Shepherd’s Pie from Thanksgiving Leftovers

Ok, now that I am totally turkey sandwiched out it’s time to find a few other uses for my leftovers. I decided to try making a Shepherd’s Pie using those leftovers. I honestly wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but figured how bad could it be? After all it’s everything from Thanksgiving dinner in one dish. It was so good! I was so surprised at how good it was. I’ve never seen a recipe for this so just winged it.

Since then I went looking and found all sorts of recipes, oh well, it was fun to just toss in whatever I wanted without following a recipe.

The first thing I did was chop up some onion and sauteed it in a pan with a bit of vegetable oil. Added some chopped up turkey, mostly dark. Added a little salt and pepper for seasoning. Added some frozen peas and cooked carrots.

Just a side note about the vegetables. This year we had a corn casserole and candied sweet potatoes. Those weren’t flavors I really wanted in my Shepherd’s pie so I chopped up a carrot and cooked it in a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes to soften up the carrots and used frozen peas. If we would have had the usual green bean casserole that definitely would have been added. Just think about those crunchy french fried onions adding a little extra bit of something to the Shepherd’s pie.

After everything was warmed up I added my leftover gravy. Just enough so everything was coated in gravy, I didn’t want my Shepherd’s pie swimming in gravy.

In a small baking dish I layered some stuffing. I didn’t completely cover the bottom of the dish, but sort of crumbled it in there leaving plenty of space for turkey with veggies and gravy to mix in. Then layered the turkey mixture on top of the stuffing and then leftover mashed potatoes over the turkey. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the mashed potatoes are browned and the gravy is bubbling up along the sides.

Thanksgiving dinner all in one bite!

Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepherd’s Pie

I made enough for two servings. Mix and match whatever you want. Frankly, Green Bean Casserole would have been a perfect addition to this. The measurements are not exact, I just tossed in amounts that I would like.

1 cup stuffing
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup turkey, dark meat preferably, chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup cooked carrots
1 cup gravy
1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop onions and saute in skillet over medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Add chopped turkey, peas and carrots. Stir until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add gravy and stir until everything is coated and gravy has been heated through.

Layer in small baking dish: stuffing, turkey mixture and mashed potatoes, in that order.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly and mashed potates are golden.

Makes about 2 servings.