Paleo Shepherd's Pie

Recipe: Tourtière-Inspired Shepherd’s Pie

Tourtière is a French Canadian meat pie that my mom used to make when I was a girl.  It is traditionally made with ground pork, but over the years I’ve experimented with different combinations of meat.  I really like to use half poultry (chicken or turkey) and half red meat (for the one in the photo, I used a combination of pork and grass-fed bison, but this would be a great place to break out the grass-fed beef!).  The idea for turning what is supposed to be the meat pie filling into the base of a Shepherd’s Pie was borne out of my recent avoidance of nuts (and most paleo pie crusts are almond flour based).  It creates a truly delicious and comforting dish, perfect for a dreary winter day!  Serves 6-8.

 Ingredients (base):

4 lbs ground meat (try half poultry and half red meat)

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

5-6 stalks of celery, finely chopped

1 generous sprig of fresh rosemary (think 2-3 Tbsp)

4 bay leaves

8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped

1/3 cup arrowroot powder

1 tsp salt, to taste

1.    Brown the meat with onions, celery, rosemary and bay leaves in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Don’t drain the fat off the meat (But, if using a combination of conventional and grass-fed meat, you could brown the conventional meat first, drain the fat, then add the grass-fed meat). 

2.    Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms and celery are nice and soft, stirring occasionally, probably an extra 10-15 minutes after the meat is fully cooked.

3.    Add the salt to taste.  Add the arrowroot powder, stir in well, cook for 3-4 minutes then remove from heat.

4.    Remove the bay leaves and stem from the rosemary, Pour all of the meat mixture into a 9”x13” deep casserole dish or lasagna pan.  Pat down well with the back of a spoon or metal spatula.

Ingredients (top):

1½ heads of cauliflower

2 Tbsp of grass-fed butter or tallow (you could use coconut oil too)

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp salt, to taste

1.    Steam cauliflower in a large pot with about an inch of salted water in the bottom.  Cook until very soft, about 20 minutes.

2.    Drain cauliflower completely.  Return to pot and blend with an immersion blender or mash very well with a potato masher. 

3.    Add cooking fat, garlic powder and salt and stir to combine. 

To Assemble:

1.    Preheat oven to 375F.

2.    Spread cauliflower mix evenly over bottom layer in casserole dish.

3.    Bake for 35-40 minutes, until cauliflower is starting to brown and bubble around the sides. 

Let rest for 10 minutes before eating.