Meals · Casseroles & bakes

Shepherd's pie

Name: Shepherd's pie
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 2 lb russet potatoes, peeled, chunked; 4 tbsp butter; 1/2 cup whole milk, warmed; 1 1/3 lb 90% lean ground beef; 1 yellow onions, diced; 2 mature carrots, diced; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 2 tbsp all-purpose flour; 1 1/4 cups beef broth; 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce; 1 cup cooked frozen green peas; 1/2 tsp dried thyme; 1 1/4 tsp salt; 3/4 tsp black pepper

The cottage classic: savoury beef and vegetables under a browned mashed-potato roof. One dish, one spoon, the whole comfort-food genre in cross-section.

Time: 70 min (25 prep + 45 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 443 kcal
Protein: 27 g

Ingredients

Topping

2 lb russet potatoes, peeled, chunked900 g
4 tbsp butter55 g
1/2 cup whole milk, warmed120 g

Filling

1 1/3 lb 90% lean ground beef600 g
1 yellow onions, diced150 g
2 mature carrots, diced150 g
2 cloves garlic, minced8 g
2 tbsp tomato paste33 g
2 tbsp all-purpose flour15 g
1 1/4 cups beef broth300 g
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce15 g
1 cup cooked frozen green peas150 g
1/2 tsp dried thyme1 g

1 1/4 tsp salt7 g
3/4 tsp black pepper2 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender; mash with the butter and warm milk. Season and set aside.
Brown the beef hard, then soften the onion and carrot in it. Garlic, tomato paste and flour for a minute — fry the paste until it darkens.
Broth, worcestershire and thyme; simmer 5 minutes into gravy, then fold in the peas.
Filling into a baking dish, mash on top, furrows dragged with a fork (the ridges are what browns). 200°C for 25 minutes until golden at the peaks. Rest 10 minutes.

Shepherd's or cottage pie?

Lamb makes it shepherd's; beef technically makes this cottage pie. America calls both shepherd's pie, the dish forgives, and the search traffic agrees — that's the name people actually look for.

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

25% of kcal

74% water

11 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2659 kcal goes into the pot, 2506 g of ingredients comes out as ~2000 g of food → 133 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 133
Protein: (25%); 8 g
Fat: (39%); 6 g
Carbohydrates: (36%); 12 g
of which sugar: 2 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 255 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

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Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.