Paleo Sweet Potato Pie With Lamb
This Savory Paleo Sweet Potato Pie with Lamb turns the traditional pie concept upside down. The bottom “crust” is made from ground lamb (like a classic “meatza” pie), but there’s a dough-like upper crust made from mashed yuca (the tuber that tapioca flour comes from). What I love about this pie is that it’s easy to make and bake. Simply mold your ground meat of choice into a greased pie tin and fill with sweet potato and whatever else you like (I topped mine with bacon).
If you feel like being an overachiever, I also suggest a top crust made out of yuca (or your favorite Paleo bread recipe rolled out thin). The top crust takes the presentation up a notch, but you can go basic and use bacon as your top crust! Who could complain about that? I hope you enjoy my savory interpretation of sweet potato pie. It’s filling and freezable and after a slice of this you won’t want the sweet stuff anymore (the sweet potato is likely to satisfy that craving).
Ingredients:
Meat crust (bottom)
1/2 pound of ground lamb molded into a pie crust on a greased pie dish
Yuca crust (top)
1/2 cup of yuca mixed with 1 Tablespoon of oil and 1 Tablespoon of tapioca, arrowroot or coconut flour
Filling
One large or two medium sweet potatoes mashed
Chives
1 teaspoon of salt
Coconut oil or ghee or fat of choice
2 slices of raw bacon
Optional: I put a layer of a tomato eggplant dip I had recently made between the meat and potatoes. But you can easily leave this ingredient out without missing much.
Directions:
1) Bake the sweet potato(es) for one hour at 350, until easily pierced through with a fork. Peel them and mash them with coconut oil, salt and chives. Set aside.
2) Peel and bake yuca (here’s a video that explains how). Or buy some canned yuca here.
3) Mix mashed yuca with oil and flour and mold the dough into a big flat circle with your hands on top of baking parchment paper. If you don’t have any yuca, you can skip this step or use your favorite Paleo bread dough instead. Bake the yuca crust for 20 to 25 minutes at 350.
4) Mold ground lamb into the shape of a pie crust onto a greased pie dish. I spread a thin layer of a tomato eggplant dip on top of the lamb but you can leave this step out. I usually add leftovers from other dishes to my current dishes and this is just an example of how I do that. The pie will taste wonderful without the eggplant.
5) Scoop the mashed sweet potato filling on top of the lamb crust.
6) Add two slices of raw bacon on top of the mashed sweet potato filling. This will infuse the potatoes with bacon flavor as it cooks. Feel free to leave out the bacon if it’s not your thing.
7) Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 35 minutes. In the last 10 minutes take the pie out of the oven, put on the prebaked yuca top crust and put back in the oven.
That’s it. Your dish is ready to serve. Just wait for it to cool a bit (15 minutes) before you slice it. Enjoy anytime. As I mentioned, this reheats beautifully.
