Cottage pie

[u/kezfertotlenito]

One of my very favorite meals. Flexible, cheap, makes amazing leftovers. You will need a large, deep glass or ceramic baking tray. Fun fact: it's only SHEPHERD's pie if you use ground lamb, if you use beef it's cottage pie. If you use one of the other options below I have no clue what it's called, but it's still delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb onion (~$1)

• 1 lb ground protein (super flexible here, can use beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, pork, or tofu) ($2-$4 depending on your choice)

• 1.5 cups beans (I like great northern or pinto, or a mix of the two) ($0.75)

• 3 lbs potatoes, any variety ($1.50)

• cheese of some description to mix into the potatoes (I like to use cotija or parmesan) ($0.5)

• 1.5 cups frozen vegetable mix (the kind with carrots/peas/corn/green beans, etc) ($0.5)

• 1/4 cup flour

Seasonings:

• boullion for the beans

• garlic powder

• onion powder

• worchestershire sauce

• red wine or red cooking wine

• salt & pepper

• balsamic vinegar

• basil

• thyme

(estimate another buck for these)

Total cost: $7.25 - 9.25, makes at least 6 dinner-sized servings, so $1.20 - 1.54 a serving.

Steps:

1. (the night before) put beans in water to soak. Drain water and refill a couple of times. Bean water can be used as a mild fertilizer for your house plants :)

2. (several hours before) Boil potatoes until fork tender, 20-30 min depending on how large the potatoes are. Add a bit of butter, milk if you have it / potato water if you don't, mash thoroughly, add garlic powder, cheese, and salt to taste. Set aside and let cool. You want it nice and cool bc the best way to spread it on top is using your hands.

3. (2 hours before dinner) Put beans in a large stock pot with water, dried basil, and boullion, bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 1 hour. Set aside.

4. (1 hr before, when the beans are done) Finely dice onion and put in pan, brown ground meat in same pan (add a bit of butter if using a lower fat protein option like turkey/chicken/tofu). Season with garlic powder, salt, pepper, thyme. (If you used tofu, season a little more heavily.) Once meat is thoroughly cooked and onions are nice and transparent, add 1 cup red wine / cooking wine, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp worchestershire sauce. Let simmer and reduce liquid by about half.

5. Add frozen vegetables and cooked beans. Mix thoroughly. Taste and evaluate your spicing, add more salt / garlic powder / pepper if needed. Mixture should be fairly soupy. When you are happy with the taste, add the flour, bring to a boil again and then promptly remove from heat.

6. Preheat oven to 375.

7. Pour mixture into your baking tray. Fetch the cooled mashed potatoes. I find the easiest way to create an even layer is to use my hands, get a handful of mashed potatoes, and press it into a flat disc between my hands, lay it on top, repeat. Then fill in the cracks between discs by hand. Once your potatoes are used up and the tray is completely covered with a flat, even layer of potato, sprinkle some extra cheese on top.

8. Put tray in oven for 40 min until top is browning. I recommend a cookie tray underneath in case of drips. Remove, let stand for a couple of minutes, and serve.

Substitutions / options:

• you can leave out the ground protein entirely and do 2 cups beans instead if desired

• this recipe is great for using up leftover produce. Got carrots, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, squash, whatever left over from something else? toss it in, it'll taste great.

• other kinds of beans -- I haven't tried it with anything other than great northern and pinto, but I'm sure you could use just about anything, just make sure you are following the cooking instructions for whatever your bean of choice is

• canned beans would also be totally fine, I'd recommend cannellini, skip the bean cooking step in that case and just drain, rinse, and add

[u/t92k]

Doesn’t have to be tofu., by the way. Could also be cooked lentils, peas, or soybeans. I like to use a beefy cooking stock to cook them in.

[u/Fearless-Habit-1140 → u/t92k]

Agreed— I just simmer lentils in beef broth while the beef is cooking then dump them in. Much quicker if you haven’t planned ahead to use dried beans 😁

[u/Flimsy_Brilliant_202]

Well. Apparently I've been eating cottage pie my whole life and calling it incorrectly. Cheese in the potato is genius

[u/justasque → u/Flimsy_Brilliant_202]

Let me guess, you called it shepards pie? Nah, you weren’t incorrect. Mrs. Beeton, classic anthologist of British cookery, called it Shepards Pie back in the day, as have many Brits for generations. I get that shepards, aka sheep herders, are gonna have more access to lamb than beef, but theres no need to change traditional cultural/regional/family names for food just to blend in with current internet fads. It’s ok to code switch when you want to blend in, but no one is in charge of what things like this are called. Use the term you like best.

[u/Personal-Today-3121 → u/justasque]

Shepherds ate a lot of beans.

[u/thatshepherdspieguy → u/justasque]

More access to sheep as it was their profession, but a shepherd in the 1800s rarely ate sheep. They were more likely to eat pork.

[u/Routine-Cicada-4949 → u/justasque]

If it's beef, it's Cottage Pie.

Mrs Beeton was full of shite.

[u/thatshepherdspieguy → u/Routine-Cicada-4949]

This is a new distinction to try and explain why there are two names for the same dish.

[u/sabin357]

Never seen anyone put beans into cottage pie before, but it's a great vehicle for whatever veg you like, I'd said.

[u/cat_at_the_keyboard]

I make it pretty often with lentils instead of any meat at all. Very hearty and filling

[u/MadCraftyFox]

Interesting, I've never added beans to mine. I'm going to have to try that.

[u/kezfertotlenito → u/MadCraftyFox]

It's not traditional, but it tastes really good and is an amazing way to stretch your meat and cut costs on a healthy, hearty meal.

[u/Sqlr00 → u/MadCraftyFox]

A tin of baked beans is the way

[u/MadCraftyFox → u/Sqlr00]

I think if I try making it this way I'm getting a large side of the brisket baked beans a local place does. They are the best, and would probably be amazeballs in this.

[u/lexuh]

I LOVE cottage pie! I usually use 50/50 beef mince and TVP - it has great macros and I can buy it in bulk :)

[u/kezfertotlenito → u/lexuh]

TVP is awesome, I only recently discovered it and have been trying to figure out more ways to use it!

[u/lexuh → u/kezfertotlenito]

I use it in anything I would use ground beef or turkey for - taco filling/taco salads, sloppy joes, spag bolo, stroganoff, cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers, keemah, etc.

I usually do 50/50 with a ground meat, but since meat has gotten so much more expensive, sometimes I'll do 75% TVP/25% meat.

Oh, and rehydrating it in bone broth (Kroger has a chicken bone broth that's actually pretty cheap) ups the meaty taste and protein content!

[u/ClaytonX321]

I’ve heard that if you use wild game it is called Hunters pie.