Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

This is a very popular dinner here even with the fussy one. Guaranteed empty plates. It is easy to cook, freezes well and is a handy one if people are all coming in at different times too. I know lots of people who call this ‘Shepherd’s Pie’ but in my house that means it’s made with minced lamb. You can easily follow the same recipe and substitute in lamb for the beef.

You will need:

450g lean minced beef
*1 large sweet potato
500g white potatoes
Beef stock cube /stock pot
3 carrots
300g frozen peas
250ml water
2 tablespoons flour
2 cloves garlic
**Optional: 1 diced onion

*If you don’t like or don’t have sweet potato, use all white potatoes. Likewise you could make with all sweet potato. You need roughly 1kg of whichever.

**My husband is allergic to onion so I always leave it out, I do think it’s better with though.

Steps:

Peel potatoes and peel and chop sweet potato and boil together in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce temperature and simmer for about 20 minutes or until cooked. Drain and mash. If you wish you can add a bit of margarine to the mash, I just used a bit of gravy from the meat mixture to moisten it but you can also just mash without adding anything.

Meanwhile, chop garlic and onion if using and dry fry in a sauce pan. Add minced beef and brown. Add flour and cook for 2 – 3 minutes.

Add stock cube, water, carrots and peas. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour meat into an oven proof dish, layer over with mashed potatoes and smooth down with the back of a fork.

Cook in a preheated oven 180C (170C fan oven) for 30 minutes.

If you wish to freeze it, you can do so before the oven baking. Cover with cling film when it is completely cool and put in the freezer.  You can then put directly from freezer into oven at 160C for 90 minutes. Or thaw overnight in fridge and cook for 30 minutes as above.