Everything but the Kitchen Sink Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s Pie is one of my favorite fall and winter meals. There’s nothing like a warm bowl of meat and veggies cooked up with mashed potatoes. It’s so cozy, warming, and in this case, absolutely STUFFED with vegetables.

This specific recipe is the result of getting an insane amount of vegetables from our weekly CSA, following a week of very low effort cooking. We had so many vegetables that were starting to get a little funky and some new ones we were excited to try.

I am not sure about anyone else, but my favorite meals really are the simple one-or-two-pot options that combine a ton of different ingredients to maximize on flavor and create leftovers that will last for days.

Veggie Heavy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

This recipe, in my opinion, is best made in the largest cast-iron skillet you have. This way, you can sauté your vegetables and other fillings before adding your potatoes to the top and baking.

I also recommend using your favorite red wine (in this case, we used a chianti that we got on our recent trip to Italy) to add flavor, deglaze your pan, and have something delicious to drink once the dish is ready.

The bolded ingredients below are examples of what we happened to have in our fridge and wanted to use, substitute these with whatever you have!

Ingredients

Stew Beef (or other protein option)
half of a delicata squash, finely cubed
half of a rutabaga, peeled and finely cubed
2-3 medium carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, finely diced
2 cups spinach, chopped
handful of wax beans, roughly chopped
8-10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
red wine
butter
salt and pepper to taste
thyme
paprika
3 potatoes, chopped
other half of rutabaga, chopped
a splash of milk
3 scallions, diced
pesto
grated parmesan

The Process

heat your cast iron over medium heat on the stove. Add some butter and your stew beef. Allow to brown before adding squash, rutabaga, carrots, and onion.
While this is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove and add in your potatoes and the other half of the rutabaga. Allow to boil, checking occasionally until fully cooked.
Saute the vegetables and beef until the onions start to turn clear. Next, add the garlic, spinach, beans, and tomatoes.
After a few minutes, deglaze your pan with some wine and all seasonings, mixing well.
Add some of the starch water from boiling your potatoes to make the filling into a slightly saucy consistency and add more seasonings, as needed.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Once the potatoes and rutabaga are done boiling, strain any remaining water and add butter, salt, pepper, and a splash of sour cream or greek yogurt.
Spread the mashed potatoes and rutabaga evenly over the filling. Top with pesto and parmesan.
Place the shepherd’s pie into the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the potato layer on top is just starting to brown. While it’s cooking, finely chop some scallions.
Pull out of the oven and top with scallions. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and serve with red wine.
Enjoy!