Easy Shepherd's Pie
Easy homemade Shepherd's Pie, for when you need the comfort food but can't slave in the kitchen for hours. Tasty chopped meat topped with crisped mashed potatoes; exactly what you need to help calm down after a stressful day.
Servings 4 adults
Ingredients
For the meat layer:
- Approximately 1 lb chopped meat
- 7 oz tomato paste or canned tomato sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
For the mashed potato layer:
- 8 small potatoes (they were small and round. Exactly like balls, as I mentioned above.)
- 1/4 cup oil
- salt to taste
Optional:
- Frozen green beans
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and boil until they are easily pierced with a fork (I always take them off too early because I am impatient, but that's very dumb of me because then I need to work extra hard mashing them.)
- While the potatoes are boiling, prepare the meat layer. Place the chopped meat into a large frying pan and cook until browned, stirring to break up the clumps. When the meat is fully browned, turn off the fire, let the meat cool a bit, and remove excess fat that cooked out of the meat.
- Mix tomato paste and spices into the cooked chopped meat. Spread the seasoned meat into a baking pan (I used one that was slightly smaller than the typical 9 X 13 lasagna pan)
- Optional: Sprinkle frozen green beans (fresh would work too, I guess) over the chopped meat, before adding the mashed potatoes.
- When the potatoes are fully cooked, mash them with a fork (or a potato masher, if you are fancy). Add the oil and salt to taste, and mix well. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the meat in the pan.
- Bake the Shepherd's Pie at 400F until the top is browned and crispy, approximately half an hour.