Winter CSA Shepherd's Pie
This Winter CSA Shepherd’s Pie uses seasonal root vegetables, kale, and a rich savory gravy topped with sour cream mashed potatoes for a hearty, comforting cold-weather dinner.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef (80% or 85% lean)
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 c root veggies chopped into ½" pieces I used 3 small carrots, 1 parsnips, 1 small purple topped turnip
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 c beef broth
- ½ -¾ c water
- ½ tbsp red wine vinegar
- freshly ground black pepper
- ½ bunch kale stems removed and leaves thinly sliced
Mashed Potatoes
- 2 lb russet potatoes peel (if desired) and diced into 1" pieces
- 1 tsp salt plus more for water
- ⅓ c milk
- 1/3 c sour cream
- 2 tbsp butter
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400℉. Place a 3 qt baking dish on top of a baking sheet pan and set aside.
Make the Filling
- Heat oil over medium heat in a large, deep pan. Add beef and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat with a spoon, until it's cooked through and no longer pink, about 8 minutes,
- Add the onion and cook another 3 minutes. Add the chopped vegetables and ½ tsp salt. Cook for 2 min to soften the vegetables.
- Add the flour to the pan and cook, stirring for 1 minute. The flour will form a film over the bottom of the pan and its contents. Add the beef broth, ½ c water, tomato paste, and worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.
- Add the kale and cook another 5 minutes, if the gravy gets too thick, add the remaining ¼ c of water (or more if needed). Turn off the heat and stir in the red wine vinegar and a hefty sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add more salt if needed. Pour into baking dish.
Make the Mashed Potatoes
- Add the diced potatoes to a large pot of well salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until potatoes are soft, 12-15 minutes. Drain potatoes and then return them to the pot.
- Add the butter, milk, sour cream, a few cranks of black pepper, and 1 tsp salt to the potatoes and start mashing until smooth (or smooth enough for your liking). Taste and add more of any of the ingredients to taste.
Assemble and Bake
- Pour the filling into the baking pan. Top with the potatoes, and spread them out evenly over the top. Top with a sprinkle of salt and more black pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until it is bubbling and the potatoes are starting to turn golden. Remove from oven and let sit 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
Note on baking pans: I only have a 2 qt baking pan so that's what I used testing the recipe. Everything will just fit in a 2 qt pan though it piled up a bit and have greater risk of it bubbling over in the oven. If using a 2 qt dish be sure to put it on top of a sheet pan for easier clean up in case of overspill.
Because of the smaller sized pan, the potatoes will also form quite a thick layer in the 2 qt pan; I think scaling down the recipe to using 1.5 lbs potatoes would give a better filling-to-potato ratio and reduce overspill risk.
The dish will fit more comfortably into a 3 qt pan and with a perfect filling-to-potato ratio