Simple Shepherd’s Pie 4 Ingredients

I learned this recipe in college. I had a roommate, and we worked together, waiting tables in a local restaurant. He was French Candian, so I figure this was a traditional meal that his family made. This guy graduated and would come home from work every day and brew beer, this was back before local breweries were a thing. Honestly, I had never heard of Shepherd’s Pie before, so I had no benchmark of how it was traditionally made. What I always loved about this recipe was that it was simple, hearty, and relatively inexpensive to make. Perfect for poor college students. I see a lot of searches looking for recipes with instant potatoes, but we never used instant, probably because it’s cheaper to use an actual potato. You can add green peas, carrots, onions, and celery to the meat, but we never did it that way. Sometimes keeping things simple is better. Give this recipe a try and see what you think.

These days when I make this dish, I use garlic and onions when cooking the ground beef and a tablespoon of sour cream when I mash the potatoes, but in college, we were on a budget, and it was a bachelor thing we would make when we didn’t get a free meal at work. It comes out great without those upgrades.

How do you keep mash from sinking in shepherd’s pie?

Use real russet potatoes and mash with butter and don’t use milk, instead, use sour cream or cream cheese, so it’s thick.

Can you make Shepherd’s Pie with instant potato?

You can, but why would you want to? Real potatoes are better for you, and it’s going to taste better. It’s actually cheaper to use a real potato than instant, and it doesn’t require more work. The only difference is potatoes boil for 20 minutes, and instant use boiling water, so you save a few minutes.

Shepherd’s Pie

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Shepherd’s pie is a savory dish of cooked ground beef and vegetables topped with mashed potato and baked.

• Author: John
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: 4 Servings 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: French

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

1. 1 pound Ground Beef
2. 1 pound Russet Potato
3. 1 Can Cream Corn
4. 2 Tablespoons Butter
5. Garlic Powder
6. Onion Powder
7. Season Salt

Instructions

1. Peel and boil potato 20 minutes in a pot
2. Cook ground beef in pan over medium heat
3. I generally add spices twice, once when meat is added to the pan and again after I drain the fat.
4. Drain and mash potatoes.  Add butter, salt, and pepper, then add some kind of cream milk is fine, but only one or two tablespoons.
5. Preheat Oven 350 degrees
6. In a loaf pan, add meat.
7. Add a can of cream corn do not drain dump the corn over the meat for the second layer.
8. Add mashed potatoes to the top.
9. Bake 45 minutes

Notes

I didn’t do this in college because I was poor, but these days I’ll add a tablespoon or two of sour cream or cream cheese to the potato.

This makes a great left overs meal. It reheats in the microwave 2-3 minutes. I’ll put a chunk of butter on top of the potatoes to freshen the potatoes when I reheat it.