Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie Recipe- Gluten Free, Nightshade Free, Dairy Free

Last week, when I was in Kansas City, I was treated to two wonderful suppers- the first which I asked my host to post as a guest post on my blog- sweet potato lentil dal with rice, and the second was a delicious sweet potato shepherd's pie.
I'm back home now and recovering from jeg lag- last night's supper was super simple, but today I cooked a real meal for the first time in nearly 2 weeks- and what I was craving was sweet potato shepherd's pie. I had never had it before last week, but it's definitely going to be something I'll be making more often. It wasn't too much work, and being winter, sweet potatoes are in season and cheap... and I've found ground beef pretty cheaply lately, so altogether this is a relatively frugal meal for us. I looked at the original recipe posted by my host on this blog, but decided to change it up a bit and make it completely nightshade free, and without wine, to cut down the costs, and I am pretty satisfied with how it came out.

Lately, I've discovered that in addition to the super long list of things that make me feel icky, potatoes also have been making me nauseous. I'm hoping this is just a stupid pregnancy thing, because I really really really like potatoes, but even just a little bit makes me so nauseous- so frustrating. But because of that, since shepherd's pie is generally made with mashed potatoes instead of sweet potatoes, this will be what I'll be making. There also are many diets where potatoes are avoided and sweet potatoes allowed, like the Paleo diet, nightshade free diets, etc... so this is a good alternative in those cases as well.

This dish was a hit with my whole family. I hope it will be with yours as well.

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie Recipe- Gluten Free, Nightshade Free, Dairy Free

Ingredients:
For Meat Layer
2 tablespoons coconut oil or any other oil
1 large onion
2 cups chopped carrots
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 lbs ground beef
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
For Sweet Potato Layer
4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil (or other oil)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Black pepper (optional)

Instructions:
1. Because the sweet potatoes need to cook longer than the other things, first chop up sweet potatoes and steam or boil them until fully soft. Each sweet potato is a different size, but I used around 4 or 5 large-ish sweet potatoes for mine, to get the 4 cups of mashed sweet potatoes needed for this recipe.

2. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, prepare the meat layer. Chop an onion and saute in oil until starting to brown.

3. Chop up your carrots small (I had really small carrots so I only cut mine into half circle shapes, but if you have larger carrots, you might want to cut them smaller) and then add to the sauteing onions. Put on a medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are mostly soft.

4. Add the ground beef to the carrots and onions, stirring often, and cook until you have fully cooked ground beef crumbles.

5. Add the garlic powder, thyme, nutmeg, and salt.

6. Put this meat layer in a flat layer at the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

7. In a separate container, take the sweet potatoes and remove their peels. Add oil and spices, and mash until uniform.

8. Spread in a flat layer on top of the ground beef, and if desired, sprinkle freshly ground black pepper on top.

9. Bake for 30 minutes at 350, or until the sweet potato layer starts browning a bit.

Enjoy!

Have you ever had a sweet potato shepherd's pie before? Does this sound like a dish you'd enjoy? Have you ever heard of people who got nauseous from potatoes like I do????