Recipe: Paleo Shepherds Pie

Submitted by Karen Coello.

Serves 6. Preparation time 120 mins.

Ingredients:

Mince:

• 1kg beef or lamb mince
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (add enough to coat meat)
• 5 sprigs fresh rosemary, destemmed and chopped
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tspn garlic cloves, minced,
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 head cabbage, coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 4 celery stalks, sliced (optional – Mouse doesn’t like celery)
• 1 small can tomato paste
• Chicken stock (or beef stock if you use beef mince)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mash:

• Optional: 500g butternut pumpkin, cubed
• 1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
• Splash of milk
• 2 Tbsp chives, chopped
• 3 Tbsp spring onion, chopped
• pepper and salt to taste
• 4 pieces bacon, cooked & chopped
• Optional: butter to taste

Marrow:

• Six 6cm pieces of marrow bone (one for each person)
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Marinating (overnight).

1. In a bowl, marinate beef in olive oil, 6 cloves garlic, rosemary, smoked paprika for 2 hours to overnight (If you don’t marinate for as long as the recipe says, consider putting in less garlic!).
2. In an electric frying pan, saute onion and garlic over medium heat.  Once cooked down, add beef and brown (until about medium rare). Add in chopped cabbage, carrots, celery, pumpkin (if used), tomato paste, chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer.

For the mash:

1. Place cauliflower in a steamer basket and steam until very soft. Blend in a food processor along with milk. Once the desired consistency is reached, remove from food processor  (I have used a food processor and a blender, neither of which gave satisfactory and efficient results – I am pretty sure I was trying to blend too much in one go – if you have a stick blender, I would imagine this would be the best method).
2. Add chives, spring onion, salt & pepper, and bacon. Butter, add to taste.

For the bone marrow:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, place bone marrow pieces marrow side up and roast for 20 minutes until bubbly. Remove and let cool.

Putting it together:

1. Layer stew in individual oven-safe bowls, or in a casserole dish, and top with mash. Once bone marrow is cooked, place into pie.
2. Broil at 260 degrees until brown on top (about 5-7 minutes) and serve (when I have made this I haven’t cooked it as long in the slow cooker, and increased the amount of time in the oven at a lower temperature).

Karen says:

I have made this twice now and my daughter likes to make it with me. She was initially appalled at the thought of cauliflower instead of potato but there were zero complaints while eating it. I think the bacon helped!