Easy Shepherds Pie is a delicious way to use up your leftovers or "hold overs" for a simple weeknight meal. It's also comfort food and a great way to add lots of veggies to your meal all in one pot.
Easy Shepherds Pie is perfect for a weeknight meal or right after a holiday because you can make it with leftovers! After cooking Thanksgiving or Easter dinner for days, then eat turkey or ham for days, you probably want something different.
What if I don't have any leftover vegetables?
If you don't have leftover mashed potatoes, make them from scratch on the stovetop or Instant Pot or buy the box of flakes. No leftover veggies? Just use frozen, thawed or canned mixed veggies.
My Shepherds Pie uses four vegetables held over from a big meal: roasted carrots, steamed green beans, sauteed corn off the cob, and garlic mashed potatoes with the red skins still on. And since I'm looking for a change from ham, the ground beef and gravy in shepherds pie is perfect flavor change up.
This dish is incredibly versatile. If your family had English peas instead of green beans, use peas. If your family didn't have corn or ate all of it, open a can of corn. If your family doesn't have green beans, carrots, OR corn and you're making this in the middle of the summer, no worries! Buy a package of frozen peas and carrots or soup mix and you're good to go.
How to roast your own carrots
Roasting carrots is my absolute favorite way to cook carrots. Carrots are cheap, sweet, and flavorful. I roasted a 1 pound bag of carrots tossed in 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper in a large roasting pan at 425 degrees for 15 minutes-didn't stir even once. I "held over" 3/4 cup of them to make my Shepherds Pie.
Can I make Easy Shepherds Pie with ground venison?
Absolutely! Venison is a very lean meat and can be substituted any time a recipe calls for ground chuck or ground round. You can also make it with ground turkey and chicken.
What's the shortcut for Easy Shepherds Pie?
You know I have to have a shortcut in here somewhere. Well, using up leftovers is a shortcut in itself but the gravy I used is a super shortcut. I'm normally not a fan of the gravy mixes or bottles of gravy.
Not only do I not like the artificial taste, its so easy to make....when you have the bits of a turkey or roast in the pan with pan juices. Ground chuck doesn't give you anything like that to work with when you cook it so I tried McCormicks Simply Better Beef Gravy. The fact that it is non GMO, has no MSG, and no artificial flavors got my attention. Not too shabby!
Can I make my own brown gravy?
If you are die hard homemade on everything then you can always make a slurry of 4 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water and bring 1 1/2 cups packaged beef stock to a boil, then stir in the slurry. You will have the same amount of gravy but not as much flavor.
When I make mashed potatoes, I used red potatoes and leave on the skin. Yes, there are lumps in my mashed potatoes and we like it that way! I add a little garlic powder to them and lots of butter and I could just be happy with a bowl of mashed potatoes for dinner. It helps to spread the mashed potatoes easier on the meat and vegetable mixture if you dollop first, then spread. If you dump them all in the middle and try to spread it out, the mixture tends to move with the potatoes.
See those green things poking out from the skillet? Those are genius gadgets! They are foldable silicone trivets. I have several of them and use them all the time.
Cheese! Glorious cheese! This isn't a must, but cheese and potatoes are a perfect pair...so...yah...cheese on top.
Shepherds Pie is comfort food. It's a delicious way to use up your leftovers ...or "hold overs". It's also a great way to add lots of veggies to your meal all in one pot if you are looking for something a little more "meat and potatoes-type" one dish meal. I love how the gravy bubbles up all around the edges of the skillet, too.
I'm Southern, so I have a cast iron skillet in every size, right! Another reason I used a cast iron skillet for this dish is I'm a sucker for any dish where I can brown the meat and then bake it in the same skillet. BUT! You aren't limited to a skillet. A ceramic casserole dish, a 13x9 glass baking dish or even using individual casseroles or large ramekins are perfect for Shepherds pie. If the casserole dish is shallow, place it on a baking sheet in case the gravy bubbles up and over.
How can I store my leftovers?
I have a huge stash of the small, flat Betty Crocker plastic containers from the Dollar Tree that I always put hold overs in and send in lunches with my husband to work and my son to school. If you have more hold overs than you can eat put them in these containers, label them, and freeze them. In 3 weeks, you will be hungry for them again!
I also love my FoodSaver. We buy meat in the family size packs and freeze them in these vacuum-sealed packages. It's amazing how long food lasts in the freezer when it is vacuum sealed.
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Other recipes you can make with leftovers
Corned Beef and Roasted Potato Hash
Parmesan Artichoke Chicken Salad
Shepherds Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chuck turkey or venison
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup roughly chopped cooked carrot
- 3/4 cup 1-inch pieces cooked green beans or English peas
- 1/2 cup corn kernels
- 1 12 oz package Simply Better Beef Gravy McCormick
- 3 cups cooked mashed potatoes
- 3/4 cup preshredded Cheddar, Colby Jack or other cheese, divided (3-oz)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook ground chuck, onion, salt and pepper together in a large (10- to 12-inch) cast iron or oven-proof skillet 12 minutes, stirring often, until browned. Drain in a colander and return to the skillet. Add carrots, green beans, corn, and gravy to the skillet and stir well. If you are not using an oven proof skillet, transfer meat mixture into a casserole or baking dish.
- Dollop the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture. If your mashed potatoes are cold, warm them in the microwave. Spread the mashed potatoes to the edge of the skillet or casserole dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining half of cheese over the potatoes. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until gravy is bubbly around the edges.
Notes
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