamias! Gravies, coffee creamer, casseroles, pasta sauces… there are just so many possibilities!
It’s great in my coffees and smoothies!
I would use it instead of soy milk in recipes and on cereal.
I would experiment with making my own ‘cheeses’
Well I know I’d put it in my coffee every morning!
I would use it for smoothies
they taste amazing in my smoothies!
I want to try your recipes, and also I get it would be delicious in my morning smoothie!
I’m dying to try this macadamia milk. I would churn it into ice cream!
I love using this in my cereal!!!!
I would put it in my morning smoothies and use it my vegan cheeses 😀
I’d use it with my cereal, coffee, cooking, etc.!
i drink this with and in my oatmeal