Shepard's pie is a complete meal in one dish - meat, veggies, and starch. But it's also traditionally full of gravy and other things I'm not a huge fan of. What am I a fan of? BBQ sauce. Booyah.
Sarah's BBQ Shepard's pie
-ground meat of your choice (I used 2 parts ground turkey to 1 part ground pork for this)
-favorite homemade or bottled BBQ sauce (I can't make one I love, so I used Bull's eye because it is free of HFCS)
-potatoes
-cauliflower
-carrots
-lentils (yes, lentils)
-salt & pepper to taste
-chives, or green onions
-butter
-cream cheese (optional)
-cream, milk, or half and half
In a pan of boiling water, add chunks of carrots and boil until they're soft.
Using a slotted spoon, scoop the carrots in to a colander over a bowl. Reserving the hot water in the pot for the potatoes and cauliflower. That way you don't have to wait for the water to boil again!
While the spuds and cauliflower are boiling, mash the carrots with a potato masher and set aside.
Then, mash the spuds however you prefer to mash them. I have a ricer courtesy of my friend Anne. Homegirl loves to buy random shit off of my Amazon wishlist. I can't complain, and YOU guys benefit from it because it generates new recipes! Poor Anne gets the crappier end of the friendship though - I just sent her chintzy homemade crap for Christmas and birthdays.
Anyhoo, a ricer is a like a giant garlic press for potatoes. It presses the potato through small holes in the bowl and creates the fluffiest and tastiest mashed spuds in the world. It also removes the skins if that floats your boat.
Once you've "riced" your potatoes, add a dollop of butter, a tblsp or so of cream cheese, chives, a splash of cream, and salt and pepper to taste.
In a dutch oven, brown the meat until cooked through. Once it is partially cooked, I like to use a pastry cutter to mince it up as small as possible.
I cooked way more than I needed for this recipe so that I could have cooked turkey/pork on hand in the freezer. After removing about 2/3 of the meat from the dutch oven, I added some uncooked lentils. Then, quick like a bunny rabbit, I added BBQ sauce before any boys in my family got wise to it.
Stir to combine and cook for a few minutes.
Add the meat mixture to a large baking dish.
Then layer the smashed carrots on top of that.
And then top with the mashed spuds.
Cool and cover in the fridge if enjoying later, or bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. Top with a little cheddar cheese, and bake until melted and bubbly.Labels: Main dishes
