In honor of St. Patrick’s Day I thought I would make one of my favorite Irish recipes, Shepherd’s Pie, the ultimate comfort food. This dish combines some of my favorite things including mashed potatoes, meat and peas. I loved it so much that I used to even make it when I was a vegetarian and had to resort to using fake meat “crumbles.” This time I used ground bison instead of lamb or beef. This and a few other tricks helped lighten up this typically heavy and high calorie dish. I’ve done a very rough estimate and at 6 servings it should be about 400 calories.
Shepherd’s Pie
Serves 5-6
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground bison, lamb, beef, or “crumbles”
2 lbs of potatoes peeled and cubed
1 carrot chopped
1 onion chopped
1/2 can peas drained
1/2 cup of chicken broth (used in place of cream for the potatoes)
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt (I use this instead of sour cream)
1 cup of beef broth
2 tablespoons of butter
Several dashes of Worcestershire
1 egg yolk
Directions:
Place cubed potatoes in boiling salted water and boil for 10-12 minutes until tender
Brown meat in a large pan. Once browned, add onions and carrots and cook for another 5 minutes
Combine yolk, chicken broth and Greek yogurt in a bowl and whisk together
Drain potatoes and combine with broth and yogurt mixture then mash until mostly smooth
Once meat is browned pour it into a square baking dish
Using a smaller pan, heat the flour and butter for about 2 minutes then add the beef broth and Worcestershire then whisk while cooking until the mixture thickens and becomes a gravy
Combine with peas and pour over meat mixture in the baking dish. Stir to combine.
Top with mashed potatoes
Place the dish on the top rack of the oven and broil until crispy on top
Enjoy!
