St. Patrick’s Day was on Monday so I saw a lot of recipes on Pinterest and Facebook for Shepherd’s Pie. Inspiration struck me a little late for this one but I had to throw my own together to enjoy last night! Again, I like to use whatever I have in the house so I used the rest of the red potatoes I had, along with some fresh carrots. I didn’t have quite 2 pounds of red potatoes left, so yes…I did make some boxed potatoes quickly after I mashed my fresh ones! No one was the wiser....until now, that is! I obviously needed more vegetables than carrots so I used a couple canned vegetables. You can adjust this recipe in so many different ways with whatever you have! My kids (and me!) love cheese so I threw some cheese on top after it was baked, cheesy goodness!!
Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients:
2 lbs of ground beef
2 lbs red potatoes, washed and scrubbed
1 1/2 cups beef broth (I used Pacific Natural Foods Beef Broth)
1 onion, chopped
1 can green beans (you could also use peas)
1 can corn
2-3 cups carrots, chopped
1 ½ sticks of butter
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, seasoning of choice
Cheese, if desired
Directions:
-Boil whole red potatoes in salted water until tender.
-While the potatoes are cooking, cook ground beef and onion together in a large frying pan. When browned, remove and set aside.
-Next, melt a couple slabs of butter in the large frying pan. The only fresh vegetable I had on hand was chopped carrots so I added them to my pan first, cook until tender.
-Then I added in the canned green beans and corn. Add in about 1 ½ cups of beef broth and the ground beef to the pan and simmer about 10 minutes. You could also throw in some Worcestershire to add a great flavor to it! Add salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings you would like.
-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
-When potatoes are done, drain and put the potatoes in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher, butter, and about 2/3 cup of milk. Add more or less milk depending upon how you like your potatoes. If you don’t have enough potatoes on hand, you could also make some boxed potatoes to add to your mashed potatoes (no one will know the difference).
-Place the beef and vegetable mix on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Evenly distribute the mashed potatoes on top. Use a fork to put lines in the potatoes for a nice brown on top.
-Cook in oven for 30 minutes. I added some freshly grated sharp cheddar when it was finished. Enjoy!
P.S. this meal goes great with Cabernet! Thank God wine is gluten free!
