I absolutely love Shepherd’s Pie!
My favorite iteration includes bacon and is topped with a mixture of puréed cauliflower and white potatoes.
This one is topped with all white potatoes, and it’s delish but the potatoes dry out a little in the fridge, so leftovers aren’t as amazing as the fresh dish. Using 1/2 cauliflower solves this problem! Also, I have always diced up fresh carrots for this dish, but this time I pressed the Easy Button and used a frozen carrot-pea combo. Do what works for you!
*Note: if you want to try using 1/2 cauliflower, get a small head of cauli and chop it up. Peel and chop 2 Russet potatoes and put them all together in a pot. You can either fully cover them in cold water and boil like you would for potatoes, or you could just do a few inches of water and cover the pot to steam them, stirring every 5 minutes. When they can be easily pierced with a fork, drain excess water out and add other ingredients (listed below). you can mash with a masher but I usually use an immersion blender to make sure it’s smooth.
Shepherd’s Pie
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground lamb
1 cup onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups frozen mixed carrots and peas
Topping:
2 lbs white potatoes of choice
2 oz cream cheese
1 cup milk
4 tbsp butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
Peel and halve potatoes. Place them in a pot, cover with cold water and place on the stove on high heat. Once boiling, pierce periodically with a fork to check them. They’re done when a fork easily pierces all the way through the thickest chunk. Once done, drain and return to pot. Add the rest of the topping ingredients and mash to desired consistency. If you want them thinner, add more milk or broth.
While the potatoes cook, prepare the other ingredients.
Sautée onion in a large skillet for a few minutes until translucent. Add meat, salt, pepper, garlic & sage. Brown the meat, chopping up with spatula. If you need to brown the meat in 2 batches, that’s fine.
Once the meat is cooked through, place in a 9×13 lasagna pan. Add carrots and peas (no need to thaw) and mix all together, then press down evenly in the pan.
Top with mashed potatoes.
Top with favorite seasonings- I always do paprika because it’s pretty, and this time I added SUPER GARLIC PIZZA from Balanced Bites.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, making sure it’s heated through.
Enjoy!