Recipe: Healthy Turkey & Butternut Squash Pie

I’ve always been a fan of proper home-cooked food – my absolute favourite has to be Shepherd’s Pie; it’s just so cosy and warm, and absolutely perfect for these nights when it all gets a bit chilly and all you want is to fill yourself with mashed potato!

I’ve been on a massive health kick recently – and I feel so so good for it, it’s ridiculous. I had no idea how sluggish I was feeling until I look back at it now after 4 weeks of being really really healthy….I just feel like a more sparkly version of myself. I’ve also lost 10lbs which has made me feel great too – over the summer I really indulged and just ate whatever-the-hell I fancied, and I didn’t realise how much I’d indulged until I got here and set up my little kitchen and realised that I’ve been eating shite for months! (Let me know if you guys would be interested in a “What I Eat In A Day/Week” post. I figured if I’m being super healthy it might be of interest!)

I wanted to make a healthy, low calorie version of a shepherd’s pie, to keep me going with my healthy eating, and so I can eat “stodgy” food whenever I want without going back into my “my butt is a bit bigger than normal” jeans!

Turkey mince was the obvious switch, as it is only approximately 140 calories per 100g, and only 1-4% fat whereas beef mince is on average about 315 calories per 100g and can have up to about 30% fat! I also wanted to look at alternatives to normal potato and settled on Butternut Squash – at only 45 calories per 100g, it is significantly better for filling up with than potato at nearly 90 calories per 100g – you can have double the amount of butternut squash mash for the calories!

So, here is my turkey and butternut squash pie – oozing with yummy flavours, with lots of veggies to fill you up, without filling your calorie allowance – a perfect healthy alternative for these chilly autumn nights!

Serves: 6-8

Calories: 330 (if divided into 6 – less if divided into more)

What You Need: 

• 800g of Turkey Mince
• 2 Medium Butternut Squashes
•  1 Onion
• 2 Courgettes
• 1 Red Pepper
• 450ml Chicken Stock (I used a stock cube – easy peasy!)
• A splash of Worcester Sauce
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Cornflour
• Handful of grated cheese.

How To Do It:

1. Peel, Seed and Chop the Butternut Squash into chunks. Put the chunks into a saucepan and boil until soft enough to mash.

2. Finely chop the onion, courgette and red pepper. Cook in a frying pan until the onions are going golden and all the veg is getting soft. Set aside.

3. Use the same frying pan to cook the turkey mince through. Once it is all cooked (you may need to do this in two batches) add the chicken stock, cornflour (mix it into the stock first to stop it going all clumpy) and Worcester sauce. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes until sauce thickens.

4. In a bowl or pan, mix the turkey mince and sauce with the vegetables.

5. Mash the Butternut Squash until smooth.

6. Spoon the Turkey/veg mix into an oven-proof dish, and cover with the mashed butternut squash. Sprinkle with a little cheese.

7. Place in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees C for roughly 45 minutes or until it is starting to go brown on the top.

8. Enjoy!