Ingredients: (this recipe makes enough to feed my family of 4 hearty shephard's pie eaters for 2 nights)
5 lg yukon gold potatoes
1 head cauliflower
1 medium onion
1 yellow bell pepper
2-3 grated carrots or about 1 c. chopped baby carrots
frozen peas
1.5 tbs olive oil
1 lb ground beef, turkey, or 1 large can each (the double size ones) kidney beans and chickpeas (if you want to make it vegetarian)
olive oil, chicken stock, margarine, coconut milk or whatever you usually like to mash potatoes with (if dairy is fine for you, use milk and butter)
ketchup
soy sauce
worstershire sauce
spicy brown mustard
Directions:
In a large pot of salted water, place the potatoes and cauliflower, all chopped up into small pieces. Put the heat on high and bring up to a boil.
after you do that, dice the onion, bell pepper and carrots and saute in the olive oil about 5-7 minutes.
Then add your meat (or beans). Cook through.
when the meat is cooked, turn off the heat, leaving the pan on the stove. add approximately 2/3 c ketchup, 1/3 cup mustard, and a generous amount each of worstershire and soy sauces to the vegetable and meat mixture. unfortunately I forgot to measure how much I usually use. Anyway, just taste it and see it tastes good. those four things mixed together are hard to get wrong, really.
Then put it all into the bottom of your biggest pyrex because this recipe makes a lot. sprinkle a half bag of peas over it.
Finally, drain and mash your potatoes/cauliflower. I usually use either chicken stock, olive oil and salt OR unsweetened coconut milk (the beverage, not the stuff in a can) and smart balance, but you can use whatever you like. don't forget some salt. it just depends what I have on hand. Mashed anything tastes pretty good no matter how you do it.
Finally, spread the mashed on top of the meat and peas, put in the oven for 30 minutes or so at about 350, and voila. dinner for two nights. plus lunch for the kids sometimes too. I don't know precisely how many servings of vegetables are in each serving, but I'm willing to guess at least 5. onions, carrots, bell pepper, peas, cauliflower and potato in every bite, so you can choose not to count the onion or the potato as vegetables and still end up with 5 veggies per serving. And it truly is kid friendly - I think it's the ketchup.
Finished product from the side:
Clean plate club:
Enjoy!
