Shepherd’s pie is one of those endlessly adaptable dishes that you can make with anything from lamb to lentils or whatever else is about to expire in your fridge. After all, the British invented it as a way to use up the Sunday roast of lamb leftovers, according to the American Medical Association Family Cookbook.

This unsexy-sounding cookbook, BTW, won a coveted James Beard Award for the uniformly excellent and ethnically diverse recipes hidden within its humdrum paperback cover, so don’t be put off by the medicinal title. It’s the cookbook I use the most, to be honest.

So, faced with a surplus of buffalo meatloaf recently, I turned to the AMA cookbook. The meatloaf was tender and tasty, but when you’ve had it twice in two days and there’s still half a loaf left, it’s time to rehabilitate the remainder. If you have any leftover vegetables such as broccoli or green beans, say, you can add them, too. I threw in some shitake mushrooms that needed to be used up. Here’s my variation on the AMA’s recipe:

Contemporary Shepherd’s Pie

2 pounds potatoes (Yukon golds or fingerlings are nice) cut into 2-inch chunks
3/4 cup nonfat buttermilk (I like Saco’s dehydrated buttermilk because it’s so convenient)
salt & pepper to taste
3/4 pound lean ground meat (I used the buffalo meatloaf, but you could use any ground meat, or for a vegetarian version, lentils or crumbled up soy sausage)
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbs flour (I used soy flour but any flour is fine)
1 1/4 cups fat free broth (I use chicken, but beef or vegetable are OK, too)
1 cup diced carrots
dash of Worcestershire sauce and/or Bragg liquid aminos
1/2 cup peas (frozen petit pois work well)
1/2 cup shitake mushrooms (optional)
1 tsp butter, melted

Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water till tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add the buttermilk, and mash till fluffy and smooth. Season with salt and pepper (you can also use leftover mashed potatoes if you happen to have 2 or 3 cups worth on hand…)

Cook the onion, garlic, and meat in a skillet over medium heat till meat is browned, about 10 minutes (if you’re using previously cooked meat, as I did, add it towards the end.) Add spices. Sprinkle the flour over the meat and cook for two minutes or so. Gradually add the broth and carrots. Stir and cover, reduce heat slightly and cook till carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce or Bragg’s or salt and pepper (or some combination of the above).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch square baking dish and let cool slightly before spreading the mashed potatoes on top. Brush the potatoes with the melted butter and bake uncovered till the potatoes are lightly browned and the stew is gently bubbling around the edges, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Cool slightly and serve, congratulating yourself for accomplishing two things at once: you made a healthy and filling meal while emptying the fridge of leftovers. Well done. And whatever’s left over, you can pop in the freezer and forget about for a month or so, if the prospect of having leftovers twice removed doesn’t appeal to you. Some night when you’re too tired to cook, that shepherd’s pie in the freezer will be your saving grace.