Month-of-One-Pan Meals: Shepherd's Pie

Welcome to my annual Month-of Recipes on this blog. Go rummaging in the attic here and you’ll find past recipe months for appetizers, chicken, soup, mini-desserts, and more. The way it works is, for each day in February I post a recipe that fits the category. This month is one-pan meals, excluding pizza, most casseroles, and slow cooker recipes.

Uh, oh! This is one of those “recipes” that I don’t really have a recipe for. I tried to attend to the details when I was preparing it, but . . . well, you know how that can go.

The great thing about Shepherd’s Pie is that it began as humble peasant food to use up leftovers, so you can pretty much make this however you want and it can be different each time. To keep it to one pan, use an oven-proof skillet large enough to hold the ingredients.

I always use peas and carrots, but you know, that’s not writ in stone. If you have leftover asparagus (or asparagus on it’s way to heaven), use it up. We peasants eat what’s put in front of us. And this is a great leftovers dish opportunity.

I also use ground beef in my Shepherd’s Pie, but ground pork, ground chicken, or ground lamb, heck, even ground bison would work, I’ll bet.

Sharon’s Shepherd’s Pie (serves 4-6)

2 teaspoons olive oil

½ medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound low-fat ground beef

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup beef gravy (leftover, packaged, or bottled)

1 cup carrots, large dice

1 cup frozen peas

2-3 cups mashed potatoes (leftover or fresh made)

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (use another cheese if you want a melted cheese top)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In skillet, brown onions in oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Push to side when onions are just translucent and just beginning to brown and add in beef.

Brown beef as you move onions onto the meat and break up meat’s large pieces. Sprinkle on salt and pepper.

Add in gravy and bring to a bubbling state. Add in carrots and cook for five minutes.

Remove from heat. Add peas, mix together, and top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle on cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until the potatoes look slightly browned and the meat sauce is bubbly hot.

I like to serve a simple fruit salad with this to cut the richness, but a tossed salad is good, too.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

This is one of his favorite comfort food meals. When we have leftover mashed potatoes, he knows this will follow later in the week. It’s also great warmed up for lunch one day, too.