Quick and Easy Shepherds Pie

Occasionally at our house we eat a big lamb steak with mashed potatoes and baby broccoli for dinner. It's one of my favorites - but lamb can be really expensive so we don't have it that often.

Here is the left over lamb steak from the night before...
 

Usually we end up with a lot of left overs and instead of eating the exact same thing the next night, I like to mix it up and make a super quick and easy shepherds pie using the left over lamb and potatoes.

It's so delicious - it could almost be better than having the lamb steaks.  

Ingredients:

- half a pound of left over cooked lamb steak - chopped into small chunks 

- 1.5 cups of left over mashed potatoes

- 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese

- half an onion diced

- 1 celery stalk diced

- 1/4 cup of chopped carrot

- 1/4 cup of fresh or frozen peas

- 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

- 2 small tomatoes finely chopped (or can of diced tomatoes)

- 1 tablespoon tomato paste

- water or stock

- salt, pepper, dried oregano and some chili flakes

- olive oil and a little butter

First I assemble all the ingredients starting with chopping the veggies. I put all the onion, celery and carrots together since they take the longest to cook. 

Then once they are all chopped, I put them in a sauté pan on medium heat with a little olive oil and a teaspoon of butter.

While that is cooking I prep all the other ingredients.

Next, after the veggies have cooked for about 5 minutes or so the tomato paste will go in.

Meanwhile I am still prepping...

Then I stir around the tomato paste until it is well combined. About this time I preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Then I add some seasoning, the salt and pepper, chili flakes, oregano and sometimes I add some garlic powder.

I will then add some water or stock and let it cook down until the carrots are soft for about 15 minutes. Just keep adding water if the veggies start to stick or get to dry. 

Next I add in the meat and frozen peas. I usually will add a bit more butter and let that sauté for another 10 minutes until it is all nicely combined and the veggies are well cooked.

Then I assemble all the ingredients into a lightly greased oven dish. Starting with the veggie/ lamb mixture on the bottom, and then adding the potatoes and grated cheese on top.

This is what it looks like all assembled:

Then I pop it in the oven for 20 minutes and voila! An easy, delicious shepherds pie! 

You could use this same recipe with any leftover protein you have, ground beef, ground turkey, left over chicken or even just as a veggie dish it would be delicious.  

Enjoy!