Shepherd’s pie, good Ole Shepherd’s Pie. Honestly, I don’t think Shepherd’s Pie gets enough love these days. It is a great casserole dish, hearty, balanced, useful (to reuse leftovers) and lastly but not leastly it’s delicious! I love making this dish during the fall and winter, it just feels right! Also, it is a great dish to use leftover mashed potatoes (white and sweet) anytime or at Thanksgiving. This recipe does have a few steps, but it’s really pretty simple and so definately worth the effort!
P.s. traditional Shepherd’s pie is made with lamb, but Lamb is a little more hard to come by in Texas, so I am using ground beef, but you can substitute lamb and lamb broth is you have it 🙂
Here we go…
Wash, peel, quarter and boil about 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes in salted water.
In a large dutch oven add a little olive oil, onion, carrots and celery. I know my celery looks a little anemic, only because it is frozen. I don’r know about you, but I rarely use a whole bunch of celery in one recipe when I chop it, so freeze the unused portion to use at a later date. This is a great time and food saver!.
Add 1 lb ground beef (or lamb if you have it).
Once meat is browned add 2TBSP flour to thicken it. I used whole wheat flour instead of white flour to boost nutritional value. Stir well to combine.
Add 2 cups beef broth.
It will be pretty soupy at this point, but the sauce will thicken and cook down.
Add about 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary and ~1TBSP of fresh Thyme. You can use dried herbs if you don’t have fresh herbs.
Add about 1/2 cup frozen peas at this point, don’t add them before or they will get mushy.
After about 10min on a light simmer the sauce has thickened and is ready to pour into your baking dish.
The potatoes are also ready, drain them and add 2 TBsp butter, ~1/2cup milk and pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper.
I use an electric mixer to mash my tators because I don’t have the time or patience to mash by hand. 🙂 Feel free to add extra milk if they are a little dry.
Place the beef mixture into a smallish baking dish (top left)
On a side note: I am tryin’ to be fancy with my pictures by making collages. Is it working or should I go back to just pics? My friend Sara is always making collages that look really cool, so I was wondering if mine would have the same effect…not sure, what do you think?
Ok sorry, I will focus, back to cooking…Dollop your mashed potatoes on top, evenly. Then gently spread the potatoes, covering all the meat. Pushing mashed potatoes all the way to the side
Bake for 375 degree for 20-35mins until potatoes start to brown on the top.
Enjoy!
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup onion, diced,
- ½ cup frozen carrots
- ½ cup celery, chopped
- 2 cup low sodium beef broth
- 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour (can use white flour too)
- 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- ~1Tbsp fresh Thyme, finely chopped
- Pinch of Course Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Fresh ground pepper
- For Mashed Potatoes:
- 1½ lb potatoes, peeled, washed and quartered
- Salt for boiling water
- ½ cup milk (whatever you have, we use 2%)
- 2Tbsp butter
- Generous pinch of Salt
- Fresh Ground pepper to taste
- Prepare potatoes, then boil them into salted water until tender
- Add Olive Oil, pinch salt and eye balled ground peppper, onion, carrots and celery to large dutch oven or large sauce pot. Add ground beef. Begin to brown
- Once meat is fully brown, add flour and stir to thoroughly mix
- Add Rosemary and Thyme.
- Add beef broth. Allow to simmer on med-low for about 10 min until sauce is reduced and thickened
- Transfer meat mixture to a baking medium size baking dish
- Once Potatoes are Tender, drain off water. Add mix and butter and mash with electric hand mixer or hand masher (your choice). Add more liquid is potatos seem dry.
- Dollop the mashed potatoes evenly over the meat mixture and gently spread to the sides of baking dish
- Bake on 375 degrees for 25-35minutes, until potatoes are browning and mixture is bubbly
- Enjoy!
