The basics of the recipe are some sort of meat, usually ground beef, mixed with some vegetables, some gravy, and the whole thing is topped with mashed potatoes and baked. What kind of meat should you use? What type of vegetables should you include? The answers to those questions are up to you. Originally, the recipe was designed to use leftover meat and whatever vegetables one had on hand. In this sense, this recipe is inexpensive. You can go out and buy the ingredients just for the recipe and still keep costs down. What you use to make this recipe is entirely up to you.
My husband hunts, and as a result, we have ground venison in our freezer. We do our own butchering so we can control what goes into the meat. There is not much fat in the end result. Some years yield more venison than others. Sometimes, we want the taste of ground beef. Long story short, I had a bit of a package of ground beef in my freezer and a bit of a package of ground venison. Both needed to be used, so I thawed them out, mixed them together, and used them for the base of my shepherd’s pie. You could use leftover ground meat, roast, or whatever meat you might have. We don’t eat a lot of lamb, but it certainly could be used and would be tasty.
You want to brown your ground meat if it isn’t cooked already. In this case, I had too much, so I saved what I didn’t need to use for another recipe. For this recipe, you could use half a pound to three quarters of a pound of meat. I just needed enough to cover the bottom of my pie pan.
I added two tablespoons of minced garlic to the meat. I didn’t season the meat much at this point. I knew I would be adding some leftover gravy, and I didn’t want to overwhelm the dish with too much seasoning.
What vegetables did I use? I had some sliced carrots that I needed to use and of course, I planned to use potatoes. We had a few red potatoes a neighbor had given us recently. They ranged in size from golf ball to baseball size. I peeled and diced about ten potatoes. I boiled those, and I boiled about a cup and a half of the sliced carrots. I don’t recommend
boiling the carrots and potatoes together. You can, but carrots usually need a little more cooking time than potatoes. You risk your potatoes turning to a watery mush if you over cook them. You could scoop them out when they are done, but I don’t like picking out boiling hot potatoes from a carrot/potato mix. I find it simpler to boil or cook them separately. I used a little salt on both, about half a teaspoon. Again, I wanted to wait until the assembly stage to taste the dish and add seasoning as needed.
I also added peas. Some people love them; some people hate them. I like
These are my current favorite for canned peas. They are little, itty bitty, and sweet. You may have access to other peas in your area. This is what I can find close to me. Our local Wal-Mart carries them. I used about one-third of a cup of peas.
So, after I browned the meat, it went in the pie pan.
Then I added the carrots, about an half of a cup of diced potatoes, and the peas.
Next I added the leftover gravy; I only had about a cup of gravy, but it was enough. If you don’t have leftover gravy, you could use a packet of brown gravy mix. Just follow the directions on the packet to make gravy, then add it to this dish.
At this point, I tasted the mixture to see what it needed. I added about a teaspoon of onion powder, a half of a teaspoon of garlic powder, a half of a teaspoon of celery salt, and a half of a teaspoon of homemade italian seasoning. I also add a little shredded cheese on top of the meat and veggies because my family is comprised of people who think cheese should be in just about every dish I cook.
I used some cheddar, colby, and monterey jack because that’s what I had in the refrigerator. I used about a cup of cheese.
I made mashed potatoes with the remaining diced potatoes I had. You could use leftover mashed potatoes if you have them. I added butter to the potatoes while they were piping hot and let that melt. Then, I used a hand mixer and added salt and milk to taste. I like to add a little extra milk to make the potatoes easier to spread. Just be sure to add the milk slowly or you will have potato soup instead!
Once you have mashed potatoes, spread them gently on top of your pie. Spread the potato all the way to the edge.
At this point you could top it with chives or parsley if you would like. I baked it in the oven at 350° F for 15 minutes. Then, I increased the oven temperature to 400° F and baked it until the gravy was bubbly and the potatoes were just starting to brown. Just watch it so it doesn’t burn.
I could have left it in the oven a little longer, but my family claimed they were starving and couldn’t wait any longer. I served garlic bread to accompany this. I would say this serves 4-6 people. With my husband and growing teenage son, it served four. There wasn’t any left.
Here is the recipe:
So, have you cooked shepherd’s pie? Do you have anything special you add?
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