Shepherd's Pie with no potatoes?

Yes, I know, it's almost a sin to have no potatoes on Shepherd's Pie, but we're trying super hard to avoid white potatoes, rice, sugar...you know the horrible white stuff that's not great for us.

So, I found a recipe that substitutes the mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower. Sounds weird, right? Well, I've had mashed cauliflower before and it wasn't horrible, so I figured I'd give it a go. I adapted the recipe I found, but wanted to provide a link to it, so you could see the original. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/shepherds-pie/

Here's how I changed it.

1 head cauliflower

1 minced garlic clove

salt & pepper

olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup fresh, chopped carrots blanched

1 cup fresh green beans (trimmed) blanched

1 cup frozen peas

1 pound ground venison (any lean meat is fine, just make sure it's organic at the very least)

1 tablespoon of white, yes white, flour (I just haven't had a chance to get any almond flour yet!)

3/4 cup beef broth (make your own if possible)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 tablespoons butter (real butter...none of the fake stuff!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Break/chop cauliflower and steam until tender (I think I steamed for about 10 or so minutes)

Put in food processor with garlic until smooth. Salt/pepper to taste (I omitted the 2 tablespoons butter from the original recipe because it calls for 2 tablespoons at the end, but I'll definitely add it to this step next time)

Heat oil in skillet over medium to medium low heat

Add onion and saute until soft

Add venison and brow

Add peas, carrots and green beans and cook for five minutes

Stir in flour

Add broth, herbs, salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about 5 minutes (stir occasionally)

Put mixture into baking dish and spread cauliflower on top.

Put the 2 tablespoons of butter on top (cut it into small cubes)

Bake 30-35 minutes

This was surprisingly good! I wish I would have add 1/2 more onion, another head of cauliflower for the mash on top (with another clove or two of garlic), butter for the mashed cauliflower, but all in all definitely very good!

I chose to use fresh veggies instead of frozen because I like my veggies to be firm and was afaid the frozen would be too mushy, but frozen is definitely a great way to go to make this a easy meal to prepare!

It was great leftover too! I have to admit, the mashed cauliflower looks kind of weird leftover, but tastes just the same as the night before.