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Paleo Shepherd’s Pie {Whole30, Dairy Free}

Whole 30 Nut Free Egg Free No Added Sugar

This Paleo Shepherd’s Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It’s Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

Is there anything better on a cold winter night than a cozy, comforting and CRAZY delicious shepherd’s pie?!  Yes – a cozy, comforting, crazy delicious paleo and Whole30 shepherd’s pie.

Trust me, things are about to get better, even if you thought you were doing just fine without this recipe in your life.

Dramatic?  I know – but I’m just really excited to share this highly- anticipated recipe with all of you.

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

Admittedly, some of my excitement is relief, since I basically tortured myself making decisions about this recipe.  What veggies to use?  What should I cook it in?  White potatoes for the topping?  Sweet potatoes?  Or toss the potatoes and go with a lower carb topping?

It gets pretty intense sometimes with recipe creation over here.  It really just ME, having a brainstorming meeting with ME, shooting down all of my own ideas as they pop up.  Super fun, I assure you.  But, really, sometimes I’m not sure how anything ever gets done.

Spoiler alert – I went with chopped carrots, and brussels sprouts, a cast iron skillet, and white potatoes – YES – white potatoes.   In all their starchy-delicious glory.

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

Even though white potatoes have been Whole30 compliant for quite a long time now, I still get questions about whether or not they’re paleo, and my answer to that, is, well, they are to me.

There seems to be much confusion about potatoes (I recently had someone ask me why I post potato recipes if they contain gluten.  Face to forehead for that one, eek.).

Now, not everyone who begins eating paleo should eat potatoes – based on their own personal health circumstances, goals, preferences, etc.  And yes, that can be said for plenty of other foods that are both paleo and Whole30 compliant, of course – because we all have individual needs.

As for me, I have no problem eating white potatoes, and though I wouldn’t say I eat a ton of them (greens, roasted sweet potatoes and plantains are my staples) I like to include them in recipes where I feel they belong.

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

They made a dang good topping for my shepherd’s pie – even without the butter, milk, and cheese to help out (don’t worry, we have replacements!)

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

As for the filling, it’s a heart mixture of grass fed ground beef, my personal favorite veggies (you can sub in your faves!) onions, garlic, a bit of tomato paste, broth, and fresh savory herbs.

It’s an incredibly easy recipe to put together, though it is time consuming due to making the mashed potatoes, and then baking everything together.

To cut down on time, you can prep many of the ingredients ahead (including cooking the potatoes!) and then simply cook the beef mixture and spread the potatoes on top right before baking.

I know you’ll love this one guys!   Are you ready to get started?  Let’s cook!

Paleo Shepherd’s Pie {Whole30, Dairy Free}

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

Paleo Shepherd's Pie {Whole30, Dairy Free}

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  
Author: Michele
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Paleo and Whole30
Servings: 8
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4.75 from 24 votes

Ingredients

Beef Mixture:

  • 1 tbsp ghee for cooking
  • 1 1/2 lbs grass fed ground beef
  • Sea salt and pepper (for seasoning beef
  • 1 cup carrots diced
  • 1 1/2 cup Brussels sprouts chopped
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • sprinkle of sea salt for veggies
  • 3/4 cup beef or chicken bone broth
  • 2 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp fresh minced thyme
  • 1 tsp fresh minced rosemary

Mashed Potatoes:

Instructions

Prepare the potatoes:

  1. Heat a 3 quart pot with water, sprinkle with salt and bring to a boil. Add 2” potato pieces to the boiling water, and cook until very soft
  2. Drain the potatoes and return to the pot. Set heat to low and add the ghee and coconut milk. Mash with a potato masher over very low heat, once smooth, turn heat off and add nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. If you want your potatoes really creamy, you can use an immersion blender at this point (I just put mine right in the pot.)

Prepare beef mixture and assemble/bake pie:

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

  2. In a deep oven proof skillet* (mine was 10”, add beef to skillet and sprinkle with sea salt. Brown beef over med/hi heat breaking up lumps with spoon. remove from skillet to a plate with slotted spoon and set aside.

  3. Adjust heat to medium and add Brussels sprouts and carrots to skillet, stir to coat and cook about 2 minutes, then add onions and cook until softened. Add garlic and sprinkle veggies with a bit of sea salt, stir, then cover the skillet briefly to soften carrots until fork tender, if necessary.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients for the beef mixture to the skillet, stir to combine, then return beef to skillet and stir to coat, simmer for 2 minutes or so to thicken the sauce and blend flavors.
  5. Spread all the mashed potatoes over the beef mixture and use a spoon or spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with parsley, then place skillet on a large baking sheet (to catch any bubbling sauce) and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and top begins to turn light brown.
  6. Remove from oven, allow to sit about 10 minutes before serving hot. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

*If you don't have an oven proof skillet, you can use a casserole dish instead to bake your shepherd's pie - cook beef mixture in a skillet and then transfer mixture to casserole dish once done cooking; spread mashed potatoes over the top and bake as instructed.

Nutrition

Calories: 407kcal
Fat: 24g
Saturated fat: 13g
Cholesterol: 77mg
Sodium: 127mg
Potassium: 978mg
Carbohydrates: 26g
Fiber: 3g
Sugar: 2g
Protein: 21g
Vitamin A: 57.5%
Vitamin C: 28.6%
Calcium: 4.9%
Iron: 21.9%

Did you make this recipe?

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What I Used To Make My Whole30 Paleo Shepherd’s Pie:

This Shepherd's Pie is classic, cozy comfort food for cold winter days!  It's paleo and Whole30 compliant, dairy free and kid approved.  A flavorful, hearty ground beef mixture is topped with creamy dairy-free mashed potatoes, and baked until golden brown and bubbling.  

Want More Whole30 Dinner Recipes?  Try One of These!

Slow Cooker Meatballs and Marinara Sauce

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili with White Sweet Potatoes

Crispy Paleo Chicken Cutlets

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

Easy Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Easy Pumpkin Beef Chili

Classic Meatloaf with Whole30 Ketchup

Walnut Crusted Turkey Cutlets with “Honey” Mustard

Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Paleo Running Momma!

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Reader Interactions

Reader Reviews & Comments

  1. What would you use in place of coconut milk? I find all the paleo recipes where they say you won’t taste the coconut aren’t honesty reported. I always taste the coconut and find myself throwing out meal after meal which is just a waste of good food and money.

    Reply


  2. This was super good! It’s now in my recipe binder. Only change I made was adding half a container of kite hill dairy-free cream cheese. Thank you for the recipe!

    Reply

  5. I would love to know a sub for the coconut milk that works well in heat. My son is allergic to coconut and we are both allergic to dairy. I have used different brands of almond milk in recipes like this and when you heat the meal in the oven (for casseroles,etc) the almond milk seems to just fall apart chemically and make the dish watery. Got any suggestions? Thanks!

    Reply


    • While this looks like a delicious recipe, it is not a keto diet recipe at all. Unless you sub the potato for cauliflower mash, use more butter and less meat. 1/8 of 2 1/2 lb of russet potatoes is not ketogenic. Be careful of recipes on line that claim to be keto (not this one since there is no claim it is Keto).

      Reply

      • That would be like saying this recipe is definitely not vegan. Nowhere did it say it was a keto recipe, so why bother pointing out the obvious?

        Reply

        • because someone said that she was going to add it to her list of keto recipes. so she was just telling her that it wasn’t a keto recipe!

          Reply


  7. Made this for last night’s supper. My husband and I loved it. My mother took one bite and refused to eat it but then she complains about everything. I like it well enough to be happy to eat the leftovers and I used grass fed ground beef! This is not labeled as Keto and it is not due to the potatoes for those who think it is, but it is tasty!

    Reply

  9. Made this tonight, yum! We do some dairy, so I used a little cream and Irish butter. I used mashed sweet potatoes. So good with the Brussels sprouts!

    Reply


  11. This is SO good!!! I used unsweetened almond milk instead of coconut milk, and it worked perfectly. This will definitely be added to the rotation. My husband loved it and he’s not even doing Whole30.

    Reply


    • Definitely want to try this…sounds delish! I’m allergic to tomato products and wondering if okay to leave out the tomato paste or substitute something else. Would love your thoughts, Michele. Many thanks…

      Reply


  12. I made the Shepherd’s Pie tonight and it was very good. However, the time estimated to prep this meal is way off. I don’t know how many people realistically have some of these items prepped ahead of time. It would be helpful to have the complete prep time included. It took me closer to an hour to prep. It also took about 40 min. of actual cooking time to get it slightly browned on top.

    Reply


  14. This recipe is amazing! Both my boyfriend and I love it. I will say, however, it did take a bit longer to make than the recipe suggests. I found it worth it though as I’m getting a week’s worth of lunches out of this meal! Thank you for another winner 🙂

    Reply


  15. This was a huge hug in my house! My 5 year old ate two bowls of it and repeatedly told me how good it was. He’s not a Brussels Sprouts fan, but he has no idea they were in here. My hubby and I very much enjoyed it too.

    Reply


  16. Excellent! Followed the recipe pretty closely but used more tomato paste as my husband needs a lot of umami flavor in his meals. Subbed broccoli and cauliflower for the Brussels sprouts. Whole family was very happy with this, and none of them are even on Whole30 with me. Like some others have mentioned, it took me longer to make it happen than the estimated time in the recipe, but it was well worth it for the outstanding result. Thanks!

    Reply


  17. I loved this! I forgot the yeast (even though I bought it specifically for this recipe). This will be in the weekly rotation. I’m not Whole30 or Paleo but thought I’d try it with regular milk and butter and next time I’ll venture to coconut milk. My 2 toddlers and picky husband loved it as well.

    Reply


  18. I love this recipe. It’s great and lasts me a whole week for dinner.
    On the nutritional side, I’m wondering what’s the serving size for one person. I know it says serving size is 8. Calories is 407, is that for the whole meal or is it 407 calories per one serving size.

    Reply

  21. Is it possible to sub the white potatoes for purple potatoes or do you think the outcome would be too different?

    Reply

  22. Ghee isn’t dairy free. My daughter’s stomach Dr has that on the do not eat list because it comes from milk.

    Reply

  23. Had this tonight – it was very good. My issue is with your calculation of prep time. It takes almost an hour to prep this, not 15 minutes. Don’t know how you came up with that time.

    Reply


  26. This was delicious! I preferred this recipe over my regular Shepard’s Pie that I make when not doing Whole30. My family all loved it. I used carrots and mushrooms instead of brussel sprouts only b/c not everyone here is a fan, but I think it would be really good with them.

    Reply


  27. This was wonderful and is going to be in my cold weather menu rotation. For those concerned about ghee being dairy, just sub with some other suitable fat. I used avocado oil instead of ghee, and it worked out fine. I agree with the others who mentioned the prep time was much more than indicated in the recipe, but so worth it. I doubled the recipe and froze half for another time (the beef mixture, not the mash on top…will prepare that fresh when I pull the second batch of beef mixture out of the freezer). Not sure how it will turn out from frozen, but hoping it will be fine.

    Reply


  29. This was so good! I added some compliant Dijon and coconut aminos to the beef mixture to give it a more savory flavor and it turned out great. Really helpful to have a heartier whole 30 meal to keep up with our workouts!

    Reply


  30. Love this recipe.

    We’ve subbed half the beef with Italian sausage for added flavor and kick. I’ve also omitted the nutritional yeast as I didn’t have any on hand.

    Cooks up great as leftovers for lunch at work; I enjoy watching my coworkers stare with envy as they eat their sad sandwiches and frozen meals. 🙂

    Reply

    • Doesn’t say when to add the broth or tomatoe paste very frustrating for someone who never made shepherds pie before and doesn’t know that’s the point of looking at a recipe

      Reply

  31. My husband and I loved this filling dish! We didn’t have a cast iron skillet and it still worked out great using the modified instructions. Thanks for a great recipe! We will definitely make this again in the future!

    Reply


  32. I CANNOT say enough good things about this recipe, or any of your recipes for that matter! This is hands down the BEST Sheperd’s Pie I have ever had… I love your blog and your recipes! Thank you so much for inspiring me in my kitchen! 😍

    Reply

  34. This was soooo good! I’m on day 11 of the Whole 30 and was starting to get bored. This was the perfect thing to mix it Up! I added some chopped green pepper to the mix as well as smushed tomatoes. (I didn’t have any tomatoe puree) and it was perfect! Definitely making it again!

    Reply


  36. So good! I substituted the beef for lamb and the coconut milk for cashew milk… it turned out great! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply


  37. I love this recipe! My particular preference is to use asparagus in place of Brussels sprouts, but it is delicious either way. Do you have any ideas/tips about freezing this? I am wanting to make it for my sil who is having a baby, but didn’t know if there was any reasons why it wouldn’t freeze well. Thanks so much!

    Reply

  39. This was so delicious!! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will definitely make this again! I am doing Whole30 and I am so happy to find the perfect recipe that my husband would enjoy too. (He’s not on Whole30)

    Reply

Trackbacks

  6. […] making this for a long time so I don’t use a recipe anymore, but you can find a similar one here. The only vegetables I used were carrots and celery, and the spices I used were a little different; […]

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