Leftover Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

In this easy leftover lamb shepherd’s pie, leftover roast lamb is heated in a flavoursome gravy, topped with soft and fluffy mashed potato, and then baked in the oven until golden and crispy.

Jump to:

• What is Shepherds Pie?
• Ingredients notes and substitutions
• How to make shepherds pie with leftover lamb
• FAQ
• Making Ahead:
• Serving Ideas
• Variations
• More leftover lamb recipes:
• Leftover Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

What is Shepherds Pie?

Shepherds pie is a classic English dish of lamb topped with mashed potato – essentially a lamb pie. It is warming, filling, and delicious comfort food. Like its beef cousin, cottage pie, it is a wonderful recipe to use leftover meat and create a tasty family dinner.

Traditional shepherds pie is often made with lamb mince, but in this recipe I have used leftover roast lamb leg.

Growing up, my mum often made a lamb shepherd’s pie a day or two after we had had a roast lamb dinner. It was an easy family friendly meal that utilised leftovers, and a delicious recipe for using up leftover roast lamb.

Ingredients notes and substitutions

For a full list of ingredients, and quantities, please see the recipe card below.

• Lamb – leftover roast lamb or slow cooker lamb, both shoulder of lamb and lamb leg are fine to use, or even lamb shanks.
• Olive oil – or use some leftover lamb fat or lamb drippings from your roast.
• Brown onion – or a red onion.
• Celery – if you don’t have celery you can leave it out.
• Carrots – I use fresh carrots here, but if you have leftover carrots or even parsnips they would be a tasty addition!
• Garlic – use 2 fresh garlic cloves, crushed, or 2 teaspoons of jarred minced garlic.
• Fresh rosemary –  or use a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme.
• Tomato puree – concentrated tomato puree or tomato paste.
• Stock – use beef stock, chicken stock, homemade vegetable stock or a stock cube mixed with boiling water. If you have a spoonful or two of leftover gravy, add it in with the stock.
• Worcestershire sauce – this is optional, however it adds a another layer of flavour to the sauce.
• Potatoes – I recommend using floury potatoes such as King Edwards or Maris Piper if you are in the UK, Sebago or Dutch cream if you are in Australia, or Russet in the US.
• Butter – salted butter or unsalted butter are both fine to use.
• Milk – full fat milk makes the richest mashed potato, but use whichever milk you have to hand.

How to make shepherds pie with leftover lamb

1. Finely chop the leftover lamb into equal sized pieces.
2. In a large frying pan cook the onion, carrots and celery in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft.
3. Add the garlic and finely chopped rosemary, cook for a minutes then stir in the tomato puree and cook for 1 minute. Cooking the tomato puree brings out its flavour, creating a richer flavoured lamb sauce.
4. Add the chopped lamb, then pour in the stock, Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer. If you have a spoonful of leftover gravy, add it in with the stock.
5. While the lamb mixture is cooking, cook the potatoes: boil the potatoes in salted water until tender – when you insert a butter knife into one it should be tender.
6. Drain the potatoes well then add the butter, milk and salt, and mash until smooth using a potato masher.
7. Place the lamb into the bottom of an oven-proof baking dish or casserole dish.
8. Spoon over the mashed potato and smooth.
9. With a fork, drag lines across the top – these will become crispy in the oven.
10. Place the pie in a preheated oven and bake until golden.

FAQ

Making Ahead:

Because this is made with leftover lamb, I recommend that you cook the shepherds pie as soon as you have heated the lamb in the carrot and onion stock.

You can, however, make the mashed potato a couple of days beforehand.

Serving Ideas

• Peas – as in these photos – is a classic, and a simple side. Or sweetcorn, steamed broccoli or cauliflower florets.

Variations

As this recipe is often made with leftover lamb roast, it is also a great recipe to use up other leftovers from your roast dinner:

Leftover potatoes: if you have leftover mashed potato or roast potatoes, use these to top the lamb mixture (alternatively make them into cheese and onion rolls or a Spanish tortilla).

Leftover vegetables: root vegetables such as roast or boiled carrots or parsnips can either be finely chopped and stirred into the lamb mixture before spooning into the baking dish or mashed with the potatoes for a topping. Cauliflower makes a great pie topping, just mash with the potatoes. Peas or beans – stir through the lamb before baking.

Leftover gravy: makes a rich and delicious lamb sauce! Depending on the amount of gravy you have to use up, either stir a spoonful or two through the lamb mixture before adding in the baking dish, or if you have more, reduce the amount of stock slightly and add the gravy halfway through reheating the lamb.

More leftover lamb recipes:

Here are some more of our favourite leftover roast lamb recipes: