This meal prep Shepherd’s Pie is a win for everyone! It’s delicious, easy, nutritious, and packs a healthy veggie punch. Make it your own with the veggies and ingredients you have on hand!
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This recipe is…
Shepherd’s Pie may be one of my most favorite meals EVER. It’s just so darn comforting, so easy to make, and makes the best leftovers. This particular Shepherd’s Pie is a nutrition-lover’s dream because we’re sneaking in even more veggies (read: kale). Between the perfectly seasoned ground beef and mashed potato topping, the veggies go by unnoticed as the family will just gobble this dish UP.
Shepherd’s Pie Ingredients
If you’re following along on our Cook Once, Eat All Week healthy meal prep series, making this Shepherd’s Pie is truly just a matter of assembly. Assemble, bake, and then enjoy! While you can use frozen veggies to mix in with the ground beef, I also encourage you to use this as an opportunity to use up whatever veggies are hanging out in that forgotten veggie drawer. Chop or grate them right into the meat mixture.
How to Store Shepherd’s Pie
If you’re looking to freeze meals, this recipe is a GREAT option! Just spoon it into your favorite freezer containers, label, and pull from frozen as you need them.
Cook Once, Eat All Week Meal Prep Series
If you’re new here, THIS POST is a great introduction to our Cook Once, Eat All Week series!
Here are the other recipes in our COEAW: Week 1 meal prep series:
- Base Recipes of bulk-prepared ground beef, baked potatoes, and sautéed kale: click HERE!
- BBQ Bacon Burger Loaded Potato recipe: click HERE
- Taco Breakfast Hash recipe: click HERE
Note: if you’ve enjoyed the Cook Once, Eat All Week series, we’ve created an entire book with 26 week’s worth of healthy meal prep recipes. You can click here to purchase your copy today!
More Favorite Ground Beef Recipes
Veggie-Loaded Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
For the Ground Beef Mixture:
- 1 tablespoon butter (sub coconut oil or EVOO for Whole 30)
- 1 large head lacinato kale destemmed and roughly chopped
- 2.5 pounds ground beef
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 cup beef broth
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 16 ounces peas and carrots
For the Mashed Potato Topping:
- 3 medium white potatoes about 1.5 pounds
- 2 tablespoons butter (sub coconut or EVOO for Whole 30)
- 2 tablespoons canned full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Cover the potatoes in water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until they’re easily pierced with a fork. Once soft, drain and let cool slightly.
- Melt the butter in a large enameled cast-iron pot or frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the kale and stir in the butter, then cover and let steam for 3-4 minutes until wilted. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add the ground beef to the pan along with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly to break up the meat, until all of the moisture has evaporated and some pieces are starting to develop a deeper brown color. Add the tomato paste, broth, peas and carrots, and kale to the ground beef mixture. Stir to combine then set aside.
- Remove the peels from the cooled potatoes and add to a medium sized pot along with the butter, coconut milk, salt, and pepper. Using either a potato masher or a hand mixer, mix the potatoes until soft and fluffy.
- If working in a frying pan, transfer the meat mixture to a deep 8 by 8-inch or similar-sized baking dish. Spread the potato mash over the meat mixture.
- Bake for 30 minutes, let cool for 10 minutes, garnish with Parsley if desired, then serve!
Recipe Notes
- 5 cups pre-cooked ground beef
- 2 cups of pre-cooked kale
- 3 pre-cooked potatoes, skins removed
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Combine all ingredients for the filling and place in an 8” x 8” casserole dish.
- Remove skins from potatoes and place in microwave-safe bowl to reheat for 90 seconds – 2 minutes, until warmed through. Or, place in medium-sized pot and warm over medium heat for three minutes.
- Mash the potatoes, then add coconut milk, butter, salt, and pepper to the warmed potatoes. Stir to combine, then spoon on top of ground beef mixture.
- Bake for 30 minutes, let cool 5-10 minutes, and serve!
Nutrition
I have been making this Shepherd’s pie for years, and LOVE how easy and delicious it is. Like another commenter, I also always make it for postpartum mothers. Today I am making one for a friend who just had her baby AND one for my own family. : )
Just a note of one change I make to the recipe – I double everything in the potato mash part of the recipe so I have a nice thick layer of mash covering the pie. I have also made the mash with sweet potatoes which is delicious! Whatever you do, just double the potatoes (3 pounds not 1.5!).
WOW that is amazing, Skye! We are so happy you love it! Great note on the potato mash! And sweet potatoes?! Genius!
I made this for a Christmas potluck and it was very good and tasted like a homemade heart warming dish. I would recommend it. I made a few changes just based on taste and the ingredients I had available. I increased the onion and garlic powder by about half to add more flavor to the meat and also made sure to brown the meat. I was making a double batch so I ended up buying mashed potatoes from Costco for the top layer to further shortcut the meal. Also, I ended up using spinach instead of kale.
We are so glad that you enjoyed this recipe, Andrea! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughtful modifications and time-saving hacks! -Team FF
Second recipe I’m trying from Fed & Fit and my first time making Shepherd’s Pie. It turned out amazing! I did halve the recipe because I didn’t need a huge amount, but the seasonings make this dish tasty! I will definitely be making this again. Thank you Fed & Fit!
We are so glad you enjoyed! Thank you for taking the time to share with us. -Melissa
This is so much a staple in our house that I can cook it mostly from memory. Love this shepherds pie! I’ve also gifted it to new mama’s several times in the early postpartum weeks.
So awesome, Eleanor! Thank you for sharing this with us!
I had a lb of ground beef, so I halved the recipe except I added an entire bunch of kale and sauteed a chopped onion with the beef. I also only had 2 potatoes, so I used a combination of leftover wild rice with the potatoes on top. I used a half can corn and some frozen peas. It was delicious. We’re in the middle of the COVID-19 shutdown, so we are using whatever we have. This was the perfect recipe to use up leftover veggies from the fridge, freezer and something from the cupboard.
So creative! Love that!! Stay safe, Maryanne!
I have this in the oven right now and an 8×8 baking dish (2 quarts) is not big enough!!!! I only used 2 lbs of ground beef and 12 oz of peas and carrots and it BARELY fit in my 2.5 qt casserole dish! I’m sure it will be delicious, but just a heads up for anyone else making this dish. It smells divine and all of Cassy’s recipes that I’ve tried for this week have been absolutely amazing. They are so filling and simple and clean and delicious AND dairy and gluten free, it’s almost too good to be true. I will be buying the book after trying out a week of these recipes.
I almost have this all ready to go in the oven but I had to use a 9X13 to fit all the meat. I’ve checked over and over…it says 2.5 pounds. That is correct, right?!
Love this dish and it is so easy to make! Making it again tonight for dinner/lunch tomorrow!
Dang it…I’m sorry I spelled your name wrong in my above post!
Hi Cassie! This looks delicious and I’m planning on making it tonight. Question about the kale- if I can’t find this particular type of kale at my store, is “regular” kale okay? If so, would I use one whole bunch? Thank you!
Yes! Regular kale is fine, or whatever your preferred green is, and still use a whole bunch!
Made this for dinner. I was out of Italian seasoning but this was still delicious. My girls and husband loved it!
Sheperd’s pie is usually made with lamb.
You’re right, Bill! This is more of a cottage pie – we made the editorial choice to call it Shepherd’s pie to help folks find it who were Googling.