This shepherd’s pie recipe has a rich, savory filling with vegetables and a buttery mashed potato topping baked until golden. It’s a weeknight favorite that reheats beautifully.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Why Make It: This recipe uses freezer veggies and a simple gravy to create cozy comfort-food flavor with minimal chopping.
- Recommended Tools: You’ll need a large skillet or Dutch oven, a 2-quart casserole dish, and a spoon or spatula.
- Time-Saving Tip: Leftover mashed potatoes make this recipe feel effortless on busy nights. Spread them over the savory filling and bake.
- Freezing: Freeze whole or in portions for up to 4 months for easy reheat dinners.
What’s in Shepherd’s Pie
- Meat: Use ground lamb for a classic shepherd’s pie or ground beef for a cottage pie variation.
- Mashed Potatoes: Use mashed potatoes according to the recipe below, or swap them for instant mashed potatoes. Stir cheddar into the potatoes for a “loaded potato” twist.
- Vegetables: Frozen mixed vegetables make the prep quick, just thaw and drain. Swap for fresh vegetables by finely dicing and cooking until tender.
- Gravy: This sauce includes broth, seasonings, and a little tomato paste. If short on time, use tomato soup, cream soup, or a gravy packet as a shortcut sauce.
How to Make Shepherd’s Pie
- Cook the lamb, onion, and garlic in a skillet until no pink remains.
- Stir in the flour and seasonings.
- Add the remaining filling ingredients and simmer until thickened.
- Transfer to a baking dish, top with potatoes, and bake (full recipe below).
Storing, Reheating, and Serving
To store leftovers, cool completely, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or wrap well in foil and freeze for up to 4 months.
To reheat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Then warm in the microwave or cover with foil and bake in the oven at 350°F until hot in the center. Add a splash of broth around the edges before reheating in the oven to keep the filling nice and saucy.
Shepherd’s pie is a cozy casserole with a savory meat-and-vegetable gravy layered under creamy mashed potatoes and baked until bubbly. Traditionally it’s made with lamb, while beef is often called cottage pie.
Bake shepherd’s pie at 400°F for 25–30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly, then broil for about 2 minutes if you’d like a golden top.
It can be served with crusty bread, Irish soda bread, and/or a fresh side salad.
To make shepherd’s pie easy, brown the meat with onion and garlic, then stir in a can of condensed tomato soup (undiluted) to make a quick, rich sauce. Add the vegetables, top with mashed potatoes, and bake until bubbly.
Yes, shepherd’s pie freezes well for up to 4 months; cool completely, wrap tightly, and thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
St. Patrick's Day Pairings
Did you make this Shepherd’s Pie recipe? Leave a comment and rating below.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground lamb or lean ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ⅔ cups beef broth more as needed
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables thawed
- 4 cups prepared mashed potatoes see notes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, cook lamb (or beef), onion, and garlic over medium heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Stir in flour, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in broth, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened. Stir in mixed vegetables and add more broth if needed to reach a gravy consistency.
- Transfer the ground beef mixture to a 2-quart casserole dish and spread it into an even layer. Spoon mashed potatoes over top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly. Broil for 2 minutes if desired.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Shortcut Sauce: For a quick shortcut sauce, brown the meat, onion, and garlic as directed. Add one 10.5 ounce can of condensed tomato soup (undiluted), cream of mushroom soup, or one packet of gravy with the water as directed on the package.
- To make homemade potatoes: Boil 2lbs of peeled and diced russet potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes in a large pot of salted water for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain well and mash with a potato masher. Add 4 tablespoons of butter, ¾ teaspoon salt, and up to ¾ cup of warmed half and half as needed.
- Store leftovers tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
- To make as a freezer meal, line the pan with parchment paper and prepare the casserole as directed. Once cool, freeze the entire pie, then remove and wrap in foil. Remove the wrappings and replace in the same baking dish, with a foil cover and bake at 350° for 60 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Casserole, Dinner
Cuisine American, Irish© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Your recipes sound delicious.
I hope you find many to try and love Gloria!
Thanks 4 the recipes, can’t wait 2 get started
I hope you love them all Vicki!
I know it is not traditional but I like it with a piecrust underneath
That sounds really good Terri!
Great recipe and super easy! My husband is Irish and Scottish and VERY picky about his food… he loved it!
I am so glad that your family enjoyed this recipe GG!
To clarify, Is that a combined total of 10ounces of peas and carrots or 10 ounces of each? Wasn’t sure since the corn was listed seperately.
Hi Jess, for this recipe I used a frozen bag of peas, corn, and carrots with a combined weight of 20 ounces.
I’m making this dish right now but with some substitutes. I’m using ground angus meat. I didn’t use any soup either. My family loves cheese so I put a layer of shredded cheese on top of the meat mixture then the mashed potatoes and another layer of cheese!!!
I hope you love the recipe Sue. We love cheese too, so adding a layer sounds like a yummy plan to me!
This turned out great! I made it with the tomato soup. I varied mine in a few ways: a) instead of a can of corn and frozen peas and carrots, I used an equivalent amount of frozen mixed vegetables, which includes those three plus green beans, b) I didn’t add any salt as I didn’t feel it was necessary, c) instead of topping the whole thing with cheese, I used a Four Cheese Instant Mashed Potato box, which made d) 4 cups of mashed potatoes instead the three that the recipe calls for, which is fine because it seemed like it needed more potatoes to properly cover the entire thing.
I love the addition of mixed veggies to this recipe Wilder, thanks for sharing!
This was so good and easy don’t know why we don’t make it more often!! Shame on me!
Glad you enjoyed it Beverly!
Have never made Shepard’s pie before..Got snowed in yesterday..Had ground chuck to use up..Also fresh mushrooms, So I followed your recipe except added cooked mushrooms and corn, along with seasonings, & mushroom soup, stirred it together, before I read layer it, tasted good,put homemade mashed potatoes on top and added the cheese.. put it in the fridge overnight, Am about to cook it soon and have promised it to a neighbor who loves my food, I’ll let you know how it comes out..Thank You for your recipes..I share a lot of food,Love to cook but can’t cook for one,
You’re welcome, so nice to hear that you love the recipes! Enjoy Susan!
I love Shephard’s pie and Cottage pie. Your recipe looks simple enough that I think even I can make it.
Could you clarify please about the soup? These cans of soup say to add 1 can water or milk. Should I do that and make the soup or just put the contents of the can in without adding the water or milk?
I was also wondering, in order to get 3 cups mashed potatoes, approximately how many potatoes and what size should I start with?
Thanks.
You will need to add just the condensed soup (without adding the extra water/milk). To get 3 cups of potatoes, you’ll need about 1.5lbs (about 4-5 medium potatoes).
Thanks for the reply. Good thing I checked with you because I was leaning towards adding the water/milk and now I know not to.
Enjoy Stephen, let us know how it goes for you!
I just made this today and it worked out very well. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it Stephen, thank you for coming back and letting us know!
This was absolutely delicious! Really was simple, and quick. I use different veggies because I didn’t have the ones in the recipe except for peas, and it came out great. I would probably even use 2 lb of ground beef next time to make it more meaty. Will be making again!
So happy to hear how much you enjoyed the Shepherd’s pie Meka!
Trying it out for the first time and making my homemade garlic mashed potatoes for it! I can’t wait! Never made/had shepherds pie before! Also, I’m baking it in an actual pie crust!
I hope you love it as much as we do Lisa!
I have never tried shepherds pie or cottage pie but this sounds good. Will test it out on the fam this week!
Enjoy Kay! Let us know how it goes!
Trying it out but added celery and oyster sauce (about 3 tbs) and ommitted the corn as it gives me indigestion even though I love the flavour. Very tasty.
So glad you loved it Janette!
My family loves shepherds pie!! Sometimes for variety I use taco seasoning and add corn and black beans! Delicious!!!
Yummy twist on a classic recipe, thank you for sharing!
Where is your recipe for the mashed potatoes?
I used this recipe for mashed potatoes.
We eat Shepherd’s Pie quite often. This recipe sounds better than the one we have been using. We’ll try it next time.
Very good. I am so happy with everything I have tried from this blog. Totally trust Holly and I really appreciate her explanations why something should be done a certain way (or certain kind of ingredients), as well as the alternative options she offers.
Cottage pie is one of my favorite dishes, period! Never been a super big fan of lamb, so I have not tried making a real Shepherd’s Pie.
Thank you so much Darina! Glad that you enjoy the blog and the recipes!
I have made this before but only with hamburger meat . Love the recipe
Wow! I have never tried Shepherd’s pie, it looks so good!! Thank you for the recipe, gotta try it.
A splash of red wine makes it extra tasty.
Yummy, thanks for sharing!!