Give a healthy spin in your traditional shepherd’s pie recipe by making it with mashed cauliflower. This Mashed Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie is very filling, low-carb, gluten-free, paleo-friendly and the most important very DELICIOUS!
I’m writing this post in a hotel bed at 5:30 am before leaving to visit more beautiful places in Montevideo, Uruguay. We are here with two friends on vacation until Friday and after that, we are heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina. So far we are loving everything we’ve seen and visited. Montevideo is a great place to visit because it’s the safest city in South America, has lots of green areas to spend time with your kids, the traffic in the city is very smooth, people are extremely polite and, of course, the food is AH-mazing! If you like beef, pork, chicken, and seafood it’s the place to visit. Also, the dulce de leche and the alfajores are to die for. I can’t even count how many of these I ate already (oops… it was supposed to be a secret… lol). Anyway… We are all amazed by this city! Soon I’ll be writing a blog post with more detail about our trip. Please, stay tuned!
And speaking of delicious foods, what about making this low-carb and paleo-friendly Mashed Cauliflower Shepherd’s pie to warm up your home and make it smell good?! I am sure you will love this recipe!
This is similar to a traditional Shepherd’s Pie, just with a little change of the potatoes to cauliflower. If you’ve already made mashed cauliflower before, you know it is as flavorful as mashed potatoes and it makes a great combo with the ground turkey filling as well. See my previous post where I shared my Shrimp Cauliflower Mash Bowl if you don’t believe me! I didn’t add cheese or butter on the top because I wanted to make it as healthy as possible, but you can add it if you want.
This is the perfect fall meal to enjoy with your family sitting around the table while talking about your day. Isn’t it awesome when you can fill your family with a healthy meal and they all can all enjoy? This shepherd’s pie is perfect for that. This is also low-carb, gluten-free, paleo-friendly, and YUMMY!
Want some more non-traditional pie recipes? Try my Blender Brazilian Shrimp Pie or this Gluten-free No Bake Peanut Butter Pie for dessert!
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Mashed Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
For the Cauliflower
- 1 large head cauliflower cut up into florets
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- Salt and pepper
For the filling
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion chopped
- 3 carrots chopped
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup peas
- 1/2 cup can of corn drained
- 1 teaspoon thyme
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a big pot, bring water to a boil and add cauliflower.
- Cook until tender.
- Drain in a colander.
- Place the cooked cauliflower in a food processor, add 1 tbsp olive oil and garlic and blend until smooth.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high and sauté onions until translucent.
- Add carrots, salt, and pepper. Cook until softened.
- Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
- Add the ground turkey and use a wooden spoon to break up into chunks and cook until it is not pink anymore.
- Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and ½ cup chicken broth.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer and stir occasionally for 10 minutes.
- Add peas, corn, and thyme. Stir well to combine and cook for two minutes.
- Once the mixture has thickened, give it a taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Spread the mashed cauliflower over the turkey mixture.
- Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the edges of the mashed cauliflower are browned.
- Rest the pie for about 15 minutes before serving.
Tips
- Feel free to swap the ground turkey for another ground meat such as ground beef.
- When buying the cauliflower, make sure the head is firm, tight, and do not have yellow patches.
- If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, you can transfer everything into a casserole baking dish.
- To store: Store leftover shepherd’s pie in the fridge tightly wrapped for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: You can reheat leftovers in the oven or microwave.
- To freeze: You can tightly wrap up the mashed cauliflower shepherd’s pie and freeze it for up to 2 months. As usual, make sure the dish is at room temperature before freezing. If you plan on freezing the whole casserole, I recommend baking it in a foil pan as they’re much lighter to freeze.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.
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One more Shepherd’s Pie recipe!
Julia Mueller says
WOWSAHS this shepherd’s pie looks absolutely amazing!!! I love Shepherd’s pie and haven’t yet made it using mashed cauliflower. Definitely on my To Make List asap! Have a marvelous, safe trip, m’dear!
Olivia says
Thanks a lot, Ju! You should try this recipe with cauliflower, friend! I am sure you will love it 😉
Katie says
This recipe is fantastic! There are a few ways to mash cauliflower. I should have prepared the inside of the pie then while the turkey cooked I could have multitasked the cauliflower. Another method is to rice it first while raw, then microwave with some water an stir or place back in the food processor. Mashed cauliflower is always quite the process no matter how you go about it! I do love this healthy recipe and that thyme made an appearance as the star of the show spice! I have 4 minutes left as this bakes in the oven and I can’t wait to try it. Do you have any storage tips? Will this store and reheat well? Thank you for the recipe!
Sarah says
This looks amazing…..BUT I can’t eat nughtshades. Anything at all that could be used instead of the tomatoes, or should I just skip this recipe? 🙁
Sandy says
Did you get a response I can’t have the tomato stuff either
Olivia says
Hi, Sarah and Sandy. I’ve never made this recipe without tomato sauce, but I think it would go really well with red bell pepper. Here is a recipe that I love http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/red-bell-pepper-sauce-107506
Jen Sorochinsky says
Peppers are also nightshades. I’m making this without the tomatoes also and just leaving them out. I bet a “NoMato” sauce would work well in its place though
Deb says
Try making a gravy out of chicken broth and corn starch in place of the tomato sauce. I think it would be fine. Maybe better.
Diane P says
Made this last night, and it came out SO good! Omitted the tomato paste because I didn’t have any in my kitchen, and just added more tomato sauce. I also added a bit more peas than suggested, because I love peas. Cauliflower mashed is honestly one of my new favorites. Would definitely make again!
Olivia says
Amazing! Cauliflower mashed is one of my favourites too 😉
Braxton says
So excited to try this recipe! I am wonder what size of pan did you use and how big was each of your “6 servings”? Do you think it would be ok to use the frozencauliflower mashed potatoes for the topping instead?
Olivia says
I’ve never used frozen cauliflower mashed potato, but I think it would work. I used a 8-Inch Logic Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet. And it serves very well 4-6 people.
Kim says
This was quite tasty. Is there nutritional information for this recipe?
Olivia says
Thanks. I just added the nutritional information on the recipe box for you.
Mac says
OH MAN. This recipe is near and dear to my heart and stomach. I’ve followed it quite a few times and love it so much that I wanted to make sure I left a review.
Things I tweaked: I swapped the turkey for ground beef (love the turkey version too though!) and doubled the cauliflower ( I love mashed cauliflower and 1 head is never enough for me & my partner!).
It does take quite a bit of prep work so if you have time the night before to cut carrots/onions & prepare the cauliflower mash, it will be a quick set-up for the following day.
Thank you so much for sharing such a delightful recipe 🙂
Olivia says
So happy yo read your review, Mac. I appreciate it 😉
Sandra (guest) says
Looks like there is a lot of water in the bottom of the skillet. Perhaps the cauliflower caused this??
Olivia says
Probably. Did you follow exactly the instructions?