I used to LOVE the traditional shepards pie! I mean, talk about comfort food, right? Funny thing is – my mom never made it. It seemed like such an easy and cost effective meal to make but I didn’t even know the meal existed til I was in high school and a friends mom made it for dinner when I stayed over. From then on, I would find my way to the casserole dishes at church potlucks or gatherings to find this amazing goodness of food mixed all together! Once I moved out, it was pretty much a weekly thing.
Fast forwarding through all of my reasons I didn’t made this dish anymore (fat free diet, vegetarian, no carb, etc and so on) I find myself making it more and more these days. All you have to do is sub the cauliflower mash for potatoes (though I’ve made it with sweet potatoes and LOVED….and of course more paleo peeps are adding white potatoes back into their diets from time to time) and you’re pretty much good to go! I don’t eat peas which I found to be in most traditional pies so I sub other veggies like carrots and celery as I do in this recipe. I added celery because of the buffalo sauce factor. It’s a given that you eat celery along with hot wings so it just seemed to make sense to add it to this recipe and it was a good call! It’s a great combination.
I always say when making anything with a buffalo sauce, add a little lighter than called for and taste. You can always add more as you go but trying to remove is impossible. I like it spicy! But I also like to breathe so I find this to be right in that area ….but again, we are all different with our levels that we can handle so adjust accordingly.
Let me know what modifications, if any that you make. I would love to know and perhaps try for myself or share as someone else might need a modification that you have already tested out. Sharing is caring, right? Enjoy!
- 1 lb ground meat (I used bison), cooked
- Cauliflower head, cut into florets
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1/4-1/2 cup buffalo/spicy sauce*
- 2 tbsp ghee or butter
- Salt & Pepper
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- On a large sheet pan, lay carrots and cauliflower on their own sides & drizzle with coconut oil and sprinkle a little salt and pepper.
- Bake for 15 minutes. At 15 min mark, use a spatula to take out carrots. Roast the cauliflower another 10 minutes after tossing.
- Brown your ground meat if not already cooked while cauliflower is finishing up. Drain any grease.
- Once cauliflower is done, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Take cauliflower and put into blender with almond milk, ghee/butter, buffalo sauce (*add 1/4 cup and taste after whirling up ....add more for desired spice level) and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Whip to a creamy texture.
- Using a medium sized baking dish, lay meat, carrots and celery on bottom, 2 heaping tablespoons of the caulimash and mix ...then spread spread throughout dish. Take the rest of the cauliflower mash and cover meat mixture and spread/smooth over top to cover evenly.
- Bake to warm through for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
