Reinvent Your Shepherd's Pie With Mashed Sweet Potatoes

If you're looking for a dish that has all the hearty hallmarks of a cold-weather meal, shepherd's pie ticks all the boxes. Savory ground lamb and roasted veggies blended with rich gravy and topped with a lightly crisped crust of mashed potatoes — what could be more delicious on a chilly day? The only thing that could make this dish more autumnal is swapping out ordinary white mashed potatoes for their sweet, earthy, orange cousins.

Topping your shepherd's pie with sweet potatoes is not only a delicious way to embrace seasonal flavors, it also helps pack in some extra vitamins and nutrients. Though white potatoes are a nutritional powerhouse, sweet potatoes are higher in vitamins A and C, making them a great choice for shoring up your immune system before cold and flu season sets in. They're also high in potassium and fiber, which are important for maintaining heart and gut health, respectively.

Another advantage to a mashed sweet potato crust is the wide array of flavors the tuber complements. Of course, you can stick to the traditional combination of salt, pepper, butter, and cream, but it might be fun to spice things up. Give a shepherd's pie a South Asian twist, for instance, by preparing a lamb curry filling topped with sweet potatoes seasoned with garam masala. If you're strapped for time, you can easily add these flavors to a pre-made sweet potato mash and curry or use a high-quality canned beef stew for a tasty shortcut.

One of the best times to make a sweet potato shepherd's pie is right after Thanksgiving. Since it's traditionally made with leftovers to prevent food waste, you'll still be honoring the history of shepherd's pie, despite diverging from the original recipe. For the filling, you can mince leftover turkey and combine it with gravy, a little stuffing, and any roasted veggies that typically grace your holiday table. Foods like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, turnips, and even a touch of creamed corn could be delicious under a blanket of buttery sweet potatoes.

For the sweet potatoes themselves, you can either make a fresh mash or use sweet potatoes left over from your Thanksgiving feast — even if it's the traditional marshmallow-topped casserole. To turn this sweet dish savory, embrace the brown sugar with some chili powder or even homemade barbecue sauce. Discard the marshmallow and mix in your savory seasonings, tasting to make sure you have the right balance of flavors.

Sweet potatoes are also an excellent addition to a vegetarian or vegan version of this traditional dish. Many vegan shepherd's pie recipes replace the lamb with a combination of lentils and mushrooms deeply seasoned with veggie stock, garlic, and onions. An herby, lightly browned sweet potato would play against the filling's earthy components, softening any bitterness with its sweet notes. Creamy sweet potatoes also pair well with pleasantly chewy lentils for a vegan dish that even meat-lovers can enjoy.