Whitechapel Shepard’s Pie

Details:
My boyfriend had given me some lamb meat so I looked for a recipe that I could use it in. I have never tried lamb before so I wasn’t really sure how it was going to taste. I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. I chopped up the vegetables and made the mashed potatoes in the morning before work and had them in containers in the fridge for when I got home to save on time. I forgot to put in the peas, so now I have a bag of peas in my freezer that I don’t know what to do with haha. Also I used Mozeralla cheese instead of Parmesan because that’s what I had on hand. I had to look up what a parsnip and rutabaga looked like so I would know what to look for in the store. 😛 I have an older stove so I baked it for a little bit longer than the recipe called for to try and brown the top although it didn’t get brown at all. The vegetables should have been cooked longer. Most of them were still hard with a few soft ones. I think it would have tasted better if they were all soft. And next time I would also use more Tomato Sauce. Overall, it was a lot of work for not much flavor.

Ingredients:
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
1 small rutabaga, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup frozen green peas
1 pound ground lamb
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 cup milk, or as needed
3 cups prepared mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place the celery, carrots, parsnip, rutabaga, and peas into a large saucepan and fill with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and steam for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, crumble the ground lamb into a large skillet set over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until lamb is no longer pink. Drain off any grease.

Stir in the steamed vegetables and tomato sauce. Season with salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Transfer everything to a greased 7×11 inch baking dish.

Mix enough milk into the mashed potatoes to make them spreadable. Spread them over the top of the casserole and garnish with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is browned and the casserole is heated through.