This is a little different from how I usually make shepherds pie, but I had some mince meat so I decided to use it up and just added whatever I could find in the cupboard and fridge to make it. Feel free to add more veg and adjust for your tastes and what you have. I usually add carrot as well but I didn’t have any, I have also added corn before, so you can see that you can play around with the ingredients.

Ingredients

900g Ground beef
Olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 Cloves Garlic, curshed
1 Cup milk
1 Teaspoons mixed Italian herbs
2-3 Tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 Teaspoons beef stock powder
11/2 Cup’s frozen peas
4-5 Tablespoons bisto gravy granules
4 Cups potatoes, mashed (I mash mine with butter and milk)
11/2 Cups gruyere cheese, grated (A good cheddar would be fine we just don’t get very tasty ones here in Switzerland as you can imagine because of all our awesome mountain cheeses.)
1 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add onion and garlic, cook until onion softens

3. Add beef and brown stirring every couple of minutes.

4. Add milk, herbs, ketchup and stock, bring to a boil.

5. Add peas and gravy granules, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, if it becomes too thick just add a little water. (Add any other vegetables at this time as well. See note above for explanation.)

6. Place meat mixture in a large casserole dish.

7. Mix half the cheese and parsley with the potatoes and spread over the meat and vegetable mixture.

8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese over the top

9. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until browned and bubbly, (I have listed the difference in cooking times because of varying oven temperatures.

Serves 6

All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.