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.
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What is Shepherds Pie?
Shepherds pie is a classic English dish of lamb topped with mashed potato – essentially a lamb pie.
Traditional shepherds pie is made with lamb mince, but in the recipe I have used leftover roast lamb leg.
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.
How to make shepherds pie from leftover lamb
- Finely chop the leftover lamb – you can use leftover lamb shoulder or leg.
- Heat through with garlic, fresh rosemary and stock.
- Top with soft mashed potato.
- Bake!
FAQ
Shepherds Pie is made with lamb, Cottage Pie is made with beef.
Vegetables, such as peas or sweetcorn, or simply leafy salad such as this pear and walnut salad.
Up to 3 days.
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.
More recipe for leftovers:
I hate wasting food and love creating different dishes from leftovers. Here are our favourites –
Leftover roast lamb recipes:
Leftover roast chicken recipes:
Leftover Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
Author: Robyn
Ingredients
- 500 g leftover roast lamb finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion finely diced
- 1 celery stick finely diced
- 2 carrots finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 500 ml stock
- dash Worcestershire sauce optional
- salt
- black pepper
Mashed Potatoes:
- 800 g floury potatoes peeled and chopped into cubes
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 60 ml milk
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200˚C fan/ 220˚C/ 392˚F convection/ 428˚F
- In a medium saucepan over a low heat, add the olive oil then cook the onion, carrots and celery until soft for about 10 minutes
- Add the crushed garlic and finely chopped rosemary and cook for 1 minute before adding the tomato puree.
- Add the chopped lamb, stock, Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper, bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the potatoes:
- Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, until soft.
- Drain well then add the butter, milk and salt and mash until smooth.
- Place the lamb into the bottom of a 20 x 27 cm (7.8 x 10.5") or similar size, baking dish.
- Spoon over the mashed potato and smooth.
- With a fork, drag lines across the top – these will get extra crispy.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
- Eat straight away.
Notes
Nutrition
HAVE YOU MADE THIS RECIPE?
I’d love to see your creation!
Or just leave a comment below!
Sarah says
OMG this was soooooooo good. Had leftover lamb and leftover garlic mashed potatoes so I used those on top. Otherwise followed the recipe and now we are fighting over who gets the leftover shepherds pie🤣
Robyn says
So happy to hear you enjoyed this Sarah! Garlic mashed potatoes on the top sounds sooo good!
Kate says
Can I use gravy from.the night before Instead of stock
Robyn says
Yes you can, it sounds like a delicious way to use up the gravy Kate 🙂
hannah says
Hello – I’d like to make this but freeze it. Is it better to freeze the meat part and make potato topping when defrosted? Or make the whole thing and freeze it? I appreciate there’s probably no fixed answer but your professional opinion would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you
Robyn says
Hi Hannah, you can do either! It really depends on whether you want to cook the mashed potato topping, or have a meal in the freezer that doesn’t need any prep – If you freeze the whole pie, cool it completely before you freeze it, then you can place the shepherds pie in the oven from frozen and cook at 160C/140C fan/320F for 1 hour to 1.5 hours, until the pie is piping hot all the way through. Hope this helps! Robyn
Alex says
This is such a delicious recipe and an ideal way to enjoy leftovers. We will be doing this from now on when we have roast lamb – I actually think I enjoyed the pie more than I did the original roast 😀
Robyn says
I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed the pie. I’m the same – I make a lamb roast just so we can then have this pie!