Alternative cottage pie
Masterchef Australia calls it a 'mystery box challenge', I call it 'need to get some groceries, what's left in the fridge?'. Tonight the answer was, an onion, mince beef, a carrot, half a bag of new potatoes, a couple of mushrooms and some spinach along with a few cupboard staples.So I made an 'alternative' cottage pie.
We really enjoyed this and the crispy bits of the crushed new potatoes on top were delicious. Plus there were leftovers for lunches!
Ingredients
-
500g mince beef (I always use lean but up to you)
-
1 carrot
-
1 onion
-
2 cloves garlic
-
3/4 mushrooms
-
Handful baby spinach
-
Half tin of sweetcorn
-
8-10 new potatoes (there were some quite large ones in the bag I had so I halved them before crushing)
-
1 stock cube or stock pot (I used vegetable but beef also works!)
-
200ml water
-
1 tbls olive oil
Method
-
Preheat oven to 180oC (fan)
-
Brown mince and add onion, carrot and garlic, cook gently until onion is softened
-
Boil potatoes until cooked through, drain, crush (I use the back of a spoon) and toss through 1 tbls olive oil, salt and pepper
-
Add mushrooms, sweetcorn and crumble stock cube into mince and cook for a further 5 minutes
-
Add spinach and water to mince and cook for 5 minutes until water reduces
-
Transfer mince to an oven proof dish and top with potatoes
-
Cook in oven for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are lightly browned and crispy