Sweet Potato Cottage Pie – Rich beef mince filling with carrots, celery and onions. This healthy cottage pie recipe makes the perfect family dinner recipe. Also suitable for freezing and easy to make Slimming World friendly or gluten free.
This post was sponsored by Belling. They asked me to come up with a selection of recipes, using one of their nifty new ovens. Thanks, as always, for your support.
I love love love it when a dinner can be prepped in advance, makes a spare for the freezer AND squeezes in a pile of extra vegetables. Top it with melted cheese and everyone is winning.
This Sweet Potato Cottage Pie does all that and more. Good, simple, classic family food, mixed up a touch to make it a touch more healthy.
The recipe below makes enough for eight people, so I always use it to make two of the Sweet Potato Cottage Pies. One for that evening and one for later for the freezer. Of course, you could half it or make one huge one!
If you’re following the Slimming World plan you could easily adapt this recipe, just by using a very lean mince and counting the ‘syns’ for the wine and the flour and your ‘Healthy Extra’ cheese.
How do you make a Cottage Pie?
A cottage pie is a minced meat base, in a gravy, topped with some mashed potatoes.
In this case I’ve added some extra vegetables to the meat base for goodness and flavour. Plus the potato topping is sweet potato. I have still used some white potatoes in the mash as it helps to dry out the sweet potato mash a little.
What’s the difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherd’s Pie?
Traditionally Cottage Pie is made with minced beef (as it is here) and Shepherd’s Pie is made with minced lamb (as shepherds look after sheep). You could substitute lamb for beef here if you prefer.
Also, don’t worry if you get the name wrong, it’s easily done. They were both Shepherd’s Pie in our house growing up and my Mum can’t be wrong!
Tips for making this Sweet Potato Cottage Pie:
- I cheat and use a ready chopped vegetable mix from Waitrose (which I’m borderline obsessed by). It’s red onions, carrots and celery and it’s a life saver for busy days: Cooks’ Soffritto Mix 400g.
- If you want to make this in advance, prep up to stage 9 of the recipe, cover with cling film and pop in the fridge.
- If you want to freeze this in advance, prep up to stage 9 of the recipe, cover with cling film and pop into the freezer. When you’re ready to bake, just defrost overnight in the fridge.
- If you prefer not to use red wine, just replace with the same volume of beef stock.
- Beef stock from a cube is fine, but try to use the best quality you can find, I’m convinced it makes a difference.
This was another of the recipes that I made for Belling using my fantastic new oven of theirs. It’s getting a lot of use – can you tell?!
I’m really looking forward to testing out it’s defrost function for the second of these Sweet Potato Cottage Pies that I’ve stashed away for another day.
Fancy some more easy beef recipes?
I’d love to know how you got on and what you thought of the recipe if you make these Sweet Potato Cottage Pie Recipe. Please rate the recipe and leave me a comment below if you do.
Also, if you fancy showing me a photo by tagging me on Instagram (@tamingtwins) I LOVE to see your creations.
How to make the Sweet Potato Cottage Pie Recipe:

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie
Ingredients
- 1 kg Minced Beef About 10% fat
- 200 g Onion Peeled and chopped, about 2 large onions
- 300 g Carrots Peeled and chopped
- 300 g Celery Peeled and chopped
- 4 Cloves Garlic Peeled and crushed
- 10 g Fresh thyme Leaves taken off of the stalks
- 4 tbsp Plain flour
- 250 ml Red wine
- 750 ml Beef stock
- 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tbsp Tomato puree
- Salt and pepper
- 2 kg Sweet potatoes Peeled and chopped into large chunks
- 500 g White potatoes Peeled and chopped into large chunks
- 100 g Cheddar cheese Grated
Instructions
- Fry the beef mince in batches until brown all over. (You shouldn't need any oil as fat will be released from the mince.) As it cooks, spoon it out into a dish.
- In the same pan, in the fat left in the pan, fry off the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme gently for about 10 minutes until starting to soften.
- Add the meat back into the pan with the vegetables and stir in the flour and mix well so it's disbursed through.
- Pour in the red wine (if using) and allow to bubble away for 5 minutes.
- Add in the beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and plenty of salt and pepper. Put the lid on and cook gently over a low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Meanwhile, boil the sweet potatoes and white potatoes in a pan of boiling water for about 20 minutes until soft and tender.
- Drain and mash well.
- When the mince is cooked, transfer to one large or two smaller shallow dishes. Top with the mashed potatoes, sprinkle on the cheese.
- Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling.
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Belling. As always all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.
Sheila says
Glad to learn about the difference between the cottage and shepherd’s pie. I had no idea of its difference. Looking forward to trying this recipe. It looks so delicious.
Georgina Sweeting says
I made this last night and 20 minutes is the perfect time for the Shepard’s pie to bubble in top and go slightly crispy! Very much enjoyed it 🙂
Sarah Barnes says
Really pleased you enjoyed it Georgina!
Jenny says
Can the red wine be substituted please
Jessie says
Could you substitute the white plain flour with a wholemeal self-raising flour?
Sarah Barnes says
Hi Jessie, I wouldn’t suggest it as I’m not sure how it would thicken the sauce and change the texture. You could use Cornflour if you have any?
Terilynne Knight says
I used cornstarch. And instead of a white potato I used a turnip. Can’t eat white potatoes
Kristal says
Hi if I was going to half the Recipe how long would I cook it for
Georgette Weil says
I made this cottage pie for my family, halving the recipe and using plain potato mash instead of sweet potato and it was an absolute hit!! Myself, my husband and both my boys (aged 5 and 7) really enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Laura says
Loved this! Didn’t have enoug mince so topped up with lentils. And swapped celery for courgette . Has the tase of a nice stew, also made loads, 6 minis for children and 3 for adults! Thank you !
Catharine says
Delicious!
Becky Moulam says
Lovely flavour. Easy to follow recipe. We didn’t have any sweet potatoes so we just used white potatoes. Enough for for two meals for the week plus some for the freezer. I love these recipes!