Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie

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Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie is one of the best ways to use up Sunday lunch leftovers. A classic, comforting dinner with deliciously tender chunks of leftover meat in a rich, tasty gravy.

I love a good cottage pie. Super comfort food, that’s, as far as I’m concerned, the perfect mid-week family dinner. 

It’s filling, it’s got meat, veg and potatoes in one pot, and it’s all topped with cheese! Perfect!

Even better, cottage pie is so simple. There are no fancy ingredients, you can make substitutions easily, and there’s no complicated method. 

The only thing that ever makes a cottage pie better, in my opinion, is if you make it with chunks of beef instead of mince. 

Chunks of slow-cooked beef take on all the flavour of the rich gravy and fall apart in your mouth. The texture is just so much better than with mince. 

This is why making Cottage Pie with Leftover Roast Beef is always a fantastic idea!

How Should You Cut Leftover Roast Beef to Make Cottage Pie?

When it comes to the leftover roast beef, if you like your cottage pie with mince, you might want to shred the beef or at least chop it as small as you can. 

However, I really like chunks of meat. I chop mine into fairly small cubes, around 1cm. I just love the texture of slightly chunkier meat. 

It wouldn’t hurt if you wanted them bigger, especially if you’ve got quite a lot of leftover meat. 

Ingredients for Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie

When I make Leftovers Cottage Pie, I like to keep things really simple, just like when I make Traditional Cottage Pie.

As well as the chunks of beef, I add onions, carrots, and peas for some veggies. Then, the gravy is beef stock, red wine, tomato puree, Henderson’s Relish, and mixed herbs. 

The red wine is optional; you can just add more stock instead, but I think it gives it a really yummy, rich flavour. 

You can also add extra water if the stock and wine don’t cover the other ingredients. 

The mashed potato topping is just fluffy white potatoes, like King Edwards, mashed with butter, milk and a pinch of salt and pepper. I then top it all with mature cheddar. 

Cheddar cheese is ideal for Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie Recipe because it melts really well, but you can use mild instead if you prefer. 

What Do You Bake a Cottage Pie in?

I bake my Cottage Pie Made from Leftover Roast Beef in a cast-iron dish (affiliate link). 

Because it’s both flame-proof and oven-proof, I can simmer the cottage pie middle on the hob before topping with mash and cheese and baking in the oven without having to change pans. 

If you don’t have anything suitable for both the hob and the oven, simmer your filling in a large frying pan (af link) before tipping it into an ovenproof dish (af link) to bake once topped with mash and cheese. 

How to Make Cottage Pie with Leftover Roast Beef

This Recipe for Cottage Pie with Leftover Roast Beef is so easy.

It’s just a case of frying some onions, adding the beef, veg and the ingredients for the gravy and simmering for around an hour until it’s reduced and the flavours have developed. 

Then top with creamy mash (prepare this while your pie filling simmers) and cheese and bake. 

What to Serve with Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie?

Perhaps one of the best things about Leftover Roast Cottage Pie is that it’s got everything. 

You can serve it with extra peas or more veg. But you can also just serve as it is. 

What Can You Make with Leftover Roast Beef?

I love cooking with leftover roast beef. Cooking the beef twice means that it’s super soft and gorgeous. Some of my other favourite recipes with leftover roast beef include:

• Leftover Roast Beef Fried Rice
• Leftover Roast Beef Chilli
• Leftover Beef Hotpot
• Leftover Roast Beef Stroganoff
• Leftover Beef Curry
• Beef Ragu
• Leftover Beef Burritos

Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie

Author NameAuthor: Donna

Leftover Roast Beef Cottage Pie is one of the best ways to use up Sunday lunch leftovers. A classic, comforting dinner, with deliciously tender chunks of leftover meat in a rich, tasty gravy.

4.50 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine British

Servings 4 Servings

Calories 815 kcal

Ingredients

  

• Cooking Spray
• 1 Red Onion (Finely diced)
• 500 g Leftover Roast Beef (Chopped into small chunks)
• 250 ml Red Wine
• 4 Medium Carrots (Peeled and roughly sliced)
• 150 g Frozen Peas
• 500 ml Beef Stock
• 2 tablespoons Tomato Puree
• Splash Henderson’s Relish
• 2 teaspoons Dried Mixed Herbs

For the Mashed Potato:

• 1 kg White Potatoes (Like King Edwards, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks)
• 100 ml Milk
• 50 g Butter
• Pinch Salt and pepper
• 200 g Cheddar Cheese (Grated)

Instructions

 

• Heat the oil or spray in a large flame-proof dish or frying pan on the hob.
• Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes until soft.
• Add the beef and red wine and stir together.
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring often for 3 minutes.
• Add the carrots and peas and stir.
• Pour in the stock, add the tomato puree, Henderson’s, and herbs, and add extra water, if needed, to cover the meat and veg.
• Bring to a simmer before reducing the temperature.
• Simmer for around 1 hour, stirring often until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
• While the sauce is simmering, prepare your potatoes by boiling them for around 20 minutes until soft, draining and mashing with the milk, butter, salt and pepper until smooth.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (fan-assisted).
• Remove the pie mix from the heat and transfer it into an oven-proof dish if needed.
• Top carefully with the mash and sprinkle over the grated cheese.
• Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and golden.

Notes

• Anything over 400g of leftover beef is enough. Any less than that and you might want to add extra veggies or reduce the other ingredients too.
• If you can’t get Henderson’s use Worchester Sauce or skip.
• I make my cottage pie in a cast-iron dish, which can be used on the hob and in the oven. If you don’t have anything like this, use a frying pan, and then transfer it into an oven-proof dish.

Any nutritional information is given as a general guide only and may not be accurate. The information is provided using an online calculator and is specific to my ingredients. Please make your own calculations if you want precise information.

Keyword comfort food, leftover roast beef recipes

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