This recipe is fast and easy to prepare, especially if you use leftovers from your holiday dinners. Shepherd’s Pie is often made using ground beef, but it is an especially delicious way to use up leftover roast. You can also use leftover vegetables and top it with leftover mashed potatoes if you have them on hand.
If you don’t have leftover mashed potatoes, make mashed potatoes using 4 potatoes and your favorite recipe. I used my Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe on top of the Shepherd’s Pie.
Using leftover gravy adds a special depth to this recipe. If you don’t have leftover gravy, you can make a fast and easy cheater gravy and use it instead.
Cheater Beef Gravy
Ingredients:
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sage
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
Directions:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a small pot.
- Whisk while cooking over a medium-high flame until the gravy becomes thick and smooth.
You can use leftover vegetables if you have them available, if not use a one pound bag of mixed vegetables. I like corn, peas, carrots and green beans in my Shepherd’s Pie, but it is good with any number of vegetable combinations.
After you spread the mashed potatoes over the top, you can sprinkle cheddar cheese over the top. I chose to sprinkle parsley over the top instead so that my pie would be dairy-free.
Roast Beef Shepherd’s Pie
Yield – 8 servings
Preparation Time – 10 minutes
Cooking Time – 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups diced roast beef
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3 – 3 1/2 cups leftover veggies (or 1 pound mixed frozen vegetables)
- 1 cup gravy (or use recipe above)
- 1 cup diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 4 – 6 cups mashed potatoes
- parsley or cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- In a 9 x 13 casserole dish, combine roast, onion, and vegetables.
- In a small bowl, mix gravy, diced tomatoes, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pour gravy mixture over the meat and vegetables.
- Spread mashed potatoes over the meat and vegetables.
- Sprinkle parsley or cheddar cheese over the top of the mashed potatoes.
- Bake at 375 for 25 – 30 minutes or until the top begins to brown.
How are you using up your holiday leftovers?
Jasmine says
I don’t know what fairy tales you grew up reading but shepherds watch sheep and so shepherds pie is usually made with lamb. Cottage pie is usually made with beef since the cows don’t have to be watched. If you make it with poultry or vegetarian I have no idea what to call it but maybe that is also cottage pie? Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Maggie says
350 or 375?
Sigrid Snyder says
Jasmine, you of simple mind!
Shepherd ‘s pie is merely a concoction of layers of meat(any kind) vegetables and topped with mashed potatoes and baked until potatoes are browned or if you put cheese on top, until cheese is melted!
It is similar to “moussaka ” a Greek dish created from left overs!
It can be called many things, just as they are many words for ignorant!
Alea says
375 degrees. Thanks for catching mt mistake.
Marc says
I made this, turned out great and my family loved it. I used left over roast beef, and left over vegetables.