I would like to apologize, I promised this would be coming soon quite a few weeks ago! I hope it was worth the wait. I know I mentioned this in my October Favorites post, but I am loving winter squash this year! This recipe calls for 2 sweet potatoes, but I actually used 1 sweet potato and 1 acorn squash the last time that I made it and it was delicious! So try something new, go crazy!

This shepherd’s pie is a fun spin on the traditional and you know I definitely prefer the sweet potato to regular potatoes! And I’ve never liked peas, so I kicked them out! But feel free to add your own! Maybe the best thing about this shepherd’s pie is that if you have a cast iron skillet (or oven safe skillet), it’s a one dish meal. Which means less clean up! Amen.

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 6

cooking fat of choice

1 lb grass-fed ground beef

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1/4 c tomato paste or tomato sauce (I used leftover homemade sauce)

1/2 tsp cumin

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 medium sweet potatoes, cooked

2 tbsp Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil 

1 tbsp Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate (optional)

1. In a cast iron skillet heat your cooking fat. Sauté onions and peppers and garlic until cooked through. Add the ground beef, cumin, sea salt and black pepper and cook through (you can set the veggies aside in a bowl if the beef isn’t cooking, I know…one more dish).

2. Preheat the oven to 350°.

3. Add the veggies back in if you took them out and add the tomato paste or sauce. Stir all the ingredients together and let them simmer while you prepare the sweet potato.

4. Add cooked sweet potato without the skin (or any kind of winter squash), a dash of sea salt and the coconut oil and cream concentrate to a food processor and blend until smooth. You can also do this with a beater in a bowl. You want the consistency of thick mashed potatoes — you may need to add more or less oil or concentrate. The coconut cream concentrate helps to thicken it up.

5. Add the sweet potato mixture to the skillet and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Stick in all in the oven and bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until the top starts to brown a little bit!

Enjoy!

I like to add it in dollops and then spread it out!

The fun part about making it in a skillet is that you can serve it like pie!

[If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you.]