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. It is warming, filling, and delicious comfort food. Like its beef cousin, the 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
- Finely chop the leftover lamb into equal sized pieces.
- In a large frying pan cook the onion, carrots and celery in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Drain the potatoes well then add the butter, milk and salt, and mash until smooth using a potato masher.
- Place the lamb into the bottom of an oven-proof baking dish or casserole dish.
- Spoon over the mashed potato and smooth.
- With a fork, drag lines across the top – these will become crispy in the oven.
- Place the pie in a preheated oven and bake until golden.
FAQ
Shepherds Pie is made with lamb, Cottage Pie is made with beef.
Cooked lamb should keep in the fridge for 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.
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:
Leftover Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
Author: Robyn
Equipment
- 20 x 27 cm (7.8 x 10.5") oven proof dish
Ingredients
- 500g (18 oz) 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
- 500ml (2 c) stock
- dash Worcestershire sauce optional
- salt
- black pepper
Mashed Potatoes:
- 800g (1.75 lb) floury potatoes peeled and chopped into cubes
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 60ml (¼ c) 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 and diced onion, carrots and celery and cook until soft – this takes around 10 minutes.
- Add the crushed garlic and finely chopped rosemary and cook for 1 minute before adding the tomato puree. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add the chopped cooked lamb, stock, Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil, then turn the heat down slightly and simmer for 15 minutes.
Cook the Potatoes:
- Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
- Drain well, then add the butter, milk and salt and mash with a potato masher 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 out with the back of a spoon.
- With a fork, drag lines across the top of the mashed potato – these will become crispy in the oven.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
- Eat straight away.
Notes
Nutrition
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