This is the heartiest and most delicious Whole30 paleo shepherd's pie you'll ever try. This warm and comforting recipe is full of nutrient dense veggies and topped off with a creamy sweet potato mash. It is gluten free, dairy free, paleo, and Whole30.
Just wanted to let you know this fabulous recipe is sponsored by my friends at Lindsay Olives!
Why is paleo shepherd's pie the best?
This dish is one of my favorite and most comforting meals ever. It is warm, hearty, and full of nutrient dense goodness.
There are so many reasons why this dish is so wonderful. I've tweaked it multiple times over the past few years, and I'm finally the happiest I've ever been with it.
- A perfect comfort meal for any time of the year. It's quite filling with plentiful sources of good quality carbs, protein, and fat.
- Meal prep goodness. It's wonderful reheated throughout the week.
- It's customizable. If you aren't into sweet potatoes, use white potatoes. If you want to use ground chicken or pork instead, you can!
- It is gluten free, dairy free, paleo, and Whole30 compliant.
What's inside this shepherd's pie recipe?
Inside the ground beef mixture, we have:
- Grass-fed ground beef
- Onions
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Red bell pepper
- Mushrooms
- Spices
- Bone broth
- Tomato paste
- Fish sauce
- Seasoning
The sweet potato mash is made with:
- Sweet potatoes
- Garlic cloves
- Coconut milk
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
This is one of my favorite dishes to make when I know I won't have time to cook the rest of the week. I'm notorious for eating it cold as well, and it is delicious.
It can be made in a cast iron pot or a ceramic pot, and it's going to be one of your go-to's after you try it for the first time.
Recipe substitutions and notes
- You can use ground chicken or pork instead of beef.
- White potatoes can be used in place of sweet potatoes.
- It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
You're going to absolutely love this paleo shepherd's pie, and I cannot wait for you to try it! Be sure to let me know if you get to trying it... your feedback means the world to me.
How to make paleo shepherd's pie
Melt the oil in a large enameled cast-iron pot or saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add onions and carrots. Stir fry for 5-7 minutes until onions are translucent. Add garlic cloves & stir frequently for 1 minute, making sure it does not burn. Mix in ground beef and sauté until it begins to turn brown, about 4-5 more minutes. Add in bell peppers and mushrooms and cover the pot.
Cook for another 10 minutes with the lid on, stirring every 5 minutes until the mushrooms begin to release water. Uncover and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add tomato paste, bone broth, fish sauce, and seasonings. Cook for 5 minutes and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Peel and cut into 1-inch pieces.
Bring cold water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the potatoes, garlic and 2 teaspoons of salt. Cook at a rolling simmer until potatoes are fork tender. This will take about 15 minutes.
Drain potatoes and garlic. Mash potatoes and garlic together or add to the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until creamy. Add in the coconut milk and mix in the olive oil. Taste for salt and pepper. Spread the potato mash over the meat mixture.
Bake for 10 minutes and let it cool for 10 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and a bit more of drizzled olive oil and serve.
More Whole30 recipes you'll love:
Whole30 Paleo Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
Ground Beef Layer
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or ghee
- ½ cup yellow onions diced
- 4 carrots diced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 red bell peppers diced
- 16 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 pounds grass-fed ground beef
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup bone broth- Find Here!
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon fish sauce
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
Sweet Potato Mash
- 2 pounds large sweet potatoes
- 8 garlic cloves peeled
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt to taste
- ¼ cup canned coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons California extra virgin olive oil
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
Ground Beef Mixture
- Melt the oil in a large enameled cast-iron pot or saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Add the onions and carrots. Stir fry for 5-7 minutes until onions are translucent. Add the garlic cloves and stir frequently for 1 minute, making sure it does not burn. Add in ground beef and sauté until it begins to turn brown, about 4-5 more minutes. Add in bell peppers and mushrooms and cover the pot. Cook for another 10 minutes with the lid on, stirring every 5 minutes until the mushrooms begin to release water. Uncover and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add tomato paste, bone broth, fish sauce, and seasonings. Cook for 5 minutes and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Sweet Potato Mash
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Peel and cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Bring cold water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the potatoes, garlic and 2 teaspoons of salt. Cook at a rolling simmer until potatoes are fork tender. This will take about 15 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and garlic. Mash potatoes and garlic together or add to the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until creamy. Add in the coconut milk and mix in the olive oil. Taste for salt and pepper. Spread the potato mash over the meat mixture.
- Bake for 10 minutes and let it cool for 10 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and a bit more of drizzled olive oil and serve.
Notes
- If you'd like to use a ground chicken or pork instead of the beef, you sure can!
- You can alternatively use russet potatoes, yukon gold or red potatoes for the mash topping.
- It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
We made this tonight. It seemed a bit liquidy after the meat layer was done cooking on the stove. After we put the sweet potato layer on top to put in the oven, we checked about 10 minutes in and the sweet potato layer and been completely overcome and covered by the meat layer. Was there some point at which we were supposed to have drained anything at all as pertains to the meat layer?
I did not have mushrooms so just added in extra veggies. This turned out AMAZING! The sweet potato mash on top is delicious on its own.
Right? So darn good. Such a comforting meal!
Great recipe. Made it twice (once without tomato paste.) Family thinks it is better without the tomato paste.
There’s so many variations of recipes on pinterest that finding the perfect one can be tricky. Tried this and loved it!! Froze some after making it and already deciding to take it out of the freezer and pop it back into oven, I’ll be munching on this one longer than I anticipated 😉
If we are prepping this to eat later, do we need to do the baking step?
Since everything is already cooked, and there’s nothing to crisp on top, just trying to understand why bake 🙂 (very new to cooking)
I don't ever rate recipes online, but I can't keep silent for this one. I have made this about four times and I now crave it. I didn't make it over the summer because I avoid heating the oven at all costs (live in the desert), but now that it's cooled down it's the first meal of the fall. Looooooove it!
This is a new family favorite! Followed the recipe exactly as she created it & WOW!! We were blown away by how delicious it was! Thank you!!
Is there anything you’d sub for fish sauce? My boyfriend is allergic which makes me sad because I love it as an ingredient!
You can skip it all together!
I've made this twice and both times it's been excellent. The second time I had some ostrich mince and it was oh so good. Thanks for this really great recipe.
You're so very welcome. I am happy you loved it- and OSTRICH? Oh my gosh, wow.
Just curious, what size staub did you use? I used the biggest skillet I had, cut the mushrooms in half and still had tons of liquid spilling over in my oven. Really tasty, though!
This was incredibly tasty. However the prep time is way off. It says 15 mins but it took me over two hours to get it ready to put in the oven!
So my Instacart shopper brought me purple yams instead of white sweet potatoes. Nevertheless, I persisted. Those things are thirsty, so I had to use more coconut milk, and to offset its natural sweetness I added some powdered ginger. It all came out beautifully, in spite of the purple. Will definitely make again.
That is so awesome!!! i would love to see what this looks like!
After searching various Shepherd Pie recipe's reading through this I think I'm going try tomorrow! Going to test roasting the potatoes and garlic first - then mashing together - thoughts? Also, thoughts on 1/2 potato 1/2 celery root to lower the sugar/carb?
On my, I'd say you got lucky with the purples, LOVE THEM, especially in my Coconut Curry Chicken!
RIGHT? I love purple sweet potatoes, too. Such a win!
Great recipe......but when ground beef or any other meat apart from Lamb is used its called Cottage Pie. Shepard's Pie is Lamb only hence { Shepard }
Just to clarify-you keep the fat from the ground beef in the pan and keep adding ingredients. Is that correct? Thanks!
Yes! 🙂
This sounds delicious! I am very eager to make it! Everything things sounds great, except, I am not a fan of mushrooms. Do you think the consistency would be okay if I obmitted them? Or would thst make it not turn out? Thank you!
You can absolutely skip the mushrooms... you can add another favorite veg of yours instead!
Same here , I'd rather not eat fungus, trying to avoid it and grains which can be high in fungal count, makes eating out difficult, due to health issues
Ahh, yes definitely skip the mushrooms if you need to. I'm sorry you are dealing with that!
I have the hardest time getting my kids to eat veggies but they gobbled this up and even had seconds! I will be making this again and again.
That makes me so, so happy to hear- yum! After all, aren't our kids usually the hardest to please? 😉 Would you mind rating the recipe within the recipe card? That helps me and other readers out tremendously. Thank you so, so much!
I would like to divide the recipe in half and freeze. Would you recommend cooking and then freezing?
I would, yes- that sounds ideal.
I made the potato mash and the ground beef and veg mixtures separately tonight and plan to combine them tomorrow before dinner. Should the ground meat mixture be pretty liquidy? I realize in the instructions it says to mix in the broth, fish sauce and tomato paste, stir it and set it aside which doesn’t leave any time to reduce the liquid- but will it cook out during the bake? Or is it meant to be that liquidy?
It should cook out during the bake. I loved the texture of the final product... let me know what you think!
Thanks! It did turn out really well. FYI in case anyone else is going to make it ahead- i added 15 degrees to the temp and 15 additional minutes to the baking time since it was coming from a cold temp instead of fresh off the stove. Also started covered when the timer went off, uncovered for 10 under the broiler.
Thanks for the recipe!
Looks amazing. My husband does not like sweet potatoes. Would regular potatoes be ok?
Absolutely!
What would you think about regular sweet potatoes in this dish?
I think it would come out fabulous!
Am I missing something or is the bake temp not in the instructions?
I'm SO sorry about that. It's 350... I added it!
Hi Monica, I don't see where it says to add the coconut milk so I just added it when I mashed the potatoes. Also, I don't see what temp the oven should be on when cooking for 30 mins? I guessed and did 375.
Thank you!
So sorry about that... I added it to the instructions. How was it?
What temperature do you bake the prepped pie at?
I totally forgot to include it. It's 350 and have updated it in the instructions!
Thanks!!!
Hi! Making this now looks delicious but I’m wondering if some items were accidentally left in the ground beef instructions...there are 2 different steps to cook the beef and it mentions peas and kale but those aren’t on the rest of the recipe. Thanks! Hope I make it correctly haha
Hi Maggie. I'm so sorry about that mixup. I've fixed the instructions! 🙂
Hi Monica. I went to make this recipe tonight and got thrown off by the instructions and random additions of ground ginger and fish sauce. Can you please post the correct recipe? I think my family would LOVE this!
Hi there. I'm not sure what you mean by the random additions. Those ingredients were put into the recipe with intention. If you do not like those flavors, you can leave them out, but I can't guarantee the results will be quite *as* delicious! Hope that makes sense 🙂
Just follow the recipe! The fish sauce and ginger made it phenomenal. We loved it in our household!
Right? Those two ingredients really make it!! Would you mind rating the recipe within the recipe card? That helps me and other readers out tremendously. Thank you so, so much!
Fish sauce puts the "ooh" in umami.