There are a lot of labels out there for a lot of very different diets, I refer to my diet as clean eating, this is because I try to eat as cleanly as possible, eating food in its most natural form, not processed, no added colours, preservatives etc, now Paleo is very similar but maybe a little more extreme. The Paleo diet believes if a caveman couldn’t eat it, neither can you. This means you can only eat what you can hunt or find – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds. This also means that pasta and cereal are not allowed! No pasta, are they mad !!!
I think that life is to short to deprive yourself of some of your favourite foods, everything is alright in moderation is my motto and so I take a little from each of these diets to suit me and my lifestyle, if it looks yummy and I think the whole family will eat it I will give it a go, if it is good it makes it onto the blog and if not it goes down to experience.
This Paleo cottage pie will easy be passed off to your family as just another everyday cottage pie, I honestly think that all that gives this its Paleo label is that the mash is not full of very naughty butter and I personally think that the coconut milk worked just as well, this cottage pie was truly delicious. I must admit to using normal potatoes, stupidly I didn’t read through the ingredients properly and only noticed when typing this post up that I should of used white flesh sweet potatoes, silly me! I always advised reading through a recipe first and look who didn’t go and take her own advice !!!
So if you would like to try a cleaner diet, but don’t think that you can pass it off to the family as every day meals, why not give this a try, they will never notice 😉
Buon appetito
Serves about 6
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
500g organic lean minced beef or ground turkey
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons of olive oil or coconut oil for sautéing
2 large (or 3 medium) white-fleshed sweet potatoes
1/4 teaspoon garlic
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon butter (or add a little more coconut milk instead)
Peel and cut potatoes into chunks and boil in salted water about 20 minutes until tender.
Sauté chopped onion, celery and carrots in a skillet over medium-high heat about 10 minutes with 2 tablespoons of olive oil or coconut oil.
Add the minced beef (or turkey) to the sautéed veggies, along with the meat seasonings and garlic; pan fry until beef is cooked through.
Next add the tomato paste and stir in the beef stock. Simmer together about 10 minutes – keep mixture moist by adding a little more stock if necessary.
Spoon the meat mixture into in an oven-safe glass pie dish or casserole dish.
In a medium saucepan or mixing bowl, mash cooked potatoes and add about 1/4 cup of almond or coconut milk – you want the potatoes creamy but still stiff so they hold their shape. Add a little more coconut milk or almond milk if needed.
Stir in potato seasonings, plus some salt and pepper to taste.
Gently spread mashed potatoes over the beef filling.
Bake at 350F/180C for about 30 minutes and when bubbling and golden brown serve piping hot on its own or with some lovely sweetcorn, peas or green beans.
Comments (0)