British & Irish

Serving

Cottage Pie

Name: Cottage Pie
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 7 servings
Cuisine: British & Irish
Ingredients: 500g minced beef; 1 onion (diced); 2 carrots (diced); 100g frozen peas; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 400ml beef stock; 800g floury potatoes (peeled and quartered); 50g butter; 50ml milk

Rich minced beef and vegetable filling slow-simmered in gravy, blanketed under a golden, creamy mashed potato crust. The ultimate family dinner.

60 minutes

Serves 7

Dinner

21 min prep

33 min cook

Contains common allergens

Dairy

In the app, Listahan checks these against your household automatically.

Instructions

6 steps

1
Prepare the potatoes: Boil the potato quarters in salted water for 15-20 minutes until fork-tender. Drain and let steam dry for 2 minutes.
2
Cook the beef base: In a wide pan over medium-high heat, brown the minced beef for 5-8 minutes. Add the diced onion and carrots, cooking for another 5 minutes until soft.
3
Create the sauce: Stir in the tomato purée and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the beef stock, bring to a simmer, and let it bubble gently for 20 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
4
Add the peas: Stir the frozen peas into the beef mixture and cook for 2 more minutes. Transfer the entire mixture to a baking dish.
5
Mash the potatoes: Mash the boiled potatoes with butter, milk, salt, and pepper until perfectly smooth and fluffy.
6
Bake to perfection: Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the beef filling. Drag a fork across the top to create ridges (which will crisp up). Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Cottage Pie — plated and served — Serving moment. How Cottage Pie looks plated and ready to eat — a representative photo, not a step in the recipe.

Listahan Family Score™

79/100

Good fit for most families

Allergen-friendly 90

Kid-friendly 85

Weeknight-easy 64

Budget-friendly 86

Great leftovers 93

Pantry-friendly 44

Score reflects how well this recipe fits a typical busy household. In the app, your Family Score is personalized to your household's allergens, kids, and pantry.

Nutrition

per serving

355

Calories

23 g

Protein

26 g

Carbs

17 g

Fat

Estimated per serving. Actual values depend on the brands and portions you use.

Listahan cooking guide

Chef notes & practical guide

Technique notes, ingredient swaps, serve-alongside ideas, storage guidance, and equipment for this recipe.

Cultural context

Cottage pie is the beef counterpart to shepherd's pie, a distinction English home cooks hold firmly to since shepherd's pie is made with lamb, and both descend from eighteenth-century recipes for stretching cooked meat further under a layer of mashed potato, named for the modest cottage kitchens where the dish first took shape.

Listahan note

This version browns the minced beef in batches and cooks the tomato puree directly into the pan before any stock is added, building a base with real roasted flavor instead of a thin, watery mince.

Technique cues

Browning the minced beef in batches, rather than all at once, keeps the pan hot enough for the meat to sear instead of steaming in its own released liquid, which develops a deeper, roasted flavor.
Cooking the tomato puree directly with the meat and vegetables for a minute or two before adding liquid mellows its raw acidity and deepens its color into the filling.
Frozen peas go in only at the very end, since they need just a few minutes of residual heat to warm through and turn dull and mushy if simmered with everything else.
The mashed potato topping needs to reach the edges of the dish and seal against the sides, or the meat filling bubbles up and over the rim during baking.

Kitchen flow

Parallel prep: Prep any side dishes while Cottage Pie finishes with the floury potatoes — the hands-off cook time is the window to use. Everything else is quick — the bake is the one step that takes real time.
Make-ahead: Cottage Pie reheats well, so cooking it a day ahead and finishing it just before serving is a reasonable way to spread out the work. This one leans on the floury potatoes. Everything else is quick — the bake is the one step that takes real time.
Leftover move: Leftover Cottage Pie reheats well covered on the stove or in the oven with a splash of liquid; avoid the microwave, which tends to toughen the beef stock on a fast reheat. This one leans on the floury potatoes. Everything else is quick — the bake is the one step that takes real time.
Cleanup rhythm: Deglaze the pan used for Cottage Pie with a splash of water or broth right after cooking — it lifts the browned bits before they dry on and saves scrubbing later. This one leans on the floury potatoes. Plan around the bake; that's the slow part.

Ingredient brief

Role, handling, and swap guidance for each key ingredient.

500g minced beef

Main protein or body

Purpose: g minced beef gives Cottage Pie its main substance and carries the seasoning.

Handling: Pat dry, cut evenly, and season before cooking so browning or sauce coverage is consistent.