The Shepherd’s Pie has saucy ground meat and vegetables covered in a a mashed potato crust, sprinkled with shredded cheese, and baked to bubbly perfection.
A Quick Shortcut Shepherds Pie
Shepherd’s Pie is a comforting and hearty dish that is perfect for an easy dinner. Use frozen mixed veggies and pre-made mashed potatoes to make prep and cook time quick. The shortcut sauce options in the recipe below make it easy to customize the dish to your pantry. Use leftover meat, veggies, gravy, or mashed potatoes. This dish freezes and reheats beautifully!
Prep Ahead and Tips for Shepherd’s Pie
From Scratch: This recipe is a shortcut recipe; if you’d like, you can find my homemade version here. Layering: After prepping the meat mixture, cool it and chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes to keep the mashed potato layer separated. Prep Ahead: Assemble the Shepherd’s Pie up to one day in advance and refrigerate it. Let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. Quick Clean Up: If your baking dish is very full, place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet to avoid any juices spilling into the bottom of the oven.
How to Freeze Shepherd’s Pie
Prepare as directed and cool completely. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then in foil. Freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Bake for 45 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.
Did you make this Easy Shepherd’s Pie recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Ground Meat –You can use any ground meat in this recipe. Lamb is traditional for a shepherds pie recipe, although I most often use ground beef (which technically makes this a cottage pie). Leftover roast meat also works well. Vegetables – Frozen mixed vegetables make preparation quick and easy, but you can use leftover roasted veggies too. If using fresh vegetables, steam them until tender or cook them with the beef before adding them to the dish. Sauce – Shepherd’s Pie is versatile, and I’ve provided a couple of shortcut sauces in the recipe below. However, you can use leftover gravy (or gravy mix) and tomato sauce, or any sauce you like. Mashed Potatoes – Traditional mashed potatoes are what I most often use, but garlic mashed potatoes add great flavor to this dish! If you’re in a hurry, you can use store-bought mashed potatoes. While it’s not traditional and it’s totally optional, I love cheese on top.
Why is it called Shepherd’s Pie?
Originally a meat pie made with minced (or ground) meat and mashed potatoes was known as a Cottage Pie (and it was even sometimes made with pastry many years ago). It is very popular in Ireland, Scotland, and England as well! In the late 1800s, the pie was named Shepherd’s Pie if made with lamb (since the shepherd looked after the sheep) and if made with beef it was called Cottage Pie. © SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here. Regardless of the name, this recipe is a classic Shepherd’s Pie recipe loaded with flavor and the perfect make-ahead meal to serve all year long!
