Healthy cottage pie is a delicious, filling dish, perfect for cold winter days. This comforting meal contains 3 portions of veg, two in the meat sauce, and one in the topping. This easy gluten free cottage pie recipe is also great for meal prep and freezes well, making it ideal for healthy mid week dinners.
3 portions of veg
The bolognese sauce in this dish is packed with hidden veg: generous amounts of onion, carrot, tomato and white beans. Including beans in the recipe adds more fibre and vitamins, and also helps to make the meat go further. That's good for your health and budget!
Adding more veggies and less meat also lowers the calories and fat in this healthy cottage pie.
Using sweet potatoes makes for a lovely rich mash, and sweet potatoes count towards one of your five a day. (White potatoes don't, see more about eating your five a day.)
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Ingredients
Bolognese Sauce
Minced beef. A traditional cottage pie is made with beef. You could substitute minced lamb for the beef, and of course it would then become a healthy shepherd's pie! I use a 12% fat content minced beef for this recipe. It's a good balance with enough fat to provide some flavour and moistness, but not so fatty that it becomes greasy. If you prefer a lower fat cottage pie, then you could use 5% minced beef, or substitute the beef with this turkey bolognese recipe, which also includes spinach and beans. You could also use a healthy tuna bolognese to make this recipe.
Onions and carrot. As well as providing extra vegetables, onions and carrot add a good flavour to the sauce. Make sure to chop the onions fairly small so that they soften and cook through well. Sauteing the onion in a little olive oil at the start of the recipe allows it to brown and caramelise slightly which brings out the natural sweetness.
Canned tomatoes and tomato puree. Using both makes for a deeper tomato-y flavour. I used chopped tomatoes, but you could also use whole canned tomatoes - drain off some of the liquid, and squish them down in the pan as they cook.
Canned haricot beans. Beans are a great way to add extra fibre and veggies to your healthy cottage pie. It's important that the beans are ready cooked for this dish, so use either canned or precooked beans.
Garlic and mixed dried herbs. Both garlic and herbs add further flavour to the dish. You could add an extra clove of garlic if you prefer, and use fresh herbs instead. Thyme would work very well, or you could also use chopped fresh rosemary.
Cornflour. There'll be some nice tasty juices in the pan as the bolognese sauce cooks, and a little cornflour will help to thicken these. It's important that you stir the cornflour into cold water before adding it to the hot pan, otherwise it will go lumpy. Using cornflour to thicken the sauce makes this a gluten free cottage pie. (Note: cornflour is known as cornstarch in the US and some other countries, it's a fine white powder, and is not the same as cornmeal!)
Sweet Potato Mash
Sweet potatoes. As well as being healthy, sweet potatoes make a delicious topping to this cottage pie. You could either use all sweet potato, or a mix of sweet potato and white potato if you prefer.
Any leftover sweet potatoes are delicious in this vegetarian lasagne, or sweet potato and red pepper soup.
Seasoning. In this recipe I've seasoned the sweet potato topping with nutmeg as well as salt and pepper, which brings out the sweetness.
Butter. I use a relatively small amount of butter to make the mash, but if you prefer you could substitute olive oil instead.
How to make healthy cottage pie
Start by making the bolognese sauce so that it can be simmering away whilst you prep the sweet potato mash.
1. Fry the onion in olive oil until starting to brown. Add the minced beef and garlic and fry for a few more minutes until the beef starts to change colour.
2. Add the carrots, canned tomatoes and puree, seasoning and herbs. Cover the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
3. Stir the cornflour into a tablespoon of cold water, add the pan and stir well. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Stir in the drained haricot beans.
4. Whilst the meat is cooking, prepare the sweet potatoes. Scrub or peel and cut into even sized pieces. Simmer in boiling water until soft - they should take about 15 minutes.
Drain the potatoes well, and season to taste with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Then mash until completely smooth. If you are using sweet potatoes, you can mash with a hand blender or mixer. If you include white potatoes you'll need to mash by hand otherwise the potatoes will go gluey with an unpleasant texture. You can also crush the potatoes with a fork for a more rustic finish.
Spoon the meat sauce into an oven proof dish, and top with the sweet potato mash. You can use a fork to make ridges in the top of the mash which will brown nicely as it bakes. Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.
Meal prep tips
This healthy cottage pie is a flexible dish, ideal for busy days. If it's more convenient, you can make the pie ahead of time, and then bake it in the oven later. Healthy cottage pie is a perfect recipe to cook with the automatic timer on your oven if you're getting home late. But if you are in a rush, you could use the grill instead. If you have just cooked the meat sauce and sweet potato, and they are still warm, you could just pop the finished dish under the grill for a few minutes. This will brown the top and heat the pie through. But do take care as sweet potato can caramelise (burn!) quite fast, so keep an eye on it.
Cottage pie is usually cooked in one big dish, but I also sometimes use individual dishes. They look quite pretty, and if you are heating them under the grill, they heat through faster.
Serving and storage
Of course, healthy cottage pie will also freeze perfectly if you want to get ahead, or have some leftovers.
You can also freeze leftover bolognese sauce. It's perfect for this gluten free lasagne recipe, or moussaka made with courgettes.
Frequently asked questions
Adding lots of vegetables and beans is a great way to bulk out cottage pie and make your mince go further. Vegetables such as carrots and canned beans are much cheaper than mince, and you'll get 6 generous portions from 500g of meat with this healthy cottage pie recipe. Adding vegetables and beans also adds fibre and extra nutrients to the recipe, so it's a win win!
That does depend a little on the recipe. This healthy cottage pie has 369 calories per portion, but you could reduce that further by using 5% fat minced beef. You could also omit the butter or oil from the sweet potato mash and use some low fat Greek yogurt or cream cheese to cut the calories further.
This healthy cottage pie is a good, balanced and nutritious meal. It's got 3 portions of veg, and plenty plenty of protein and fibre. You could always add a portion of green salad or veggies on the side to make it even better for you!
Other healthy family meals
If you like this healthy cottage pie, you could also try this beef lasagne, spaghetti bolognese or savoury mince beef, all of which contain lots of veggies and are gluten free. This beef and bean hotpot has a golden layer of sliced potatoes. Or how about a comforting shin of beef or lamb mince stew, which are simple to make with budget friendly cuts of meat and plenty of vegetables.
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Recipe
Healthy Cottage Pie
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic peeled and very finely chopped or crushed
- 500 g minced beef 10-12% fat ideally
- 2 large carrots, washed and grated
- 400 g canned chopped tomato
- 2 tablespoon tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon mixed dried herbs
- salt and pepper
- 2 teaspoon cornflour
- 400 g canned haricot beans
Sweet Potato Mash
- 6 medium sweet potatoes
- 60 g butter or use olive oil if you prefer
- grated nutmeg to taste or use ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat a large frying pan and add the oil. Over a medium heat, fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the minced beef and the garlic and stir until the meat is browned.
- Add the tomatoes, puree, carrots, herbs and salt and pepper. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Stir 2 teaspoon cornflour into a splash of cold water. Stir the mixture into the pan and cook for a few minutes until thickened. Mix in the beans.
Mash topping
- Whilst the meat is simmering, prepare the sweet potatoes. Peel if desired (I usually just scrub them), and chop into smallish chunks. Simmer for around 15 minutes or until soft. Drain, season with salt, pepper and a pinch of ground nutmeg, and add the butter. Mash by hand or with a handheld mixer until there are no lumps.
Cooking
- Spoon the meat sauce into an ovenproof dish and add the sweet potato topping. Use a fork to create ridges in the potato. Bake at 180 degrees (160 degrees fan) until slightly browned and piping hot.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note nutritional information is per serving and is provided for guidance only.
Ian says
I've always added a tin of cheap baked beans to my own stews / cottage pies, the beans being another vegetable and the tomato sauce adds to the flavour. A two in one.
Wendy Faulkner says
Great idea! I also use baked beans in this beef and bean hotpot recipe.