10 Delicious Ways To Upgrade Your Next Shepherd's Pie
Step into any Irish pub, and you'll likely come across shepherd's pie on the menu. This staple comfort food had humble beginnings in the late 1700s and early 1800s when the Irish needed cost-effective ways to utilize their leftovers. Nowadays, we will gladly go out of our way to find the right ingredients to make shepherd's pie from scratch. For such a simple dish — essentially, it's ground meat topped with mashed potatoes — there are several different ways to prepare it, with differing protein options, seasonings, and ingredients to put a unique spin on the Irish dish.
Whether you need a meal idea for an upcoming chilly winter's night, are hosting friends and family for St. Patrick's Day, or want to improve your shepherd's pie-making skills, we have a few tricks to keep in mind that will bring your dish to the next level. Once you realize how easy it is to make shepherd's pie, you may add it to your weekly rotation of recipes. Who knows? Your family could beg for it every week! (Thankfully, this meal reheats well and leaves plenty of leftovers, just like how the Irish of the 1700s designed it to work).
1. Top it with cheese
Let's be honest: Just about everything tastes better with a little cheese. But why? For many, it may be because cheese is high in saturated fat and sodium, which tastes good but should be consumed in moderation. We cannot deny that cheese is delicious, so if you want to take your shepherd's pie to the next level, consider topping it with one of the most beloved ingredients.
Traditionally, shepherd's pie's final layer is mashed potatoes, so there are a couple of ways you can integrate cheese. One would be to fold the cheese into your mashed potatoes for a more gooey, cheesy spread. Another possibility would be to sprinkle your favorite cheese on top of your mashed potatoes, almost like you are making a Mashed Potato Casserole, in the final few minutes of baking so you get a nice, bubbly crust. (Pro-tip: turn your oven to the broil setting for just a few minutes and you should get a nice golden crust.) No matter how you choose to incorporate cheese into your shepherd's pie, you should notice a difference in flavor. You may never want to make the dish without cheese again!
2. Serve it upside-down
The traditional structure of a shepherd's pie involves a base of ground meat, vegetables, and seasonings (the filling) topped with mashed potatoes (the crust), giving the dish its pie-like appearance. But for many, cooking is a way of expressing themselves creatively, so don't think you are bound to any set rules when it comes to preparing your favorite dish. The next time you want to wow a crowd with your shepherd's pie, offer something unique by flipping everything upside-down.
Much like a beef stew, an upside-down shepherd's pie would involve using your mashed potatoes as a base with your ground meat filling on top of the starch. There are plenty of clever ways to present other upside-down dishes like Chicken Pot Pie and even Grilled Cheese, so why should shepherd's pie be any different? If you want to experiment even more with this beef stew-like construction, you can switch up the cut and type of meat. Instead of ground meat, try chuck roast, brisket, or Oxtail. The sky is the limit if you want to throw a unique spin on this classic dish.
3. Sneak in more veggies
While many people think of shepherd's pie as ground meat with mashed potatoes, the dish traditionally contains a lot of different vegetables to sneak in some nutrients. Peas and corn are perhaps the most common veggies found in shepherd's pie, but other recipes may call for green beans and carrots. You do not have to over-complicate adding vegetables to your pie: You can usually pick up a bag of frozen mixed veggies at the grocery store and simply add it to the ground meat once browned.
But there is another way to sneak in more vegetables, especially if you are looking to cut back on carbs: Make mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. Cauliflower has several vitamins and nutrients, including Vitamin C and folate, and is high in fiber. You can easily liven up the flavor of your mashed cauliflower by adding butter and cheese to your final product. If you cannot part with mashed potatoes (we don't blame you), try a potato and mashed cauliflower blend to incorporate the vegetable, or sneak some sweet potato into your mashed potato mixture.
4. Try a Cottage Pie (or, a proper Shepherd's Pie)
You may not have realized this, but many restaurants that serve shepherd's pie are not technically cooking a true shepherd's pie. If you want to serve it up as it was traditionally prepared, you wouldn't use ground beef. Rather, you would be making your shepherd's pie with ground lamb meat. A dish made with ground beef goes by an entirely different name: cottage pie.
While many know shepherd's pie as being an Irish dish, its cousin, the cottage pie, originated in Scotland. It didn't take long before the cottage pie found its way to Ireland, and depending on who you ask, the distinction between the two dishes didn't make much of a difference for at least the first hundred years or so. Though there are some, like one Redditor, who will be quick to point out the fact that, if you want to make a next-level shepherd's pie, you want to start off by making sure you are using the proper protein. Depending on how much meat you are cooking, you may want to consider cooking it in batches to retain as much of the flavor as possible.
5. Experiment with different proteins
While some may forgive you for calling your beef-based dish a shepherd's pie, they may draw the line once you move beyond those two proteins. But we say go for whatever inspires you to make the best dish possible — even if that means abandoning beef and lamb altogether.
There may be many reasons why you want to switch up your shepherd's pie recipe and move away from ground beef. Whether you want to make more health-conscious decisions by adding more lean meats to your diet or you want to cut back on your beef consumption for the health of the planet, there are plenty of other recipe options out there. You can get creative once you think outside of the box and incorporate other proteins into your shepherd's pie. Using ground turkey meat will not only sneak some lean protein into the mix, but it may also inspire a dish like Chipotle Turkey and Black Bean Shepherd's Pie. Who knows: You may convert some non-believers into seeing how versatile shepherd's pie can be once you let go of only using beef or lamb.
6. Use different cuts of meat and not just ground
Shepherd's pie's simplicity was born out of necessity, as the Irish needed to come up with a way of using their leftovers before the food spoiled back in the late 1700s. But this is no longer the 1700s! Cooking has evolved over the centuries and introduced new methods of preparing food for dishes.
If you feel like you have mastered the traditional shepherd's pie using ground beef or lamb, try challenging yourself to swap in different cuts of meat. Substituting chuck roast can give your shepherd's pie a wonderfully rich flavor akin to a pot roast but with all of the other fixings that have helped this Irish dish stand the test of time. One Redditor uses cubed sirloin steak in their shepherd's pie, sometimes as a leftover from making beef stew. The next time you have leftover meat, regardless of what cut it is, repurpose it into a savory pie.
7. Substitute tater tots for mashed potatoes
One of the key features of a traditional shepherd's pie is its mashed potatoes, blanketing the meat and vegetable filling underneath. Not only will your mashed potatoes give the final dish a tasty starch, but it also acts as an insulator that keeps the filling warm once it comes out of the oven. But do not think that mashed potatoes are the only way to seal in your shepherd's pie. If you want to take your dish to the next level, test out other starchy toppings like tater tots.
Tater tots will give your meal a different texture than mashed potatoes, adding a nice little crunch to each bite. As evident by recipes for dishes like Cheesy Tater Tot Casseroles, they are just as efficient at serving as a dish's insulating top layer. Adding tater tots as your top layer can also possibly be more convenient than having to whip up mashed potatoes: Simply prepare your tots according to package instructions (usually as easy as tossing them in the oven and letting them bake), and assemble them on top of your shepherd's pie filling before baking altogether.
8. Make a breakfast shepherd's pie
One way to instantly level up your shepherd's pie is to switch up the time of day you serve the dish. Rather than simply going from dinner to lunch, take things a step further and make yourself a breakfast shepherd's pie. There are, of course, all sorts of ways to prepare shepherd's pie, so why not give your favorite breakfast foods a go? Try breakfast sausage as your meat, or stick to vegetables more commonly found in the morning like tomato and peppers. Home fries would make a great mashed potato substitute as the topping, too. This savory creation could make a great go-to meal if you are looking for something new to try for Sunday brunch.
You can also heat up your leftover shepherd's pie from the night before and top it with an egg, as this one Redditor did for an instantly filling breakfast. Whether you go for an entirely different recipe or just want to serve your favorite comfort food with sunny-side eggs, rethinking the time of day to enjoy a slice of shepherd's pie can rekindle your love for this classic dish.
9. Use wildly different seasonings
Depending on the recipe, shepherd's pie will usually have earthy herbs and spices like thyme and rosemary. Those herbs, along with staple ingredients like tomato paste, beef broth, onion, and garlic, create the dish's beloved and classic comfort food flavor. But don't be afraid to get a little imaginative with seasonings — whether in cooking the meat or what you stir in afterward.
There are many recipes for internationally-inspired versions of shepherd's pie out there — like an Asian-Inspired Shepherd's Pie that calls for soy sauce, sesame oil, shiitake mushrooms, and edamame. You can also use taco seasoning with your ground beef for an instant Mexican Shepherd's Pie, made with black beans, peppers, and pepper jack cheese. Or try going for bolder tastes altogether like stirring in some Panang curry pasta and Caribbean jerk sauce. These alterations may take the traditional 'Irish' element out of the dish, but they also open the door for a wildly delicious blend of different global cuisines.
10. Add the booze
Cooking with alcohol is a great way to liven up the flavors in a dish, from the sauce in a penne vodka to a hearty bread made with beer. Shepherd's pie is no exception, and your recipe could benefit greatly from a splash (or more) of booze. Of course, you will want to make sure that the alcohol itself burns off while cooking so everyone can enjoy it regardless of age.
Guinness lends itself perfectly to this Irish classic, and incorporating it will add an extra layer of authenticity to a traditional recipe. Just like a great beef stew, you can experiment with a red wine reduction for a bold, hearty flavor. The red wine will make the gravy component of the shepherd's pie richer, which is exactly what you want if you're whipping this dish up on a chilly evening. Ultimately, no matter how you prepare shepherd's pie, you can elevate the dish with booze, whether as an ingredient or by pouring yourself a well-paired glass to enjoy on the side.