Shepherd’s Pie is a traditional English dish. In Britain it is generally made with lamb or mutton; in this recipe I have made a simple ground beef shepherd’s pie and added bacon for extra flavor.
Shepard’s pie is often referred to as “cottage pie,” by the English; it is a casserole made of cooked meat and vegetables that is then topped with mashed potatoes and baked. I have made this dish into a Paleo casserole by using Mashed Cauliflower for the topping. This reduces the glycemic index of the dish and increases the nutritional content, since cauliflower is a super food.
I based my recipe for ground beef Shepherd’s Pie, on this Shepherd’s Pie recipe from functionalfoodie.com. As you can see, I made some adjustments. First, I eliminated the tomato sauce, as research from Dr. Loren Cordain points to the possibility that tomatoes contain immune disrupting lectins (I have therefore eliminated them from my diet as I have MS). I also did not use coconut milk in the mashed cauliflower topping, and skipped the Worcester sauce (since I’m too lazy to read ingredients and prefer to use the simple spices in my spice rack).
I hope you enjoy this gluten free comfort food as much as I have!
Paleo Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 pound turkey or pork bacon, cut into ½-inch slices
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2 cups diced celery
- 1 pound organic grass fed ground beef
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 cup Chicken Stock or Kettle & Fire Bone Broth
- 2 large heads cauliflower, trimmed, chopped and steamed until very soft
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a very large frying pan
- Sauté onion for 15 minutes until soft
- Add bacon pieces to pan and sauté until cooked, about 10 minutes
- Add carrots and celery to pan and sauté in bacon fat for 10 minutes until soft
- Add ground beef to pan and sauté until brown, just a few minutes
- Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika
- Add chicken broth and cook down broth until 60% evaporated
- Place cauliflower in food processor and puree with olive oil until smooth
- Pour ground beef mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
- Pour mashed cauliflower over beef mixture
- Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes
- Serve
I found that in my fridge this Shepard’s Pie kept for close to a week. I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
What is your favorite gluten free comfort food?
Farrah says
Tried out this recipe, it turned out perfect. The last ten minutes I sprinkled some cheese on the top, it was a really fantastic meal, and pretty easy to make as well. This I will be preparing again, thanks for sharing the recipe.
Karie says
OMG made this for dinner tonight and it was WONDERFUL! I made a small adjustment (combining stuff from the original recipe you mentioned) – added Worcestire with the meat, and butter with the cauliflower. My husband loved it too – and he’s a pretty tough critic. :-) His only suggested change was to try it sometime with mashed sweet potatoes on top, which I will definitely try.
Laura Johnson says
My son and I are casein (dairy free) as well so we use homemade chicken stock to mash potatoes or cauliflower and that also tasted great! Thanks for another great idea! Delicious.
Nicole says
No joke, this recipe is now in my top 3 faves. Thank you so much for sharing Elana!!! My family loves it, and it’s SUPER tasty!
Nerissa says
Made this a week ago. It was SOO good. Very comforting. Lots of good leftovers.
Marilene says
This was such an inspiring recipe! I’m Portuguese and in our culture we make a dish called “impadao”. I combined your recipe with my family recipe and came out with an amazing Paleo version. I used chourico instead of bacon, added chopped green olives to the beef and used a special pepper paste. I could not tell that it was cauliflower instead of potatoes and felt so much lighter after eating it. Thanks for the inspiration Elana!
AudreyV says
Thank you Elena so much for this delicious recipe. I’ve been wanting to make Shepards Pie for a long time, and waiting for the right recipe. Here it is. The bacon and pepper really give the meat a yummy flavor. I was a little short on carrots, so I added mushrooms. This will be on my list of favorites.
September says
Main problem with this recipe — it’s all gone! A family of four devoured it over dinner and lunch the next day. Now I have to make more. Highly recommended! Note: we made it up the night before and refrigerated until dinner time the next day. We just popped it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and it was wonderful! With the prep work out of the way, this is easier and faster than takeout.
September says
Two changes: I mixed the cooked cauliflower with a hand mixer instead of blender or food processor, so I had to add 2 additional T oil to get the creamy consistency. Also, our frying pan wasn’t big enough for everything. I sauteed each item sequentially and threw it in a bowl. At the end, I mixed it all up and poured into baking dish then topped with cauliflower mix. It worked great.
Elena says
Thank you so much for mentioning that you made the night before – I was just going to post that question here! I was going to make it tonight, but there’s only two of us eating tonight (easy to make a simple supper) and tomorrow after baseball game there will be 5 of us but no time, so I thought I would try the prep tonight and cook tomorrow! Thanks again!!
Tully says
Ah. What’s the problem with Potato? I know you’re paleo, which I thought basically translated into ‘eating like a caveman'(!) and potatoes are pretty natural I would’ve thought. Is there another issue here? High protein? And why be high protein?
Rob says
Favorite paleo comfort food? Spaghetti squash bolognese. I continue to experiment with protein combinations. Most recently I made it with equal parts ground boar, bison, and ostrich. Boar, bison and elk is also a great combo. Topped with Pecorino Romano. If you’re avoiding cheese, grated brazil nuts are a great substitute.