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Healthy Shepherd's Pie is a low calorie recipe that's lower in carbs, high in protein and fiber. Made with a delicious roasted garlic cauliflower top and a lighter filling a for a filling and comforting winter meal. Low Calorie + Gluten Free
Shepherd's Pie also known as cottage pie is traditionally made with ground beef and mashed potatoes.
This healthy version of Shepherd's Pie is made with ground turkey and mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes for a lighter shepherd's pie recipe that's filling and comforting!
I hope you will love this hearty recipe as much as I do!
What Makes This Shepherd's Pie Better For You
- Lower Carbs - This recipe swaps potatoes for mashed cauliflower to make it lower carb. Potatoes are a healthy food and I believe there is a place for potatoes in a weight loss diet, but I also believe in sneaking in vegetables as much as possible. You can't taste the cauliflower in this recipe at all!
- Lower Fat - The recipe uses 93% ground turkey making it much lower in fat and better for you than the traditional version.
- High Fiber - In my free weight loss class, I explain the importance of high fiber foods for weight loss. This recipe is 7 grams per serving. That's a great amount!
- Gluten Free - All the ingredients in the recipe are naturally gluten free.
- Lower Calories - This recipe is 342 calorie per serving (about 1-1/2 cups). Each serving is a LOT of food and is high volume - i.e. low calories for a lot of food.
Ingredients For Low Carb Shepherd's Pie
Here's what you need for making this lightened up shepherd's pie!
- Garlic Roasted Cauliflower Mash
- Ground turkey, 93% lean (I got mine from ButcherBox)
- Carrots
- Celery
- Onion
- Garlic
- Tomato paste
- Chicken broth
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Peas
- Salt & Pepper
You will also need a large skillet, spatula and large baking dish.
How To Make Shepherd's Pie Low Calorie
Making a shepherd's pie that's healthy is easy and I have a few tricks to make it even easier for you too!
Step one is making the roasted garlic cauliflower mash. If you can, make this ahead of time. That way, all you have to do is add it to the top of the pie before baking. Breaking up the steps is one of my hacks to make cooking a healthy meal easier!
Step two is making the filling. Start by cooking the veggies, olive oil, salt and pepper together in a large skillet. Another hack to reduce time is to pulse the veggies in a blender to chop them!
Once the veggies are slightly softened, add the ground turkey to the skillet breaking it up with a spatula while it cooks. Add the tomato paste and broth. Bring to a boil then once it is boiling reduce the heat. Stir in the thyme, rosemary and frozen peas.
Transfer the filling to a large baking dish then add the cauliflower mash on top of it. Bake 20-25 minutes in the oven then serve!
Can You Make Shepherd's Pie Ahead Of Time
You can prep this entire recipe ahead of time (i.e. on the weekend), store in a baking dish covered in the refrigerator then pop in the oven and bake right before dinner!
Or you can always make the entire dish start to finish and reheat for meals!
How To Store Shepherd's Pie
Store the shepherd's pie in a container in the refrigerator up to 7 days. You can reheat in a microwave or in the oven.
Can you freeze shepherd's pie? Yes! You can freeze it in a container up to 30 days. To eat, thaw it the night before in the refrigerator before baking in the oven.
Substitutions For Making Shepherd's Pie
Here are substitutions I recommend for your healthy shepherd's pie. Remember that making substitutions does change the nutrition data from what you see below.
- Ground Turkey - Any ground meat will work in this recipe like ground chicken or ground beef. If using ground beef, I recommend using lean ground beef; however, I DO NOT recommend using 99% lean ground turkey. This recipe does need the fat to give it flavor!
- Chicken Broth - You can substitute chicken stock, beef stock, vegetable broth or beef broth. I recommend using one with no salt added or low in sodium.
- Cauliflower Mash - You can't taste cauliflower in this recipe at all, but if you need to substitute it you could do a parsnip mash, butternut mash or a mashed sweet potato (cook the sweet potato and mash!).
- Spices - You can omit the spices or swap with dried parsley.
- Dairy Free - The recipe is dairy free.
- Gluten Free - The recipe is gluten free.
- Paleo - Omit the peas.
Healthy Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
- 1 batch roasted garlic cauliflower mash
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup carrots diced
- 3/4 cup celery diced
- 1/2 cup white onion diced
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- 1 lb ground turkey 93% lean
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 cup peas frozen
- 1 cup chicken broth low sodium or no salt added
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon rosemary
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the roasted garlic cauliflower mash according to the instructions.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Bring a large skillet to medium heat. Add the olive oil, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Satue 7 minutes or until almost softened. Add the ground turkey breaking it up with a saptula while it cooks approximately 7-8 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and broth. Bring to a boil then once it is boiling turn off the heat.
- Add the rosemary, thyme and peas. Stir to combine then transfer the mixture to a large baking dish and top with the prepared roasted garlic cauliflower mash in an even layer.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until the pie is lightly browned around the edges.
- Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator up to 7 days. May be stored in the freezer up to 30 days.
Notes
- Each serving is approximately 1 1/2 cups
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those that used for this recipe and that I recommend to my weight loss clients.
- If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my cookbook for more delicious recipes.
Nutrition
What I Used For The Recipe
This is so far one of the best recipes I've tried on your site. Our entire family loved it.
This recipe is pure comfort food. Hard to believe it's healthy and lower in calories. Thank you for creating this!
This recipe is an absolute hit! My husband (who usually hates both cauliflower and ground turkey) requests for me to make this regularly. I like to spice it up a bit, but that's the only alteration I make! Thank you for this post!
This is my favorite recipe. Shepherds Pie is a recipe that covers most the necessary food groups in such a tasty way. I removed the rosemary (personally don’t like) added some cheese to the top. Reheats so well; so yummy!!!
Recipe was really good for being healthy! We used local grass fed beef- and I sprinkled a bit of cheese on top 🙂 I also added in a tiny dollop of cream cheese in the Cauli Mash. It was a hit for my Irish FIL and Uncle who used to live in London!