If I were a shepherd, I would be thrilled to come home to this dinner. Delicious, nutritious, and a nice twist on an old favorite – adding a variety of vegetables for color, taste, and your overall health. This meal is gluten-free and is an excellent addition to your cooking repertoire.
To make this dish, you need Roasted Butternut, Sweet Potato Mash, and Creamed Potatoes
Lucky Sheperd's Pie
Imagine toiling away in the fields, tending all those rambunctious and misbehaving animals, knowing, when you get home, there will be a fantastic dish waiting for you, made by your adoring partner who worries about your nutrition! Ah, it’s an agrarian life for me! This meal packs a wallop of vitamins, fiber, and taste. I use a mixture of Yukon gold and sweet potato for the topping. This is a fun twist on an old favorite and adds a mild but not overwhelming sweetness to the flavor profile.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 1 large yellow onion
- 2 cloves of garlic peeled
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 lb. frozen corn
- I lb. of fresh baby kale or baby spinach
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 1 recipe of roasted butternut squash
- ¾ quart of mashed potatoes
- ¾ quart of sweet potato mash
- 2 tbs butter, cubed
Instructions
- Using a large sauté pan, brown the beef with 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp of pepper until fully cooked. Drain the meat into a colander and catch the drippings. Discard the rendered fat in paper towels or your compost (don’t put down the sink drain unless you want frequent visits from your plumber to unclog your sink).
- Finely dice the yellow onion, two garlic cloves with ¾ tsp kosher salt, and ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper (season each ingredient!), and sauté until translucent and fully cooked, stirring to avoid browning. Put the drained meat and the cooked onion into a bowl and toss to mix thoroughly. Set aside.quent
- Combine the wilted kale, the frozen corn, and the roasted butternut squash in a large mixing bowl and toss to mix.
- Combine the sweet potato mash and mashed potatoes in another mixing bowl.
- Assemble the dish:
- In a 12 X 2” inch long casserole, place the meat mixture in the bottom, the vegetables on top of the meat, and dollop the potatoes across the top. Using an offset spatula, spread the potato mixture evenly across the top—dot with two tablespoons of cubed butter and bake in a 350-degree oven for 1 hour. You want the edges for the potato to start browning and see that the contents are bubbling and piping hot.