Mini Low Carb Shepherd's Pie made in a muffin pan for perfectly portioned servings is a classic comfort food for whole family!
With a fabulously flaky crust, filled with a scrumptious ground meat mixture and topped with a buttery creamy mashed cauliflower, these little shepherd's pies will be a complete meal for the entire family.
It's a great option for meal prep to make ahead and heat up for easy lunches!
What is Traditional Shepherd's Pie?
A traditional shepherd's pie protein source is ground lamb, with a vegetable mixture, and topped with mashed potatoes. If you're following a keto diet, it would be too high in carbs to enjoy.
Our low carb version has just 4 grams net carbs and total 8 g carbs with the pie crust. Nutrition info is below if you decide no pie crust on the bottom of your baking dish.
I'm not a fan of lamb, so I used ground beef so technically it isn't a shepherd's pie, it's a cottage pie.
Can I Skip the Pie Crust?
You could easily make this recipe in a standard pie plate and forgo having a bottom crust all together if you're just feeling a bit lazy.
Some days I get that way as well, but the little extra effort for the bottom crust is worth every delicious bite when you're family doesn't complain about eating cauliflower.
Or if you want to lower the carb count, you can skip adding the pie crust.
Nutritional Information without crust
The recipe card is below with all ingredients, instructions and nutrition with the crust but if you decide you don't want the crust, here are the macros for you.
Calories 218
Total Carbs 2g
Protein 12g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Fat 18g
Net Carbs 1g
Low-Carb Shepherd's Pie
Once I made my low carb coconut flour pie crust, I've been creating recipes all around it. It's such an amazing crust that really resembles a traditional white flour pie crust.
I've used it for sweet pies, like my Lemon Cream pie as well as savory pies like my Cheesy Italian sausage Quiche.
I've also enjoyed these left over for lunch the next day. I simply just reheat in the microwave for about a minute. You could just reheat in a toaster oven as well for about 5-8 minutes.
One is sufficient with a side salad but at just 4 crabs per serving, you could enjoy more than one if you so desire.
My hubby and kids really loved these. The oldest teen wasn't crazy about the cauliflower, he'd rather have mashed potato, but otherwise he ate these anyway. For a 15 year old who's eating me out of the house and who prefers not to cook anything himself, he shouldn't be complaining one bit.
Can I swap the ground meat?
Yes you can swap out the ground beef for ground lamb or ground turkey or chicken if you like.
How can I make this one large Cauliflower Shepherd's Pie?
You can replace the muffin pan that I used to make individual mini shepherds pie and use a 9 inch cast iron skillet instead. You could also use a 9 by 13 large casserole dish.
You can use any pie dough you want, but the nutrition info is calculated with my coconut flour pie crust.
I have a brand new non stick muffin pan, and once cooled for about 15 minutes, these popped right out using a knife to loosen around the edges. If you don't have a new muffin pan, try using silicone muffin cups so these won't stick.
How to Store Healthy Shepherd's Pie
Store leftover keto cottage pie in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Can I freeze this Shepherd's Pie?
Yes you can freeze for 2-3 months.
Here's my little video to show how easy these are!
How to Reheat
Thaw the night before you want to reheat this shepherds pie. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and cover pie with aluminum foil. Bake for 20-30 minutes. You could also microwave individual pieces.
Keto Shepherd's Pie Recipe
Mini Keto Low Carb Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
- 1 My Easy Keto Pie Crust recipe
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic or garlic powder
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1 ½ lb. ground beef
- ¼ cup beef broth or beef stock
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese or vegan cheese for dairy free
- 2 cups mashed cauliflower (I steamed 1 small head, cauliflower florets were about 4 cups total)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoon butter or coconut oil
- optional topping: fresh chopped parsley and dried paprika
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Once your pie dough is ready, separate it into 12 balls.
- Spread the dough with fingers on the bottom and half way up sides of each cup of 12 capacity muffin pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside.
- While crust is baking, make filling by heating the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add garlic and onion and cook until onion is softened.
- Add the ground beef and cook until browned.
- Stir in the broth, tomato paste, vinegar and salt and pepper.
- Once the pie crust is done, evenly add the ground beef mixture into each muffin cup.
- Top each evenly with shredded cheddar.
- Before piping the creamy cauliflower mash onto each muffin cup, stir the mashed cauliflower with salt, pepper and butter. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
- Add mashed cauliflower topping to a piping bag and pipe over each muffin.
- Bake for 5 more minutes to melt the cheddar cheese to golden brown.
- You can also broil for 2-3 minutes, watching carefully, just to brown the mashed cauliflower a bit.
- Sprinkle over optional toppings before serving if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Jimbo Pulley
This all looks delicious, but I'm confused.
First it says that you're filling them with a ground beef mixture, but then it says that each one contains 4 crabs. Now, crab in this does sound delightful, but I don't think you could fit 4 of them in each muffin tin! 🙂
Rachel Kelly
Its not a shepherd pie. Shepherds pie is made with lamb because that is what a shepherd takes care of. This is a COTTAGE pie!
Chris
This is cottage pot pie not shepherd’s. Shepherd’s is made with lamb not beef. look good though.
Susan
Made this tonight, flavor was outstanding! I had trouble getting them out of the muffin pan without a couple falling apart. They were a beautiful site at dinner and for once what I made actually looked like the picture in the recipe!
Brenda
Horray so glad you liked the recipe!
Briana
The net carbs does NOT include the crust, correct?
Thanks so much!
Kate | HappyForks.com
Really clever idea with individual servings. I've never thought Shepherd's pie could be a party food! Do you think wonton wrappers or circles cut out from tortillas would be a good replacement for pastry pie crust? I am thinking of some lighter modification.
Brenda
Right maybe a low carb tortilla would work to lower the calories a bit.
Susan
I would not freeze the cooked cauliflower cause it does get mushy ad very strong tasting. I would maybe make a day or two and then warm up but frozen cook cauliflower is Yucky
Eileen
Can they be frozen and if so for how long. Looks like a great recipe and I hope to try it soon. Thank you for all your good work.
Brenda
Hi Eileen that's a good question and I haven't tried freezing them since we've eaten them pretty quickly. But I do think they would freeze fine, maybe just assemble and wait to bake until ready to eat for dinner.
Jami Shore
How many is equal to one serving that matches your nutrition facts (1, 2, etc,?)
Brenda
Nutrition info is for one mini pot pie.