Dubious about shepherd's pie

[PickyEaters]

OH and I are embarking on a healthy eating plan to lose weight. He has suggested shepherd's pie to go on the meal list as he "can't eat salad every day" (I like salad). I have never eaten shepherd's pie (I'm an immigrant) but it doesn't look very healthy to me (minced fatty lamb, potatoes and gravy with a few overcooked peas thrown in?), not to mention it sounds like it would taste disgusting! Isn't this something that featured heavily inschool dinners of the 1970s and should be banished to memory?

@GerundTheBehemoth oh, my friend who is on high protein food said they were higher in protein, I didn't realise, I just like the taste of them !

^^this. It’s really easy to make a low fat / lower calorie version of most classics.

@Iwantmyoldnameback - how am I today years old before discovering I can mince leftover roast meat in a food processor for a cottage pie? WAY better than reusing the meat in endless sandwiches🤦‍♀️

Thank you! That’s next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday sorted here 😊

I don't mash the potato, I put it through a ricer — no butter or milk added and it goes nice and crisp.

I also don't put any vegetables in it, apart from onion, just have them on the side.

I precook minced lamb then let go cold, the fat rises and I scoop the majority out for the bin or birds

Change it to cottage pie (this is with minced beef not lamb) and use the lean less than 5% meat. Don't forget to add carrots. It's lovely and comforting

I call it shepherds pie but it's

Low fat beef mince cooked with stock, carrots and onions. Thicken mince with bisto when cooked. Put in dish. Mashed potato on top. Brown under grill and serve with cabbage. It's lovely.

That's cottage pie

What does being an immigrant have to do with it? Fair enough you may not have grown up with it but that doesn’t mean you can’t try it as an adult. Maybe just try it before you write it off. It’s not particularly good for losing weight but it needn’t be fatty or as awful as you seem to think. Like most recipes, you can use it as a base or a suggestion and modify it to your taste. I add more vegetables when I make it, for example.

Swap the potato for sweet potato, use a leaner meat like turkey and do a tomato base instead of gravy, and add in loads of veg to the base. Still not a salad but much healthier.

😂😂

"Meat good. Custard good"

Lentil base. Sweet potato or carrot and swede topping. Yum and low cal and carb.

Anythings rank if you over cook it and use really fatty meat... mm.

I do cottage pie as I cannot stand lamb, it just tastes faintly sweet and sweaty to me.

Our cottage pie has paprika, chili, loads of veg and cheesey mash (sometimes its a sweet potato/normal potato mash, but ive done swede and potato, carrot, cauli and potato... whatever we have to hand really). It's so far from a cottage pie it isn't called cottage pie here, just PIE! We know what we mean.

I make my base out of rehydrated soya mince, fried onions, peas, and instant onion gravy! (Don't eat beef or lamb). It gets topped with whatever mashed root veg is to hand, or even Smash if I get desperate. Major comfort food.

For those of you saying to use 5% fat mince of whatever source, it's not cost effective. I read somewhere that if you buy much higher fat mince then fry it and pour off the fat it still works out much cheaper per kg and has no appreciable difference in taste. I'll see if I can find the source...

Minced fatty lamb, potatoes and gravy with a few overcooked peas thrown in?

The version we make is very healthy - we use a relatively lean mince and fry it off in its own fat rather than using oil. Our gravy is made from stock and tinned tomatoes with lots of seasoning (but not salt), lovely mashed potato on the top, maybe a little cheese - we use the light mature cheddar. We don't put peas in because I also don't like them when they've been ovencooked, but we do put in carrots and onions and sometimes some pepper or courgette that is lying around, finely cut up. It's nice served with lightly cooked peas though.

Humans do need fats so it's fine so long as you don't have too many other fats in that day's meal plan. You can also make a nice version with very lean turkey or pork mince which technically isn't a shepherd's pie any more of course, or use the same recipe to make cottage pie with 5% lean beef. All nice.

I agree with your partner that salad every day could be a bit much. I love salad but I prefer to have hot vegetables at dinner time in the winter. But most dishes can have some lovely broccoli, green beans, peas etc. served alongside. Stirfries are another way of getting lots of veg into a meal.

Make it with turkey mince and sweet potato mash (old body building recipe I used to do)

Shepherds pie is lasagne under a different name, or lamb meatballs with pasta , or a lamb tagine, or a goat curry, or lamb pasanda, or lamb kebabs.

The world eats lamb, I suggest if you want to experience British lamb cookery at its glorious best you forget the shepherds pie and make Lancashire hot pot,

Shepherds pie is lasagne under a different name

I always think of lasagne as being layers of pasta and mince, rather than potato (or similar) topped mince.

I meant it in the sense that it is a meat and carb dish, not that it is a replica!

Ah, get what you mean now, sorry.

As opposed to poutine which these days does sometimes taste disgusting. Basic poutine is fine but the newer trendier variations are getting ridiculous. Why mess with a classic?

Yes! Was just going to suggest this, it's delicious! Lots of chicken stock / gravy in the mince for flavour and plenty of pepper in the sweet potato mash - yum 🤤

Oh and a question from another immigrant.....

I understand why shepherd's pie is called that but why is a version with beef called cottage pie? Not like your average UK cottage always had a cow chewing it's cud in the back garden. More likely to have chickens I would have thought. But there aren't any versions made with chicken that I've ever seen. And why isn't there??

I make with mashed sweet potato and swede instead of potato which makes it healthier. It's yummy.

That is a good question!😂