This has been one of my favorite meals since I was a child. I have no clue why, but I love it. It is one of my top go-to comfort foods and perfect for fall and the quickly approaching winter. Last week we got 4 inches of snow in Boston, only a few days before Halloween. It was crazy but I love winter and the snow. Anyway, this inspired me to make this dish and share it with you all. I hope you enjoy!
Allison’s Basic Shephard’s Pie Recipe
1 lb Ground Beef
Frozen Veggies
4 or 5 large potatoes
Garlic (minced, amt is dependent on your liking)
Small Onion diced (yellow or white)
2 tsp turmeric
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup milk
Parmesan cheese shreds
For the ground beef, I like to use an 85/15 mix. You can use whatever blend you like best. As for the veggies, traditionally corn is the most used vegetable in this dish. I usually just use what bag of frozen veggies I have in my freezer at the time. This time, I used a blend of corn, carrots, green beans, peas and lima beans. And the potatoes can be you favorite potato to use for mashed potatoes. Again, I use whatever I happen to have at the time. Normally, I like to mix parmesan cheese shreds into my mashed potatoes for some added ~flavor~. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any this time. 🙁
Instructions:
- Peel and dice your potatoes and put them in a large pot with COLD water and salt. Boil them until tender. Drain, and place back in the pot. Add the butter, garlic, milk, and parmesan cheese. Mash to your desired consistency.
- Preheat the oven to 425. While the potatoes are cooking, heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Sautee the onions with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and turmeric. After 5 minutes add the ground beef and cook until browned.
- Once both the potatoes and beef are cooked, grab a 9 by 12 baking pan. Put all of the ground beef and onion mixture in as the bottom layer. Next add the frozen vegetables as your middle layer, if you feel like you want to add more go ahead and do that. Finally, top it off with the mashed potatoes, smoothing them out evenly on top of the veggies.
- Put this in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the edges of the potatoes have browned. Or until you are too hungry to let it bake anymore.
This is a dish that really doesn’t require you bake it, everything is already cooked. The oven is just to unfreeze the veggies and solidify the potatoes. You can skip the oven all together if that is what you wish, and the food will taste just as good.
I hope you enjoy this super simply recipe and add your own twists to it!
