Easy, Delicious, and Freezable Shepherd’s Pie

This weekend I tried out a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie, which is a traditional English dish I’ve always thought sounded yummy.  And don’t be silly, OF COURSE my desire to try it out had nothing to do with the fact that it always sounded decadently delicious when mentioned in Harry Potter/Hogwarts banquet scenes or because experiencing a Hogwarts banquet/attending Hogwarts is kind of my lifelong dream.  Nothing to do with that at all. AHEM.

Anyway, this recipe was really good, and it makes quite a bit, so you can freeze some in separate containers to take out as needed for lunches or quick dinners.  A definite winner, in my book!

I love that you can see the steam rising off the plate.

I followed this recipe, and I’ll type it out for you here too, with a few of my notes!

Shepherd’s Pie
about 4-6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground beef – I used a tad bit more than 1 1/2
1 chopped onion
2 cups vegetables – I used a frozen bag of carrots, corn, peas, and green beans, but separated the carrots and      cooked them a little longer as noted.
1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3ish big ones)
8 tablespoons butter divided (1 stick)
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, other seasonings to taste

Directions

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan (or if you want to cut out some of the butter in this recipe, I bet you could sub this for extra virgin olive oil. I used butter this time though).

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender, over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn, peas, and green beans (or whatever you’re using) either at the end of the cooking of the onions (I added them now since the veggies were frozen), or after the meat has initially cooked.

4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Drain the grease (it’s easiest to just put a big lid over the meat and veggies and drain it into the sink that way). Add salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth if necessary to keep moist.

5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

6 Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork or spoon so that there are peaks that will brown nicely.

7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown. (my potatoes were still white after 30 minutes, so I did end up broiling them a bit to give them that nice color).

Hope you enjoy!