Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie

Cottage pie is one of those dishes we genuinely get excited about making, especially when the weather turns and you just want something proper and comforting on the table. Our plant-based version has all the deep, savoury richness you'd hope for, with a hearty mince base packed full of veg and a fluffy, golden mash on top that gets just a little crispy at the edges in the oven. It takes a bit of time but every minute is worth it, and the smell that fills your kitchen while it's bubbling away is absolutely incredible. Trust us on this one, once you've made it you'll be doing it on rotation all winter.

Cook: 85 min
Serves 6

Before You Start

  • Preheat oven to 200°C fan
  • Food processor
  • Large frying pan
  • Saucepan
  • Colander
  • Potato masher
  • Pie dish
  • Kitchen string
  • Potatoes boiled & drained (12-15 minutes, then steam dried 5 minutes)

Ingredients

  • 1kg Maris Piper potatoes
  • 30g plant-based butter
  • 150ml plant-based milk
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 large carrot
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 300g chestnut mushrooms
  • 250g firm tofu
  • 6 stalks of parsley
  • 6 sprigs of thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 ½ tbsp paprika
  • 4 tbsp tomato purée
  • 80g dried green lentils
  • 20g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1 tbsp brown rice miso paste
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method

1

Prepare the Ingredients and Start the Mince

  • Peel and chop the potatoes into large chunks. Put in a saucepan covered with cold water and a generous pinch of salt. Set over a high heat, bring to the boil and cook for 12-15 minutes. Drain into a colander and let steam dry for at least 5 minutes
  • Peel and dice the onion
  • Peel the carrots and cut into small cubes
  • Dice the celery
  • Peel and finely chop the garlic
  • Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic and saute for about 8 minutes, until beginning to soften
  • Add the mince ingredients and mushrooms to the food processor and pulse into a mince (you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your processor). You can also do this by hand
  • Crumble the tofu into chunks
  • With a piece of kitchen string, tie the parsley stalks, thyme sprigs and bay leaves together to make a bouquet garni
2

Return to the mince 

  • When the vegetables are soft, stir through the paprika and tomato puree and cook for 1 minute. Add the minced mushrooms, tofu and bouquet garni, turn the heat up to high and cook for 3 minutes until the mushrooms start to sweat then reduce the heat and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Next, add the lentils, porcini mushrooms and 500ml boiling water and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it catching. The filling is ready when the lentils are cooked through
  • Once cooked, stir through the miso paste and soy sauce. Taste and season to perfection with salt and pepper
3

Mash the potatoes

  • Tip the potatoes back into the pan. Add the plant-based butter and milk to the potatoes and mash until really smooth. Taste and season
4

Assemble the pie

  • Allow the filling to cool a little, then spoon into the pie dish. Spoon over the potato and spread it out with the back of a spoon, then drag over a fork to make rows that will catch and brown in the oven
5

Bake and serve

  • Preheat the oven to 200*C fan setting
  • Put the pie in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until starting to crispy and turn golden brown
  • Remove from the oven and serve the pie, piping hot in the middle of the table

Tips & Variations

  • Get the mash right: Let your potatoes steam dry in the colander for a full five minutes after draining. It makes a huge difference to the texture and means your topping holds up beautifully when you serve it.
  • Swap the mince: We love this with a good quality plant-based mince but it also works brilliantly with green or brown lentils if that's what you've got. Henry always bulks it out with a tin of lentils when he's feeding a crowd.
  • Make it ahead: This is one of those recipes that actually tastes even better the next day once everything has settled. Assemble the whole thing, stick it in the fridge uncooked, and bake it fresh when you're ready. It'll go in the oven cold so just add an extra ten minutes or so to the cooking time.

Why This Works

The trick here is building real depth in the mince base by letting it cook down properly and not rushing it. Those early steps of sweating the onion, carrot, celery and garlic low and slow lay the foundations for everything else, and once the rest goes in, all those flavours have time to get to know each other. The steam-dried mash is key too, because getting rid of that excess moisture before you mash means you end up with something fluffy and rich rather than watery and sad.