My 'Bachelor' Cottage Pie Recipe

I promise not to blather on with endless filler (like every recipe on the internet) before I dive into the meat (literally) of this recipe:

Ingredients

  • 1 package (1.5 lb) lean ground beef
  • 1 medium onion, chopped (frozen chopped onions work!)
  • 1 package onion soup mix
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (15oz)
  • 1 can Beef Gravy (12oz)
  • 1 bag Frozen Mixed vegetables (Corn, Carrots, Peas, Green Beans, Cauliflower)
  • 1 pre-made Pie Crust (as bottom crust) [This can be skipped!]
  • 4 cups instant potatoes (directions as per package - needs water, salt, milk & butter)
  • Small amount of Paprika for Top
01

This 'Bachelor' recipe needs a little preparation for a warm, filling and delicious meal for two or more. My version doesn't require hard to find ingredients (Worcestershire Sauce) or weird spices (Montreal Steak?) you don't have in your pantry. A single trip to any supermarket can get you all the ingredients and you can batch make many of these at once. Here's my haul (pictured inset) - minus the milk and butter needed to make the Potato Flakes. I also subbed frozen onions instead of that red onion, because I hate cutting onions. I always cry.

Cooking Directions

  1. Brown onions and beef on medium heat on stove-top. Drain the grease. Reduce heat to low and stir in beef gravy, can of diced tomatoes and onion soup mix. 05
  2. Toss in the frozen vegetables now and stir everything and reheat to a low boil. (To bulk out your cottage pie, try adding baked beans!) Remove from heat once it starts to boil. The real cooking happens in the oven. 06
  3. Line your baking dishes with Pie Crust to make it easier to remove and cook. You can skip this step if you're cutting down on carbs or are gluten intolerant. I made a template for my small loaf pans, and used it to cut the round pie crusts to fit. 03
    I managed to get 3 full loafs - using the scraps of the cuts from the first two, I used my rolling pin to re-flatten it to size and make 3 pan templates. 04
  4. Best make the mashed potatoes now. Follow the box directions. I only made two cups at first, but needed 4 cups to cover my 4 finished Cottage Pies. 07
  5. Fill your baking dish about half way with meat & vegetable mixture. Then add the prepared instant mashed potatoes on top. I fork them in around the edges, and then fill in the empty center. Sprinkle some paprika on top of mashed potatoes. Foil wrap and freeze if you aren't cooking it now. 08
  6. Place the baking dish in a preheated 400°F oven and cook for about 30-45 minutes. I put a pan underneath it to catch drippings if the filling overflowed. I removed the foil about 15 minutes before the timer was up to allow the potato topping to brown up. Leaving the foil on prevents the potatoes from drying out completely. 09
    This is my Cottage Pie after being removed from the oven. The corners show the boiling filling coming up, and the edges are crispy and brown around the perimeter. 10
    These small loaf pans are enough for two servings (a quick home made meal for two!) I used my spatula to cut my dish in half. Look at that gorgeous cross-section! Note the clean pan due to my use of the pie crust lining - makes for an easy cleanup if you used a real dish (vs. my disposable aluminum pans). 11
    Sorry I did a horrible job of plating the meal. Took a picture of the second half for a better looking plate. I did enjoy eating it! It was delicious and had all the flavor you'd expect. The Onion Soup and Diced Tomatoes are doing a lot of flavor lifting. 12
    I purposely limited the salt when I made this (and used salt-reduced cans) and I should have not been as stringent - I ended up salting the dish to make it really pop (which is proper to let your guests choose how much salt to add)

Let my Bather Begin!

I tossed two of the finished Cottage Pies into the freezer, and the other one (sans crust) in the fridge for reheating later this week. They'll last weeks in the freezer, and about 5 days in the fridge. To reheat from frozen, sprinkle a little water on top, cover with kitchen foil and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes until piping hot in the middle. Leave covered with tin foil until the final 15 minutes then remove to brown the mashed potatoes before serving.

Alterations and Customizations

Of course, if you enjoy making mashed potatoes from Russett Potatoes boiled on your stove - go ahead! You want to make it a Shepherd's Pie and use Lamb instead of Beef? That'll work! Think corn shouldn't be in there? Don't include it! Think cheddar cheese should be melted on top of there? Add it!

Make this meal your favorite comfort food by customizing the entire thing to your tastes. My goal was high repeatability and heavy reliance on pre-packaged food. I don't want to stock potatoes. I don't want to make pie crusts. I don't want to make gravy out of bullion and flour when I can buy it. I can brown ground beef easily, and making Potato flakes is simple. The rest is stirring and dispensing. Easy, even for a Bachelor!

If you enjoyed this recipe, and want to see more; I detailed my Breakfast Burrito back in January with far less photos, then showed you How To Make Pot Lollipops back in 2020. When I was trying vegetarianism a decade ago, I posted My DIY Vegetarian Chili Recipe and Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe from 2015. I also still make 2014's (Bachelor Style) Black Bean Quinoa (BBQ) Salad all the time!