Lazy Shepherd's Pie

As of my posting this (May 2023), I have two main issues that I have to work around with my kitchen/cooking situation: (1) most of my food storage space is a bookshelf repurposed as our pantry and a deep freezer that could hide a few bodies, so making bulk leftovers is only really doable if they're freezable and (2) because our household dishes-in-the-sink situation is unpredictable, I need the bulk of our cooking to be one pot meals. While you can make a single serving of this (and that's what I've written for the instructions below), I like to buy stuff in bulk, pre-cook the meat, and bag up each meal with it's veggies so all I have to do is thaw it and add the seasoning on the day of the meal.

As always, this is hella customizable, and my proportions for flavoring ingredients are an approximation as I season from the hip like a gunslinger in the wild west. Yee haw.

Ingredients

  • 1-1.5 lbs ground meat of choice (beef, turkey, lamb, etc.)
  • 1-1.5 lbs frozen pea/carrot mix
  • 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • Instant mashed potatoes and whatever they demand of you to make 2 cups of them (so possibly milk, butter, salt, etc.)

Directions

Feeds two people, see below notes for increasing number of servings.

  1. Brown your meat until just cooked. Drain off excess liquid but be sure to leave some in the pot.
  2. Add the worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, tomato paste and frozen veggies to your cooking vessel; mix thoroughly and let simmer on medium low heat.
  3. While that is all cooking/warming up, make your instant mashed potatoes! Follow the instructions on your package. If you're like me, just make them in your big glass measuring cup in the microwave.
  4. Back to the meat/veggie mix, slowly mix in a little bit of your flour at a time. You want to add just enough that it thickens the liquid, but not so much that it becomes difficult to stir, so you may not use the whole tablespoon or you may use more! If it gets too thick, just add a little water to balance it out.
  5. With both components finished, divide the meat/veggie mix evenly into the bowls you want to eat out of. Top each bowl with a layer of mashed potatoes. Top with cheese or hot sauce or whatever speaks to your heart and dig in!

Notes

  • If you wanna make this for more (or less) people, the proportions are about 8 to 12 ounces of ground meat per person and 8 to 12 ounces of frozen veggies per person. As with my Denver Omelette Casserole recipe, this is because of how these are both preportioned/packaged at my supermarket, so do what works easiest based on your store and the demands of your flesh.
  • While shepherd's pie is traditionally made with lamb, that's very much not accessible for me. I use turkey and beef interchangeably, but you could probably mix both or all three or whatever and have it still turn out pretty good.
  • What ever drippings you drain from your ground meat, I recommend using as a substitute (either completely or partially) for the water in your instant mashed potatos. It adds a lot of flavor and usually I can ommit the butter completely as well. ALSO cheese powder and/or garlic in your potatoes also makes a huge difference. Cheese on top is also acceptable.
  • Sauteeing diced onion while cooking the meat would be a delicious addition, but I don't bother a lot because I don't often have a lot of spoons for extra steps. When you're up for it, probably use like 1/4 to 1/2 an onion per serving depending on how much you love onions.
  • Like a teaspoon or two of dijon mustart in this is amazing. Still playing around with it, but I'm a fan.