Classic Shepherd’s Pie with Parsnip Mash

My grandmother lived in England during the Second World War and through food rationing that continued into the 1950s, long after the war had ended. She also had four children in that decade or thereabouts, so it’s perhaps completely unsurprising that she could make a meal out of seemingly nothing, never wasted a damn thing in her own kitchen and apparently only seemed to write down recipes that weren’t her own.

Which means that although I vividly remember that her Shepherd’s Pie recipe was different to everyone else’s, I’m not exactly sure why that was true. Could have been one little twist, or it could have been a whole host of sneaky secret ingredients. But! The one trick of hers that somehow sunk its way into my pre-teen brain was that she always threw a parsnip or two into the mashed potato topping.

The earthy sweetness and complexity of parsnips was completely delicious and set her Shepherd’s Pie apart in my mind and that’s what I’ve tried to replicate here in my own AIP and nightshade free take on the classic recipe. Here, I’ve used a blend of starchier, white sweet potatoes and parsnips.

Not only is it completely delicious and comfort-food-worthy, the boost of flavor from the parsnips help this dish stand on its own, rather than having a white sweet potato only topping that, to me, usually just reminds me that I’m missing out on real spuds.

Shepherd’s Pie is a pretty forgiving and easily adapted recipe, so other than the topping, there’s not much to miss out on in the traditional versions of the recipe vs the nightshade free adaptation. Since I couldn’t use the usual tomato paste (and sometimes Worcestershire sauce, depending on different regional variations and grandmas!), I boosted umami with a combination of red wine vinegar and a splash of coconut aminos.

If you want to make this totally coconut product free, you can easily omit the coconut aminos or add a teaspoon or so of gluten free fish sauce instead.

You can whip up this Shepherd’s Pie in any casserole or baking dish you like, but I like to brown the beef, cook the veggies and bake the whole thing then serve it at the table in the same 12 inch cast iron skillet. Fewer dishes is winning, right?

The trick I use here to thicken up the gravy and give the Shepherd’s Pie filling a nice, soft (and totally non-watery!) texture without needing to use flours is pretty simple. But sneaky! I’ll make up the mashed vegetable topping, then blend some of that into the beef broth that gets added to the browned meat mixture before baking. Sounds weird, makes total sense once you’ve tried it. I use the same immersion blender I already dirtied up making the mash because, again, why make more mess than you need to?

Yes, an immersion blender is the easiest, least messy way to make up the Shepherd’s Pie topping. I drain the vegetables, let them cool, then whizz them up in the same saucepan I used to boil them. It makes for a smooth but not over processed mash like the food processor can give you. I was skeptical the first time I tried this method out, but it works. (If you can’t find white sweet potatoes where you live, I think a scaled up version of my Herbed Whipped Parsnips would work nicely here!)

To finish off the Shepherd’s Pie with a little extra color, I popped it under the broiler. This is totally optional and you’ll want to watch it carefully if you do so, because the natural sugars in the vegetables will go from browned to burned very quickly!

I honestly have a love hate relationship with my broiler. I was about 0.0002 seconds away from burning this bad boy because it runs so freaking hot. In the same vein, remind me to tell you the story of how I ruined a perfectly good oven while working on my cookbook. It involved crisping up some chicken, the aforementioned broiler and a whole mess of on-fire chicken skin. Yup, I burn stuff, too, especially when I’m stressed out my mind…

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