Black Bean and Vegetable Cottage Pie | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why is a cottage pie called a cottage pie? ›

The term cottage pie originated in England in the 18th Century to refer to a peasant food dish. It was a meal usually eaten by poorer people living in small cottages because the ingredients were affordable. Over time, it became more popular and was crowned cottage pie.

Add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, stock cube, bay leaf and salt and pepper to the mince mixture. Fill the tomato tin with water and add that as well. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes to reduce. Add the peas at the last minute and mix through.

The main difference between Cottage Pie and Shepherd's pie is cottage pie uses ground beef, and Shepherd's pie uses ground lamb. Both pies are cooked with vegetables and gravy and baked under a layer of mashed potatoes.

I'd say either your mash or cottage pie sauce isn't thick enough. Do you add milk to your mashed potato? I've found that mash made with no milk added stays on top far better.

Cottage pie is an English casserole that's traditionally made with minced meat (usually ground beef), gravy, vegetables, and mashed potatoes.

Flour power

A classic thickening method for a classic dish. A few tablespoons of flour, cooked-out so you can't taste it, turns a thin sauce into a velvety gravy of dreams.

Sometime in the 18th century, a dish called “cottage pie” came about somewhere in the vast expanse of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It seems to have originated as a way for folks to make use of leftovers, in order to avoid waste, both of the food and money varieties.

Mince beef and carrots combined with an onion gravy then topped with homemade light buttery mash and covered with a sprinkling of cheese.

How long can you keep Cottage Pie in the fridge? Once you've put it out, ideally you should eat it within 4 hours. If you allow any left overs to cool, make sure to refrigerate in a container with a lid and chill. You can keep leftovers of Cottage Pie in the fridge for approximately 3 days or so.

FOOLPROOF FREEZING

Make sure the pie is completely cold, then cover it well with cling film and freeze. Always freeze the pie on the day that you make it. Defrost in the fridge overnight, then cook as per the recipe.

What is the serving size of cottage pie? ›

It is a dish that originated around the time that potatoes were introduced in the UK (in the late 1700s). Potatoes were affordable ingredients that were often used by the peasants, who lived in cottages. So, "cottage pie" was an easy to make, affordable dish invented to fill peasant tummies.

Most workers ate their meat, potatoes and corn separately but workers of mainly Asian origins, combined their rations to create shepherd's pie, a more communal dish. The French-Canadian railway workers liked this new concoction, adopted the dish, and called it “pâté chinois”, which loosely translates to Chinese pie.

The dish originates from the British Isles, but some might argue that it is an Irish dish by origin. The name "Shepherd's Pie" was first recorded in an 1877 cookbook. In this same cookbook, it was noted that the dish was of Scottish origin. During the period between the 18th and 19th centuries, money was very tight.

It was brought to the U.S. from Europe," says Jesse Merrill, co-founder and CEO of Good Culture. "The story is that cottage cheese used to be made in farmhouses or cottages, where they would have an excess of milk from butter making and would use the extra milk to make cottage cheese," he says. Hence its name.