Shepherd’s Pie

I first discovered Shepherd’s Pie some 15 years ago while visiting Scotland. It was a love at a first bite and naturally when the idea of creating our own backpacking meals stroke us, this dish immediately came to my mind.  Today’s version loaded with vegetables is one of our favorite backcountry meals.

I substituted beef for lamb since it is less oily and has much longer shelf life when dehydrated so technically the dish should be called a cowboys pie. Whichever title you prefer, give it a try. It’s delicious!

2 servings

Ingredients:

1 Cup Dehydrated ground beef (about 1 lb fresh)
2 Cups Dehydrated vegetables (I use mix of peas and diced carrots)
1/2 Cup Tomato powder
1/4 Cup Cheese Powder
1/4 Cups Dehydrated diced onion
1 packet Brown Gravy Powder (0.85 oz/24 g)
2 TBS Olive Oil (I use Marconi packets, they come in 1 TBS servings)
4 oz/ 115g Dehydrated Sweet Potatoes

At Home:
– Pack potatoes in a ziplock bag
– Pack rest of the ingredients in separate zip lock bag

On Trail:
– Pour 8 oz of boiling water in the potato bag. Mix
– Pour 10 -12 oz of water (depending how soupy you like your meals) into the second zip lock bag. Mix
– Place bags into a cozy and wait for about 15 minutes
– Enjoy

Notes:

Make sure to re-hydrate the potatoes in separate bag. They have the ability to soak large amount of the water and if you tried to re-hydrate the meal in one bag, the rest of the ingredients would not have enough liquid left to re-hydrate properly.
Once re-hydrated we like to split the main mixture into bowls and scoop the potatoes on the top but you can just as easily eat from the zip lock bags. You can mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients or eat them separately.