Old Fashioned Shepherd’s Pie – Reduced Sodium/No preservatives

I LOVE Shepherd’s Pie. It’s one of those incredibly comforting meals that seem perfect for the rainy day that we are enjoying here today. Growing up in the Prairies I feel like this is a staple in many people’s recipe books but the way that I grew up eating it is not exactly conducive to our new style of eating (that being our reduced sodium/no preservatives, REAL food diet).

My mom makes excellent Shepherd’s pie  but at the base of it all is a can of Campbell’s Vegetable beef soup – delicious but one can alone has 2225mg of sodium!!! Yikes. That is not happening in this household.

Here is my reimagined recipe for this old country classic 🙂

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Shepherd’s Pie

Reduced Sodium/No preservatives/ REAL food only 🙂

Ingredients:

“Filling”

2 llbs Extra Lean Ground Beef

1 Large onion – diced

3 Large carrots – diced

1 Bell pepper – diced

2 celery stalks – diced

1 medium zucchini – diced

1/2 – 1 cup petite peas (so much less mushy than the bigger ones)

1/2 Tbs Parsley (dried)

1/2 Tbs Thyme (dried)

1/4 Tbs Rosemary (dried)

1/2 Tsp Red Wine Vinegar

1/2 Tbs Brown Sugar

1-3 cloves garlic (according to taste)

1/4 Tsp Salt (I use Baleine Sea Salt – it has less sodium per 1/4 tsp than other brands)

1 Cup Chicken Stock (I use homemade unless I’m out…then I  use GoBio organic bouillon cubes – no salt added, gluten free, non gmo and no msg added)

2 Tbs Tomato Paste

Topping

4-5 Medium potatoes – mashed

2-3 Tbs 1% Milk

1-2 Tbs No-salt butter or no-salt margarine

1/4 cup shredded cheese (optional and you’d save 400mg of sodium (about 80 per serving) if you omitted it but trust me – you want the cheese.

 

Directions:

Filling:

1. Sweat Onions, celery and pepper in pan until onions are translucent.
2. Add extra lean ground beef and brown. (I always add half of the total salt – 1/8 tsp in this case – as soon as the beef goes in)
3. Once beef is browned, add carrots, herbs, vinegar, salt and garlic – cook on medium heat
4. Once carrots have begun to soften, add chicken/beef stock and zucchini – simmer on low-medium heat for about 30 minutes, until carrots are tender
5. Add petite peas and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
6. Take filling out of the pan and place in casserole dish/dutch oven

 

Topping:

1. Boil potatoes until very tender
2. mash potatoes with milk and butter/margarine
3. Spread potatoes over filling
4. Cover with cheese and some fresh time leaves if desired

Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is fully melted. Remove lid and cook an additional 15 minutes to add colour.

 

 

 

The nutritional info is assuming 6 servings which is a healthy sized serving for everyone 🙂

• The sodium is actually more like 17% of  reduced sodium diet (based on 1500mg per day)