It’s officially sock weather in New York and that can only mean cooking something gravy-based and covered in mashed potatoes. I started working on this shepherd’s pie recipe after ordering an amazing plate of it in a nearby pub and vowing to recreate it. Half a dozen tries later, and I think I’m pretty happy with the final product, which is mostly a mix of a Joy of Cooking recipe (the best cook book for simple base recipes) and a Rachel Ray recipe I caught the last half of on TV.
You’re supposed to make it with ground lamb, but I find the ground turkey not only to be healthier, but also makes an otherwise brick-heavy dish to be a little lighter.
1 1/2 pounds potatoes
2 Tablespoons butter
splash of milk
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion
1/2 cup chopped celery hearts (I like to throw in some chopped celery leaves)
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
1 cup vegetable stock
1 10oz. bag of frozen peas and carrots
1 Tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cap full of Kitchen Bouquet
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Dice and boil the potatoes until tender (10 or 15 minutes). Mash with a fork, mixing in milk, butter, salt, and pepper. I keep on the skins (it’s better for you and looks better, I think) but you don’t have to.
While the potatoes are cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and celery and cook until the onions are translucent (5 minutes or so). Add the turkey and cook through, stirring regularly and breaking up the meat (another 10 minutes or so). Add peas and carrots, vegetable stock and sprinkle with flour (this thickens everything up) and cook stir for a few more minutes. Add spices and let simmer and thicken for about five minutes.
Transfer to a medium-sized casserole or baking dish. Cover with the potatoes, making irregular peaks with a fork. Dab with a little of butter and garnish with chives or fresh parsley. Bake for about 30 minutes, uncovered. Watch some football.
BROOD 
9 comments
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October 29, 2009 at 1:36 am
carrie
I just made this and it was very good — super easy to make as well. I didn’t have any Kitchen Bouquet (actually, I had never heard of it until now), so I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made. It tasted just fine without it. Thank you for the recipe!
November 9, 2009 at 4:58 am
neonlumineux
oh my god, i just finished making this….it. is. so. goood! this is the best shepard’s pie i’ve eaten~
January 3, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Holly
I followed this recipe as written except that I left out the celery (didn’t have any in the house), and it was very good! My teenage son and I both liked it a lot!
March 23, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Kristin
Just stopping by looking for a good ground turkey recipe. I do like a good shepherd’s pie. Thanks for the idea!
June 1, 2010 at 11:37 pm
♥Brown_Person♥
trying it out tonight. Not exactly ‘sock weather’, but there is no such thing in arizona. Lol… If it works out, i’ll do it again in the winter.
August 3, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Mad Doctor Tom
Let me preface by saying I am a died in the wool carnivore, and preferably BEEF, not just any beef, IOWA beef.
My wife, who is Canadian, and her family raises Red Angus, is trying to get me and the rest of the family, 6 kids, 4 boys 2 girls, ages 6 – almost 18 to start eating, sacreligiously mind you, ground turkey and pork.
Now we all love our turkey on the Turkey Day, and occasionally throughout the year as well.
Gotta love nice thick Pork Steaks and of course the sinfully thick cut Iowa Chops, puts an America’s Cut chop to shame. Not to mention Bratwurst, Breakfast Sausage, Smoked sausage of all varieties, BACON, my delicious slow grilled Pork roast, and many other pork delicacies.
To me ground pork or ground turkey is kind of like grinding up a nice 2 inch thick 20 ounce Ribeye Steak, sucking out all the fat, which we all know that is indeed the true flavor of any luscious cut of meat, then serving it as hamburger.
Sacre Dio!
You may as well have asked famed artist Raphael to portray St. Catherine of Alexandria as a skinny anorexic blonde. Just doesn’t work!
Which goes to show my predilection for the female of the specie. I like them well rounded, voluptuous, tall or short, to put it simply I like my women with some meat on them. 🙂
So for all this rambling, after searching the net for something delectable to serve my family this evening, 03 Aug., 2010, I came across your recipe for Turkey Shepherd’s Pie.
I have made the Beef version of this numerous times, and I thought, this would be a nice easy slide into heathenism so to speak.
I do all the cooking in our home, my wife can cook and well, but all 4 of us boys while growing up were brought up cooking.
Women just get in the way in the kitchen is how we feel. So we let them get a little more rounded whilst relaxing and watching soccer, hockey, or basketball. Although we feel they get the short end of the stick, as they do the clean up.
So I will close and return to give the overall impression of the meal on another day.
Oh… Thanks for the recipe!
August 5, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Mad Doctor Tom
Well the Shepherd’s Pie was tolerated by all, and deemed a ‘keeper’ to be served again when it gets down in the 20’s and snows here in Florida. >:) LOL
That is not to say I will not try other recipes on here.
I am in the process of writing a cookbook, one based on a certain medical doctor of some renown. Whom you may or may not be acquatined with.
Suffice it to say he is known for his ‘dark and glossy ragout the constituents of which were never revealed. Which was served with saffron rice.’
Thanks again.
Bon Appetit
December 9, 2010 at 12:45 am
Tonya
Loved it! Family loved it! Very good!
December 13, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Anonymous
nice recipe, i’m going to make a version of this tonight! thx