Tex-Mex Shepherd’s Pie

English food has been the object of a lot of jokes over the years. One joke I came across recently is this:

“I’m tired of hearing people say British food tastes awful.

In fact, British food is the third most delicious food in the world The first being French food, and the second is food from all other countries.” Though English food gets a bad rap, they do have a lot of well-known dishes. Some of the most popular dishes are fish and chips, beef wellington, spotted dick, a full English breakfast, steak and kidney pudding, bangers and mash and of course my favorite, shepherd’s pie. The first mention of something like shepherd’s pie is found in a recipe book The Practice of Cookery and Pastry. It was published in Edinburgh in 1849. The difference with the dish back then was it used sliced meat rather than minced. In some recipe books shepherd’s pie has been called cottage pie. The traditional English version of the recipe uses minced lamb, though various other minced meats can be used. For my shepherd’s pie recipe, I like to spice it up a bit. I use ground turkey to keep it low calorie. I also like to use the same seasoning that I use to when I make my meat for tacos.

You could say this is a double recipe. If you don’t want to make the full shepherd’s pie recipe, you can use the ground turkey taco meat to make some delicious tacos.

I definitely prefer this homemade taco meat seasoning to the packets you buy at the store. Here is my recipe for the taco meat. Ground Turkey Taco Meat

Ingredients: 1lb ground turkey 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground paprika 1 teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon garlic powder ½ teaspoon minced onion ½ teaspoon dried oregano ¾ cup water 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar 2 tablespoon cider vinegar Directions: Combine the brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, salt, garlic powder, minced onion, and cayenne in a small bowl.

Heat a large cast iron skillet and brown the ground turkey. I like to use a wooden spoon and make sure the meat is minced very fine. I have found that ground turkey actually minces up into smaller pieces than ground beef.

Once meat is brown, sprinkle spices and sugar evenly over the skillet and pour the water and the vinegar into the pan. Stir the contents and after everything starts boiling turn the heat to simmer. Stir occasionally. Wait until most of the water is absorbed or evaporates.

The meat is now ready Now we are ready to make our Shepherd’s pie.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey taco meat

1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables

1 family size bag of Idahoan buttery style instant mashed potatoes

Can of olive oil spray

Directions:

Here, if I were a purist, I would be telling you to peel and boil potatoes so you can mash them, but sometimes you don’t have that much time.

Also one thing I haven’t mastered yet is to make my mashed potatoes as creamy as my mother did. I don’t think I could and keep it healthy for I’m sure my Mom used a lot more whole milk and butter than I would feel comfortable with.

Instead I buy the family size Idahoan buttery instant mashed potatoes. If the family size isn’t available, two of the regular size packets are the equal amount.

Boil four cups of water for 5 minutes in the microwave and mix the instant mashed potatoes in a bowl.

Take an 8 inch square glass baking dish and pour the ground turkey into the bottom. Press the ground turkey so it is compressed together as much as possible. This will help hold it together some when serving.

Add a 12 ounce bag of frozen mixed vegetables on top of the meat. They can be frozen because they will be cooked by the time you are done. Press the vegetables down.

Next put the mashed potatoes on top of the vegetables. Press it down as well, but don’t make the top smooth. You want the top of the mashed potatoes roughed up a bit so it will brown some.

Lastly before the oven, spray the mashed potatoes evenly with a can of olive oil spray. This will aid in the browning of the outer crust of the mashed potatoes.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the shepherd’s pie in the oven for about 30 minutes or so until the top of the mashed potatoes is slightly brown and like a hard shell on top.

So there you have it. Tex-Mex Shepherd’s Pie. Enjoy!

Nutrition info

Servings – 9

Fat – 12.5g

Carbs – 23.8g

Protein – 13.6g

Calories – 228