Indian-spiced Shepherd’s Pie

In our family, the mention of liver mostly elicits responses such as … “I’m not really hungry tonight”, or “I’ll just have salad, thanks”.

Because they’re such a power-house of nutrients, we’re working hard to change our tastebuds and come up with clever ways to make liver—and all organ meats—edible (and at a stretch, yummy!).

For most people, liver offers a double whammy: both the flavour and the texture aren’t appealing. To overcome this, we’ve created our line of Iron Man Mince, which ‘dilutes’ the flavour with other muscle meat, and bypasses the texture issue by mincing it.

But chances are your little detectives will still have an inkling that this mince is different to ‘normal’, so we’ve become clever at concealing it in strongly-flavoured recipes.

And here we present you with our very first ‘disguised’ recipes. Not one of our family members picked the secret ingredients … even after requesting seconds! Plus, our eldest son even commented after being let in on the secret that he preferred this version of mince. Double win!

Delicious Indian-spiced Shepherd’s Pie

•   500g minced lamb and liver mix (Lamb Iron Man Mince)
•   1 onion, diced
•   3 carrots, diced
•   2 tbsp curry paste – or to taste (we used hot and spicy)
•   300ml lamb or beef stock
•   200g frozen peas
•   800g potatoes, diced
•   1 tsp turmeric
•   juice half lemon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Heat a large cast iron frying pan over medium – high heat.
3. Add the lamb mince and brown for about 10 minutes, continuously breaking up clumps with a flat-edged wooden spoon.
4. Add onion and carrots, stirring often, and cook for a further 8 minutes, until the mince is nearly cooked and vegies are starting to soften.
5. Add the curry paste and stock and bring to the boil.
6. Meanwhile, cook potatoes in a large pot of salted water until just tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well and return to the pan.
7. Gently stir in turmeric to the potatoes, being careful not to break them up too much.
8. Taste and season mince with salt and pepper, and add peas.
9. Transfer the mince to a baking dish and top with the turmeric potatoes. Squeeze over the lemon juice and sprinkle with salt to taste.
10. Bake pie for 30-35 mins until potatoes are golden. Serve immediately with a green salad on the side.
11. Be prepared: your guests won’t even notice your ‘secret’ ingredient ☺

Serves: 4 – 6

(Inspiration Credit: BBC’s Good Food Recipe.)

If you give this dish a go, tell us about your experience in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.