Clean Eating Shepherds Pie Recipe | The Gracious Pantry (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional shepherd's pie made of? ›

This traditional shepherd's pie recipe is made with a mixture of lamb and sirloin, lots of veggies, and a creamy, cheesy mashed potato topping ⁠— sure to delight everyone at the table!

Shepherd's Pie is believed to have been invented in the early 1800s. During this time, housewives were struggling to find innovative ways to recycle the leftovers that their husbands and kids had turned up their noses at. Back then, the struggle was real just as it is today.

Wrap cooled pie in a layer of plastic wrap, followed by a layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Label with contents and date; place in freezer. For best quality, serve within 2-3 months; however, shepherd's pie will remain safe indefinitely, stored at 0° F. When ready to eat, thaw for about 24-hours in the refrigerator.

Shepherd's Pie first came about late in the 1700s and early 1800s. Accordingly, housewives back then were on the frugal side. Much like we do today, they were looking for ways to incorporate those leftovers that husbands and kids would turn up their noses at.

It's called cottage pie in the U.K. because they use beef and in Ireland since the shepherds tend sheep, it's shepherd's pie. No doubt, the English put out an excellent cottage pie, but in Ireland it used to be a delicacy since the Irish couldn't afford beef they repurposed any unused veggies and meat.

Simply put, after making a weekend roast, unused meat was repurposed into a pie using affordable potatoes as a crust. This frugal, albeit clever, meal suggests the name “cottage pie” referred to the consumers of the dish—poor Irish peasants (remember, they lived in cottages).

shepherd's pie, dish of British Isles origin that makes use of vegetables and chopped meat cooked in a casserole topped with or surrounded by mashed potatoes.

Shepherd's pie was attributed to a similar Scottish dish that used lamb or mutton rather than beef. Shepherd's herded sheep, hence the name. The textured, mash potato topping also resembles the woolly fleece of a sheep.

According to the Oxford Companion to Food, once upon a time, Scotland made its shepherd's pies with pastry instead of mashed potatoes. Indian cooks once considered shepherd's pie to be a perfect dish for tiffin (a word used to mean a light snack in British India).

You can freeze shepherd's pie before baking it. This way, you can save time by defrosting your oven-ready shepherd's pie whenever you want to enjoy it.

How long can shepherd's pie stay in the fridge? ›

Store shepherd's pie in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. Reheat in the oven or microwave until warmed through.

We recommend that you defrost our ready meals in the fridge overnight or use the 'defrost' setting on your microwave. Microwave reheating: Pierce the film with a fork before reheating your ready meal in the microwave.

Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, also called Sanders or Saunders.

Most workers ate their meat, potatoes and corn separately but workers of mainly Asian origins, combined their rations to create shepherd's pie, a more communal dish. The French-Canadian railway workers liked this new concoction, adopted the dish, and called it “pâté chinois”, which loosely translates to Chinese pie.

Over time, ground beef became the filling of choice, and lamb was used less frequently. Thus, these two names were used interchangeably. The dish originates from the British Isles, but some might argue that it is an Irish dish by origin. The name "Shepherd's Pie" was first recorded in an 1877 cookbook.

“Shepherd's pie” and “cottage pie” are used interchangeably, but technically traditional shepherd's pie is made with ground lamb and traditional cottage pie is made with ground beef.

Talk about satisfying. Ground beef, vegetables, and gravy are baked under pillowy mashed potatoes. If it's not yet already, this will soon be a family favorite recipe.

I never shy away from the excuse to celebrate anything Irish. What's not to love about shepherd's pie? It's got ground beef, or lamb, with mushrooms, onion, corn, peas and carrots cooked in a delicious gravy sauce that's topped with a mashed potato crust that's baked in the oven.

The terms shepherd's pie and cottage pie have been used interchangeably since they came into use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although some writers insist that a shepherd's pie should contain lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie, beef.