As you can probably see, lately I've been in the mood for my favorite kind of comfort food: casseroles. There's just something about a big baked dish of hot goodness that satisfies like nothing else.
Today I made a healthy version of the cottage pie. Typically it's made with ground beef, mashed potatoes, butter and vegetables. To keep things lighter, I used a combo of banana squash and sweet potatoes for the topping, and opted for ground turkey instead of beef. I also added more flavor by throwing in a dash of cayenne pepper. The heat really goes well with the sweetness of the potato.
Enjoy!
Cottage Pie
adapted from Eating Well
Olive oil spray
1 cup chopped onion
1.25 lbs 93%-lean ground turkey
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
6 ounces baby spinach, chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/2 of a banana squash, microwaved until soft
1 large sweet potato, microwaved until soft and peeled
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/3 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
Cayenne pepper if desired
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Heat oil spray in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, stir in turkey, flour and tomato paste, and cook, stirring, until the turkey is mostly browned, about 6 minutes. Add broth, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the broth is the consistency of thick gravy, about 4 minutes. Stir in spinach, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder; cook until the spinach is just wilted, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.3. Place squash in a fine-mesh sieve and gently press on it to extract excess liquid. Transfer to a bowl. Put sweet potato into the bowl with the squash, add buttermilk and mash together until smooth. Stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and a few dashes of cayenne if you like. Pour meat mixture into a 9-inch baking dish. Top with mashed squash/potato mixture, and spread over so the meat mixture is covered. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 15 minutes.
Makes 6 servings. Each serving has 253 calories.
