Project Description

This is a classic one-dish meal that I think every household has there own secret recipe for. Essentially it’s a meat and potatoes casserole, with a layer of peas, carrots or corn. Pure comfort food. In our family’s version the meat layer includes a rich gravy and the mashed potatoes have been amped up with the inclusion of garlic and bacon. This recipe fills a large 8 x 13 casserole dish.

Ingredients:

Meat mixture
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 cup carrot, finely chopped
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
• .75 kg lean ground beef
• 1/2 tsp each, kosher salt and ground thyme
• 6 grinds of pepper
• 3 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 cups beef broth (bouillon or boxed)
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1.5 cups frozen peas

Mashed Potato Layer
• 8-9 cups potatoes, chopped into large pieces (yellow fleshed recommended)
• 6 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup milk
• salt to taste
• 2/3 cup shredded cheddar

Difficulty: Intermediate

Prep Time: 40 min

Cook Time: 40 min

Lead Time: N/A

Freezer Friendly: No

Leftover Alert: N/A

The instructions below take you through the creation of the entire dish in one cooking session.

  1. Start with the potatoes first. Place the chopped potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water and roughly a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and continue to boil until soft (about 20 minutes).
  2. While the potatoes are cooking, start the meat mixture. In a large saucepan, heat up the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and sauté for 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the garlic and sauté for one more minute.
  3. Add the ground beef and using a flat edged wooden spoon, break up into small pieces as it cooks. Season with the salt, thyme and pepper. Continue to cook the ground beef until all the beef has browned.
  4. Add the flour, mix well and cook this mixture for 1 minute. It should thicken up considerably.
  5. Add the tomato paste and mix until incorporated in the beef mixture.
  6. Add the beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and mix well. It will be a little runny but will thicken up as it cooks. Cover and cook on low-medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When finished, turn off the heat and allow the meat mixture to sit, covered, until ready to assemble the dish.
  7. By the time the beef mixture starts to cook the potatoes should be almost cooked. Check the potatoes and if cooked then drain, whip on medium speed with an electric beater and set aside in the pot, covered.
  8. To complete the potatoes, fry the bacon pieces until tender-crisp. Place on a paper towel lined plate and drain all bacon grease from the pan.
  9. Add the butter to the pan, heat up on medium heat to melt and add the garlic. Cook the garlic for 1 minute – DO NOT BROWN. Add the milk to the pan and cook for another minute. Pour the milk and garlic mixture on the whipped potatoes and continue to mix with the electric mixer. Fold in the bacon pieces using a spatula. The consistency of the mashed potatoes should be more on the drier side versus smooth and creamy. Taste and add salt according to taste.
  10. Preheat oven to 425 F. To assemble the Shepherd’s Pie, place the meat mixture in a high sided 8″ x 11″ casserole dish. Sprinkle the peas over the meat mixture. Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the mashed potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes or until the gravy is bubbling up along the sides. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to turn golden in colour. Allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving as this dish really keeps it’s heat.

To make this a weeknight meal in a compressed day it needs to be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator  so that it can simply be put in the oven. Add roughly 10 minutes of baking time at the beginning as the dish will take a little time to heat up.

In terms of making this ahead of time, you can either follow the instructions to make the entire dish, or, approach it in phases. Depending on how busy my week is, sometimes I have made only the meat mixture one night, covered it and refrigerated it, then completed the mashed potatoes and assembly the following night.

Although this is a one dish meal, it is very much focused on the meat and potatoes. To balance out the meal, serve it with a side salad with a creamy ranch style dressing. So while the Shepherd’s pie is baking, prepare your salad. Easy peasy and you have one great meal.