A Proper Paleo Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie is quintessential British comfort food.  It’s safe to say that you will find it at countless traditional pub menus in the UK and elsewhere.  Cottage Pie differs from Shepherd’s Pie in its use of ground meat rather than minced meat. I’ve made many versions of this dish – it’s almost Paleo as traditionally made.  To make it the most Paleo – you have to be sure to omit the potatoes, any legumes (peas) and any melted cheese topping (sigh). What you’ve got here is a Paleo Cottage Pie that is Paleo Comfort Food at its best.

To make this Proper Paleo Cottage Pie, we are going to replace the traditional mashed potato topping with mashed Cauliflower.  I thought I would miss the mashed potatoes in this dish, but I really don’t. The Cauliflower, steamed and mashed with a little ghee and seasoning becomes elegant and comforting in a different way, and adds almost a sweet note (I would guess from the ghee); it doesn’t taste much like a vegetable.  Because Cauliflower contains so much water, you will need to thicken this mash with arrowroot powder or coconut flour. You may be able to slip this substitution by your kids (it passed the test on one of two of mine).

I Frenchify this Paleo Cottage Pie by adding celery to the onions and carrots the meat is cooked with.  A classic mirepoix – sauteed chopped onion, carrots and celery – is used as the base of many French dishes.  Something magic happens from cooking together this combination of otherwise pretty ordinary and common household vegetables. The aroma will fill your house in a good way.  

One of my kids is fussy about vegetables in her food, so I usually dice these vegetables small but I think it’s better to leave them a little chunkier if you can – as shown in the pictures from this post.

You can make this with grass fed ground beef; I tend to use even leaner ground turkey.  I cook it in beef broth, which adds back some essential beefiness to the dish. It comes out great either way.

Paleo Notes: Again with the Potatoes

If your diet includes potatoes, you could make this Paleo Cottage Pie with a mashed potato topping – or do so for a skip meal. (See my thoughts on potatoes in my recipe for Paleo Beef Stew.  I also make a non-Paleo skip meal version of this dish which adds green peas and is topped with mashed potatoes and shredded cheddar.  Look for that recipe coming soon to the skip meal section.

Ingredients: Organic Cauliflower

This recipe calls for two large heads of organic cauliflower.  If you can regularly find large heads of organic cauliflower, please let me know where.  Usually organic cauliflower is small or medium sized at best.  You should have about a 1/2 inch of cauliflower mash on top of the ground meat sauce.  A little less is okay, but two small heads of cauliflower are probably not going to stretch over a full 8 x 12 baking dish.  So I’d advise either making more mash – or bake it in a smaller but deeper baking dish so your cauliflower mash layer is thicker.

Print Recipe

Paleo Cottage Pie

Course

Main Dish

Cuisine

British

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Servings

persons

Ingredients

• 2 heads Cauliflower Organic, Large
• 3 Tbsp Ghee Organic
• 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil Organic Virgin
• 1 cup Onion Organic, Chopped
• 1 cup Carrot Organic, Chopped
• 1/2 cup Celery Organic, Chopped
• 1 clove garlic Minced fine
• 2 pounds Ground Meat Turkey or Grass Fed Beef
• 1 pint Beef Broth Organic
• 1 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Coconut Flour

Course Main Dish Cuisine British Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 1 hour Servings persons Ingredients 2 heads Cauliflower Organic, Large 3 Tbsp Ghee Organic 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil Organic Virgin 1 cup Onion Organic, Chopped 1 cup Carrot Organic, Chopped 1/2 cup Celery Organic, Chopped 1 clove garlic Minced fine 2 pounds Ground Meat Turkey or Grass Fed Beef 1 pint Beef Broth Organic 1 Tbsp Arrowroot Powder Kosher Salt Black Pepper Coconut Flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Make Cauliflower Mash: Cut up Cauliflower and steam 10-15 minutes until tender. Puree with an immersion blender with 2 Tbsp Ghee. You could also use a food processor or blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Thicken with arrowroot powder or coconut flour: Add one tsp at a time and mix through until desired consistency reached.

   
3. Prep the Vegetables: Chop the onions, carrots and celery into a medium dice.

   
4. Saute the Vegetables: Melt 1 Tbsp coconut oil in a large deep pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring regularly, for 5-7 minutes until onions become translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute or two.

   
5. Cook the Meat: Add the ground meat and one quarter of the beef stock. Turn the heat up to Medium High and cook, stirring constantly until all the meat is browned (about 7-8 minutes). Add the remaining stock, season with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Reduce the heat back to medium, cover with a tight fitting lid and cook for 15 minutes more.

   
6. Make thickening paste: While the meat is cooking, mash 1 Tbsp arrowroot powder together with 1 Tbsp ghee with a spoon in a small dish.

   
7. Taste and Thicken: When the meat is done, check for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Add the ghee/arrowroot paste to the ground meat sauce in small pieces. Stir it in until it has dissolved. The sauce should thicken slightly and there should not be too much liquid in the bottom of the pan.

   
8. Assemble Paleo Cottage Pie: Place the meat sauce into a 8 x 12 baking dish.

   
9. Spread the mashed Cauliflower over the top.

   
10. Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes until the topping begins to brown. Remove from oven and plate with a Slope Paleo salad!

    

Recipe Notes

This recipe was adapted from Elaine Lemm's Classic Cottage Pie Recipe on theSpruce.com.  It was paleoized by replacing the mashed potato with a cauliflower mash, replacing lard with coconut oil, replacing butter and flour with ghee and arrowroot powder.  My recipe also adds celery and changes the proportion of meat in the dish; I omit parsley (I never seem to have it on hand and the kids don't like it) and optional mushrooms (again, I apologize to the fungus lovers out there - I am not one of you).

This recipe makes a fairly large cottage pie - enough to serve 6-8.  It contains almost twice as much meat as the original recipe so it would scale down easily by using only a pound of ground meat and the proportion of other ingredients also reduced.  It also has a lot less broth in proportion given there is less meat.  As I bake this in a single dish, it would be too liquid to serve individual portions from it.  However, if you want to bake it in single serving sized dishes, the added liquid would be a nice touch, though you should make sure that it is thickened enough.