Your Family's New Fave Winter Dish

Emily's Cottage Pie

Emily Wilke

11/9/20232 min read

This hearty comfort food dish is packed with veggies & protein, but will have your kiddos requesting it weekly! I first found the recipe in Cooking Light over 15 years ago, but I've made tweaks over the years. Recipe is below...ENJOY!

English Cottage Pie

serves 6

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef (I do 90% lean ground sirloin)

  • 1 bag Frozen Pearl Onions, thawed (you can also do diced onion)

  • 3/4 cup Carrot, peeled & diced

  • 1 TB Flour

  • 1 TB Butter, softened

  • 8oz Sliced White Mushrooms

  • 2 TB Tomato Paste

  • 1 c Fat Free Beef Broth

  • Pepper & Salt, to taste

  • 1/4 c Fresh Parsley (Or 1 TB dried)

  • 1 TB Thyme Leaves, dried

  • 3 c Mashed Potatoes (hack: Ore Ida steam n' mash frozen make this easier)

  • 1 cup Cheddar Cheese, finely shredded

Directions

Preheat Oven to 350

  1. Brown & crumble ground beef in large pan lightly coated in cooking spray or a healthy oil, drain excess grease. Before completely cooked, add pearl onions (these give it a heartier flavor/texture & my kids love them) & carrots - let cook 5 minutes, or until softened.

  2. While veggies/meat cook, combine butter & flour in small, separate bowl until well mixed.

  3. Add mushrooms to pan with meat & veggies. Let soften.

  4. Then, in pan, add tomato paste & stir until it coats beef & veggies well. Then, add beef broth, salt, pepper, parsley, & thyme leaves. Let all flavors simmer on low for 5 minutes.

  5. Add flour/butter mixture & stir well until entire contents are thickened.

  6. Spoon the entire contents of pan into greased square or round glass baking dish.

  7. Top contents with mashed potatoes (I do the Ore Ida ones when I don't have time to make from scratch - takes 10 minutes to heat in microwave so I do this while cooking the rest)

  8. Top mashed potato/meat mixture with shredded cheddar cheese. Because it can get bubbly, I also put a cookie sheet under the glass dish in case cheese overflows.

  9. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Scoop out & serve

This one is such a crowd pleaser, it's healthy, and it's easy to modify. You could easily add peas, green beans, corn, etc to this mixture. It's an awesome way to get veggies in & it tastes awesome! ENJOY!