We stuck with tradition and made our shepherd’s pie with lamb, but you could easily swap in ground beef. The saucy filling is packed with tender vegetables and the creamy topping is inspired by the Irish potato dish, colcannon, and is filled with cabbage, leeks and cheese.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Active: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 6 to 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and quartered (about 4 medium potatoes)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 small head green cabbage, thinly sliced (about 6 ounces or 2 cups)
- 1 leek, white and light-green parts only, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup shredded sharp white Cheddar (about 3 ounces)
- 3 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 stalk celery, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 pounds ground lamb
- 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- For the topping: Put the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Season with 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the saucepan.
- Meanwhile, make the filling: Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion, celery, garlic, thyme and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook until it turns brick red, about 8 minutes. Add the lamb, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until the meat is no longer pink, about 7 minutes.
- Stir in the peas. Stir in the flour until incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the broth and Worcestershire and cook until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes.
- To finish the topping, melt the butter in the large saucepan over medium heat. Add the cabbage and leeks and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the heavy cream, 1 tablespoon salt, and a few grinds of black pepper, and cook until warm, about 1 minute. Return the potatoes to the pan with the cabbage and add the cheese. Mash with a potato masher or wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the egg yolks.
- Transfer the filling to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Add the topping, swirling to create texture. Make sure that the sides are sufficiently covered so the filling doesn’t leak through. Bake until the filling is bubbly and the top is lightly golden, about 35 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 710 |
| Total Fat | 51 g |
| Saturated Fat | 25 g |
| Carbohydrates | 37 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Sugar | 6 g |
| Protein | 29 g |
| Cholesterol | 216 mg |
| Sodium | 991 mg |
Reviews
Very tasty. More importantly, my wife loved it! I tasted the filling before final assembly, and ended up increasing the Worcestershire sauce quantity by another teaspoon to give the filling a bit more backbone, and added a sprinkle of smoked paprika.
I have made this several times (cottage pie version with ground beef) and the topping could be a dish on its own. There is a lot of prep work, but we make it ahead keep it in the fridge overnight, It has become a Christmas eve staple for us.
Have not made this recipe yet. Has anyone out there cooked this without cabbage? Love it but can’t eat it.
Thanks.
Thanks.
We made a vegetarian version by substituting Beyond Meat sausage for lamb and turned out great. I also used vegetable broth rather than chicken broth. I also reduced the salt in the recipe. I salted all the components to taste.
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Substituted leftover mash potatoes for the potatoes. Followed the recipe for from there adding all the stuff to the potatoes. This was super tasty and pretty easy to make.
Hands down our fav Shepard’s pie recipe!
Yes this is very time consuming but it is one of the few things that all of my family gets excited about eating. I’ve done all lamb, 1/2 lamb 1/2 beef and all beef. For the 13 year olds, they like the beef only the most, followed by the 1/2 beef 1/2 lamb. I like all of them.
To make it more carb friendly, I substituted the russet potatoes with white sweet potatoes. It makes the dish sweeter and so maybe you can get away with regular milk and less salt. I don’t use much salt when I cook anyway so I don’t add the amount suggested in the recipe.
I definitely suggest prepping the veggies ahead of time and you could even do it in parts. I cooked everything on the stove and put it all together, and then will put it in the oven later tonight for the final 35 min or so.
It would help to have someone prep with you and maybe have one person do the veggies/meat and the other do the topping.
I LOVE the topping! It’s so tasty and unique. Leaks are now a staple in my fridge.
This recipe doesn’t lie! Literally the BEST!
It smelled better than it tasted. I think if there was less thyme it would have been better.