Cottage Pie (Shepherd's Pie)

• servings: 1 serving
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

4 c mashed potatoes*

1 ½ lbs ground beef, 85% lean

1 onion, small diced

2 carrots, small diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp unbleached all purpose flour

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 c beef stock, (we prefer low sodium)

2 tsp Worcestershire

1 tsp thyme sprigs

½ tsp salt (or to taste)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Saute your beef over medium high heat until browned, 7-10 min. Remove the beef from the skillet.

Add the vegetables** and garlic to the beef juices in the pan. Cook until soft, 7-10 min.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato paste and flour. Saute until the flour is completely moistened.

Return the cooked beef to pan. Add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme. Simmer 5-10 min, until the gravy thickens.

Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the meat mixture into a greased, 8x8 baking dish. Spoon or pipe the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture.

Place the dish in the oven at 400F and cook for 20-30 min or until the top is golden and the filling is bubbly.

Let stand 5-10 min before serving.

Notes

Tends to need closer to 2 tsp. of salt in the beef mixture. Also, I usually do closer to 1 1/2 cups of broth if it’s a little dry. Can do an extra half tsp of Worcestershire sauce and extra tsp. of tomato paste if the mixture isn’t flavorful enough. I chop the onions very fine.

Make sure the potatoes are adequately salted. They should taste well seasoned on their own; otherwise the dish can come out bland.

This works well in individual ramekins. You can store the beef and potatoes separately in Tupperware and just make up a single serving each time you want one. Still takes about 25 minutes to cook.

Make the potatoes a little peaky on top so you get nice brown, crispy bits.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/5 of recipe
• Calories: 596