Clean Eating Comfort Food: Shepherd's Pie with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust

I've been doing a lot of indulgent cooking, but I have strayed from my commitment to indulgently healthy cooking.  I don't think those two have to be mutually exclusive.  I also generally disagree with the movement to use food-like substances to recreate indulgent favorites as lower calorie meals.  Enter Clean Eating.  I love this magazine.  I love what they stand for.  I have committed myself to turn to it more often this year for specific recipes and to reinforce the Clean Eating philosophy whenever I cook.

This week, I made the Shepherd's Pie from the Comfort Food issue.  I made it somewhat less healthy by using 85/15 organic grass-fed beef instead of ground turkey, but I've been craving beef recently so I went with it.  I also substituted butternut squash for the carrots because I had some extra squash to use up. Finally, I upped the garlic because rarely does a recipe meet my hands without some extra garlic thrown in to the mix.

In general, I really liked this recipe.  It was filling and comforting and still tasted clean.  My husband made his usual critique - it would taste better with curry powder or Asian spices of some kind.  It is not spicy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have nice flavor.  I may try an Asian-inspired version to complement my meat loaf one of these days, but for now, this recipe will do.

 Clean Eating Shepherd's Pie  with Buttermilk-Chive Mashed Potato Crust (adapted from Clean Eating Magazine)

• 1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, whole, plus 1 clove garlic minced, divided
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 lb organic grass-fed ground beef (or lean ground turkey breast)
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 butternut squash, chopped (or 3 medium carrots, halved and sliced into half moons)
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3/4 cup frozen peas

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Bring potatoes and whole garlic cloves to boil in a pot of water set over high heat. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain well.  Mash potatoes and garlic with a potato masher (or your favorite mashing device) until smooth.  Add buttermilk and chives and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
3. While water is boiling, heat 1 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef or turkey and cook, stirring often and breaking meat into small pieces with wooden spoon.  Cook until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and discard fat, set aside.
4. Heat 2 tsp oil in same skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion, squash, celery and rosemary and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add reserved meat, broth and tomato paste and cook until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Stir in peas.
5. Transfer mixgture to a shallow 2-quart baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes in an even layer.  Run a fork over top of mashed potatoes in both directions or swirl with the back of a spoon.  Brush top with remaining 1 tsp oilve oil.
6. Bake in oven until filling is bubbling and top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Comments

[Alissa]

This is totally going on my list of recipes to try! I love the idea of the buttermilk mashed potatoes...and I have a bunch of free-range ground turkey in my freezer so this could be the perfect use!

[Vijay]

Yes... it is also a very good preparation. I like this post very much..

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