Shepherd's Pie (GF DF Included)
This is a delicious recipe for Fall! While traditional shepherd's pie calls for minced or ground lamb stew with a baked mashed potato crust, you can also use beef and call it cottage pie. Holly used Beyond plant ground meat and threw in mushrooms for extra yummy gravy. We make a red wine gravy but you can omit the wine and use more stock in its place. We also used instant mashed potatoes to keep things easy. This recipe uses one egg in the topping, but you can add two for a richer crust, or two egg yolks if you prefer. You can also substitute a cup of stock for one of the cups of water as you make up your instant mashies. It really increases the flavor.
Ingredients
Topping
- 1 box of instant mashed potatoes or dehydrated potato flakes - you'll need about 3 cups
- 1 cup of milk or plant milk
- 2 cups of water
- 1 egg room temperature (or 2 eggs, or 2 egg yolks)
Filling and Gravy
- 1 lb of ground meat of choice or ground plant based meat - we used Beyond brand
- 2 tablespoons or so olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 8 ounces fresh mushrooms sliced
- 4 large carrots peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary minced
- 1 or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce or GF alternative - 1 tbsp ketchup and 1 tbsp gf soy sauce or tamari
- 2 tablespoons flour or gf flour
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1-1/2 cups veggie broth
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- 2 cups frozen peas
Instructions
Make Topping
- In a medium bowl, add water, milk, and egg. Beat well, then add the instant potato flakes. Stir everything together and season with salt and pepper. Follow directions on package for cooking potatoes - either on the stove top or steaming in the microwave. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside.
Make Filling and Gravy
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a large oven-safe pot, brown ground meat, breaking it up as it cooks. Remove meat from pot and set aside to drain. Pour off some or all of the fat and add olive oil if necessary. Place the pot or pan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until starting to soften. Add mushrooms, carrots, garlic, bay leaf, whole thyme sprigs and minced rosemary. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until carrots are softened.
- Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce (or gf alternative,) and flour to the pot and stir. Pour in the red wine and deglaze the pan. Let the wine cook down for a few minutes. Slowly add the broth, stirring it in until a gravy starts to form. Add salt. Simmer over low heat until gravy thickens.
- Remove the thyme stems and bay leaf. Add the peas and cooked meat and stir to mix into the stew. Spread the mashed potatoes on top and bake for around 20 minutes or so. Potatoes should be starting to brown a bit. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then serve and enjoy!