Cottage Pie with Roasted Garlic Mashers

I grew up calling this dish "Shepherd's Pie"...but, since I use beef (not lamb) it is technically called "Cottage Pie".  It's nothing fancy or special, but it tastes like my childhood and my family and I love it.  It is THE ultimate comfort food on a cold winter night. :)

INGREDIENTS:

Meat/Veggies Mixture:

2 lbs lean hamburger

2 tbsp olive oil

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 carrots, peeled and grated

1 red pepper, chopped

1 bag of frozen sweet corn, thawed

seasoned salt, to taste (click here recipe for homemade msg-free seasoned salt)

pepper, to taste

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

4 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

2.5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes

1/2 cup butter (DF: butter is the only dairy I am permitted to have, so that's what I use.  If you can't have butter, you can substitute dairy-free margarine, such as Nucoa)

1 cup milk (DF: plain coconut milk, I use So-Delicious plain coconut milk)

salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Turn oven to 350 degrees.  

Peel, chop, cover potatoes with water.  Add 2 tsp of salt and bring to a boil.

In a small glass dish, put a piece of foil down and top with 4 garlic cloves drizzled with olive oil.  Fold the foil so it creates a "pouch" in the center of the dish.  Roast garlic for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

While waiting on the potatoes and garlic, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add onions, carrots, red pepper and corn and cook until soft and most of the moisture is rendered.  (Undercooking the veggies will result in a watery meat mixture after the cottage pie is baked, so be sure to render as much of the moisture as possible.)  Remove veggies from pan and set aside.  In the same pan, crumble fry the ground beef, add seasoned salt and pepper to taste.  Drain beef.  Add the cooked veggies back into with the beef, stir to combine and set aside.

Remove the roasted garlic and mash with fork.  

When the potatoes are fork tender, strain and return them to the pot.  Add butter (or dairy-free margarine), roasted garlic mash and milk (or coconut milk) and mash with potato masher or handheld mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Scoop garlic mashed potatoes over meat/veggie mixture and smooth with spatula.  If desired, sprinkle with seasoned salt to add a splash of color and create a delicious potato crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

A simple, yet heartwarming dish that fills the belly and comforts the soul. :)  ENJOY!