Easy Shepherd’s Pie is a go-to dinner recipe that’s packed with veggies and is a family-favorite, kid-approved dinner. This Easy Shepherd’s Pie comes together fast and will be gone in minutes! For anyone not familiar with a Shepherd’s Pie: take all delicious savory things: meat, veggies, gravy and mashed potatoes and bake them up toasty in a casserole dish. This post contains affiliate links.
Trying a new “What’s For Dinner Wednesdays” schedule out here. Fall just seems slammed with back to school and activities and I’m going to try to share an easy go-to recipe that hopefully makes meal planning a little simpler while you’re running all over town. I don’t even have school age kids yet and I feel tired thinking about all of that running all over town! And Friday I’ll be on a local lifestyle show called ciLiving on Friday, so I’ll be back at the end of the week with a special recipe I’m making on the show!
So this is recipe is my signature dish. If you come over for dinner, I’m probably going to serve this to you. It’s one of the very few recipes I have memorized and keep the ingredients on hand at all times — even in the summer. It started out a little more complicated, but as the years went on and the time got busier — hello, children circling me like sharks at dinnertime– I’ve pared down and pared down to make it as fast as possible. A few more selling points on this Shepherd’s Pie in case you’re not there yet:
You can stretch one pound of ground beef into a 9 x 13 dish without seeming scrimpy on the meat front
Packed with veggies
Reheats great
Travels well (our family’s get together theme is “Casserole Christmas” and is still piping hot after traveling an hour in one of these)
Freezer friendly: as a whole and individual portions
I feel like I just wrote a dating profile for this recipe and should have added something like “Also likes long walks on the beach and mimosas” but I had to give you guys the full scoop here. This is a dinnertime favorite for us, and I hope it will be for you too.
Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
So this does use a lot of convenience items in order to get dinner on the table fast, but you can sub any and all homemade ingredients in if you’d like to.
First grab a big skillet and brown up your ground beef, draining off the fat. For any other lazy pot/pan strainers, this was a game changer for me. Now this step was one of my big time savers: scoot the beef over to the side and add your cup of water and your gravy mix on the empty side of the pan. Mix it together and let it boil a few minutes until it’s thick. It works great in the same pan, and no need to dirty another dish.
Drain your cans of veggies and mix that in with a can of condensed cream of potato soup. For whatever reason, I couldn’t find a single spatula, so I used my gravy whisk for all the steps here. Yes, I am a super organized cook, hehe.
Cook your mashed potatoes — I always go with the Idaho family size. They’re easy to make in the microwave, so they can cook while you’re doing your skillet work. I add in some butter and cream at the end to get them a little more rich. Still couldn’t find the spatulas, so there’s the workhorse whisk again:
Top your meat/veggie mixture with your mashed potatoes. Try to push the potatoes to the edge as much as you can to seal that gravy in. The great thing about this recipe is it’s a very rustic look, so swirl up those potatoes however you see fit.
Pop it in at 350° for about 30 minutes, and then broil it for the last few to get those toasty brown tips.
That’s it! Dinner is on the table. Now if you’d like to make one and freeze one, just leave off the mashed potatoes and freeze the base. The potatoes don’t reheat from frozen especially well as a whole, and they just take a few minutes to pop on. Need a few more go-to dinner ideas? Hot Italian Subs and this Crockpot Sausage Dinner are a few more favorites of ours this time of year. Hope you enjoy!
1 8.2 oz "family size" package of mashed potato mix (I love the Idahoan brand)
Milk and butter (optional)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
Brown and drain your ground beef
While the beef is browning, prepare your mashed potatoes per package directions, adding in milk and butter to taste for extra creaminess
Move the beef to the side and in the same pan, add a cup of water and the brown gravy mix.
Whisk the mix and water and cook over medium until thick, about one minute, turn off the heat
Drain your cans of vegetables and add them into the skillet
Mix in your can of condensed soup, mixing all until combined
Pour the meat mixture into a 9 x 13 pan, spreading evenly
Top with mashed potatoes, pushing them to the edges of the dish
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes
Broil on high the last 2-3 minutes, just until the potato peaks are browned
Notes
This is freezer friendly too! Prepare the base (leaving the potatoes off) and freeze it for 2-3 months. Just defrost before baking and put the potatoes on right before it goes in the oven.
Hello, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any support is very much appreciated.
Photo by Jennifer WareHi, Friend! I’m so glad you’re here. I’m Carissa ~ wife, working mom of two boys and someone who’s always looking for ways to make things just a little bit easier...Read More
Love a good shepherd’s pie! It’s such a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes after the holidays.
So true! This is our go-to after Thanksgiving dish for using up those extra mashed potatoes. Thanks for stopping by!
Hello, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any support is very much appreciated.