Healthy Shepherd's Pie
This warm, hearty and flavorful meal is the definition of comfort food. It's full of amazing flavor, textures and colors. It's one of our favorite meals during the colder months. This meal is easily gluten free and paleo friendly. Ready in less than an hour and makes the most amazing leftovers.
Servings 4 people
Equipment
- large oven safe dish
- Skillet
- rubber spatula
- masher
Ingredients
for the potato topping
- 6-8 gold or russet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons grass fed butter, ghee or oilve oil
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt 2% or whole milk
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
for the turkey and veggie filling
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 8-10 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 cups Brussels sprouts, halved
- 1 lb. organic ground turkey
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 2 ½ cups chicken or veggie broth
- 1 teaspoon thyme (fresh or dried)
- 3 bay leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse, peel and cut potatoes into 2 inch cubes. Fill a large pot with 6-8 cups of cold water and place on stove top. Add a pinch of salt and potatoes to your pot of water and turn that heat up! Boil potatoes for about 8 minutes or until tender enough to pierce with a fork. Drain water and transfer potatoes to a large mixing bowl. Add butter (or ghee or olive oil) to potatoes and begin mashing potatoes with a handheld masher until well mashed. Add Greek yogurt, garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste and mix with a rubber spatula until thick and creamy. Feel free to add a little milk of choice if needed. The greek yogurt usually does the trick though. Cover and set potatoes to the side.
- Heat a large skillet (or a large oven safe pot) on stove top on medium/low heat. Add olive oil, minced garlic and onion. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then add in the ground turkey. As turkey cooks, break up into small pieces with a rubber spatula so it can absorb more of that garlic and onion flavor. Cook for about 3-4 minutes or until pink has disappeared. Add sliced mushrooms, carrots and Brussels sprouts cooking for another 3-4 minutes or until veggies are tender.
- Slowly add broth to the veggie and turkey mixture. Stir for a moment and then add flour, tomato paste, thyme and bay leaves. Stir thoroughly until a red liquid appears and if using a skillet, transfer mixture to a large, oven friendly dish. (I used my large cast iron pot to cook everything in so i could avoid transferring the mixture).
- Once your veggie and turkey gravy is added to your oven safe dish, smear mashed potatoes on top. Evenly spread and sprinkle a pinch of thyme, salt and pepper. Optional: if you’re feeling spontaneous, then go ahead and drizzle/spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter on top so the potatoes can get a little brown and crisp.
- Place in oven to bake for 15-20 minutes. Then, switch oven over to broil and let brown on top- about 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven after top has turned light brown and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Serve warm. Refrigerate and store leftovers (if there are any) in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
Brussels Sprouts- feel free to swap out Brussels sprouts for 2 cups of fresh or frozen peas. I know a traditional Shepherd's pie calls for peas, but my husband isn't a fan so i swapped them out for Brussels sprouts.
Ground Turkey- You can easily swap out ground turkey for ground beef- no problem.
Whole wheat flour- You can evenly swap out whole wheat flour with all purpose flour or almond flour for this recipe.