Lazy Shepherd's Pie

I started cooking Shepherd's Pie like this when we were renovating our kitchen and my cooking facilities were very limited.  It's not really that lazy but it cuts out the step of putting the "pie" together and baking it in the oven.  It saves a bit of time and still tastes great.

Although my mother did teach me to cook things from scratch, as a working mother I looked for shortcuts and found myself cooking tomato-based dishes like this by opening a jar of bolognaise sauce.   Now that I'm trying to avoid processed foods I use fresh diced tomatoes instead, and you know what?  It doesn't take much longer!  I have a gadget called a Genius Nicer Dicer Plus* which enables easy chopping of vegetables and is great for dicing tomatoes - something that is messy and just never very successful by hand!

 

I don't actually measure things too carefully when I cook so the quantities below are really just 'guesstimates' of the good shake of herbs, couple of dollops of tomato paste, little bit of water etc that I used.  This batch was a hit though - hubby said it was "awesome"!

Ingredients:

[Meat Sauce]

1 Tablespoon coconut oil

500 g beef mince

1 brown onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced

4 tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup water

1 medium carrot, diced

1/2 cup cauliflower, cut into florets

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 Tablespoon dried Mixed Italian Herbs

3 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup

Sea Salt or Himalayan Rock Salt & pepper to taste

 

[Mash]

1 medium sweet potato

1 large white potato

Method:

[Meat Sauce]

Heat oil in pan and fry onion and carrot for a couple of minutes.  Remove.

Add a little more oil and cook mince until browned.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add tomato, cauliflower, tomato paste, herbs and maple syrup. Stir well and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add peas and simmer another minute.
Add garlic and simmer another minute.

[Mash]

Peel and chop potato into small pieces.   Add 1/4 cup water and microwave on high 8 minutes.

Check potato is cooked evenly and is soft enough for mashing.  If not stir and cook a little longer.

Drain and mash with olive oil to desired consistency.

To serve spoon mince mixture on one side of the plate and then spoon mash partially on top and on the other side,  Top with grated cheese or sprinkle with savoury yeast flakes.

 

Notes:

* I purchased my Genius Nicer Dicer Plus from Target but I understand its also available from Harvey Norman and Big W or you can find it online at eBay.  View a youtube demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=931Yg6GYT3w

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.