Cottage Pie Recipe - 5 Ways!
The variants of this recipe are listed in the notes section.
Servings 4
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 500 g beef mince
- 500 ml beef stock
- 100 g frozen peas
- salt & pepper
- gravy granules optional
For the topping
- 1 kg potatoes peeled and chopped
- 50 g butter
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Add the oil to a large saucepan and sauté the onions for about 5 minutes, then add the beef mince and cook for a further 5 minutes until the meat is browned. You can drain off any excess fat if you so wish.
- Add the beef stock and the peas, and stir. Bring to the boil then reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce the stock. If you find the filling to be too watery from the stock, cook for longer to reduce, or you can cheat a bit (and beef up the flavour!) by adding some gravy granules and stirring to thicken. Taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper if desired (shop bought stock and gravy granules may be salty enough)
- Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and allow to steam for about 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
- Mash the potatoes with the butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the filling into an ovenproof dish and spread evenly.
- Spoon the mashed potato on top and carefully spread it over the filling in an even layer. You can drag a fork through the topping to make a pattern if you wish.
- Cook in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the potato topping is golden.
Notes
1 - Add extra veggies! This could be sweet corn, broad beans, carrots, green beans...
2 - Replace the peas with baked beans, and also add a squirt of ketchup to the sauce. Add some grated cheese to the mash potato too. This is one of my favourite variants as my mum used to do this when we were kids - ultimate comfort food!
3 - Use cauliflower as topping instead of mashed potato. If you remove the peas, it is also turns the recipe into a good low-carb version. You could add cheese on top too.
4 - Use a combination of sweet potato and regular potato as a topping You could also combine potatoes with butternut squash or swede. I've used all three in the past, and they all make tasty toppings.
5 - Turn it into a vegetarian pie and replace the meat with Quorn (or similar meat substitute) and use vegetable stock and granules instead of beef.