We report a catalyst made of Pd nanoparticles (NPs) supported on mesoporous N-doped carbon, Pd@CN0132, which was shown to be highly active in promoting biomass refining. The use of a task-specific ionic liquid (3-methyl-1-butylpyridine dicyanamide) as a precursor and silica NPs as a hard template afforded a high-nitrogen-content (12 wt %) mesoporous carbon material that showed high activity in stabilizing Pd NPs. The resulting [email protected] catalyst showed very high catalytic activity in hydrodeoxygenation of vanillin (a typical model compound of lignin) at low H-2 pressure under mild conditions in aqueous media. Excellent catalytic results (100% conversion of vanillin and 100% selectivity for 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol) were achieved, and no loss of catalytic activity was observed after six recycles.