Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

4.65 from 28 votes

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

This healthy, hearty Sweet Potato Cottage Pie recipe makes the perfect comforting family dinner. Make a double batch of this British classic for the double win - one for now, one for the freezer!

Prep Time10

Cook Time1 20

Total Time1 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Family Food

Servings: People

Author: Sarah Rossi

Ingredients

1 kg Minced beef About 10% fat
200 g Onion Peeled and chopped. About 2 large onions. See notes
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 See notes
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.

Notes

Portions: This recipe makes enough for 8 people, so you can use it to make one for this evening and another for the freezer for another day. If you don’t want to do this you can halve it.

Make ahead for the fridge: Cook up to step 9 in the recipe below, cover well and you can keep this recipe in the fridge for 2 days. Then bake as normal.

Make ahead for the freezer: Once your pie is assembled (step 9 in the recipe below) you can chill and then freeze for up to one month. When you are ready to use the pie, defrost in the fridge overnight, then bake as normal (step 10).

Cooked leftovers: You can keep this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat fully in the microwave or oven before serving. You can also freeze cooked leftovers. Defrost thoroughly before reheating.

Frozen vegetable mix: You can replace the individual carrots, celery and onion ingredients for a frozen bag of ‘soffritto’, which comes already pre-chopped and all together in one bag. It might be called ‘vegetable base mix’ or something similar in some supermarkets.

Baking dishes: If you’re batch cooking this and you don’t want a pie dish out of action in the freezer, or you’re cooking a few batches, you can use foil trays with lids, like these ones from Amazon.

Creamy mash: To make life easier, use a ricer-style potato masher to get your mash just right. I think this one is brilliant and makes it so much easier.

Red wine: If you prefer not to use red wine, just replace it with the same volume of beef stock.

Nutrition