My mother made this meal fairly often growing up and I made it for my family. This easy shepherd’s pie recipe is very affordable to make, healthy and enjoyed by the whole family. Even better, you can easily hide extra veggies into the filling without picky eaters noticing.
This recipe can easily be adapted around what you have on hand. I used half of the ground beef the recipe called for and added in cooked lentils. You could use different veggies if you diced them up finely. Any cheese will work for this recipe, use what you have on hand.
Ingredients for Easy Shepherd’s Pie
- 1-2 lbs ground beef ( you could easily sub for another ground meat or 1 cup of uncooked lentils per pound of ground beef)
- salt
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 26oz jar of pasta sauce
- 10 oz bag frozen peas ( it’s fine to use canned peas too)
- 3 carrots peeled and chopped
- 1/2 of a 5lb bag of yellow potatoes
- Milk
- Shredded Cheese (Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan or any other you like)
Peel and dice potatoes then boil with a teaspoon of salt in a medium size pot until cooked. While potatoes are boiling saute garlic, onion and carrots in a dutch oven. Cook onions until translucent then add ground beef. If including lentils, cook one cup of lentils to two cups of water in a separate pot. Add 1/2 tsp salt and cook on medium until lentils are tender. Add more water if needed. Pour pasta sauce onto the ground beef mixture. Stir and toss in peas. When lentils are tender, drain and mix into sauce then set aside.
Drain potatoes and mash using a hand mixer. Add just enough milk to make the mashed potatoes creamy. Pour the beef and pasta sauce into a 9×13″ casserole dish. Spoon out mashed potatoes and spread over the sauce. Top with shredded cheese. Bake until cheese is melted.
