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I grew up with shepherds pie as one of our staple meals – We never ate beef so I didn’t have a cottage pie until I made one myself. Since then I have regularly cooked a traditional cottage pie but served with mash rather than made into a pie with a potato topping – creating my ‘lazy’ cottage pie.

It’s so, so simple that it’s now one of my favourite slow cooker recipes, something we often have for Sunday lunch as an alternative to a roast dinner and it’s so much cheaper than slow cooker chicken meals. Mince is a staple food in our house for a main dish and cottage pie is the ultimate comfort food.

This is great as a midweek meal or a really filling family meal on a weekend. Making it in the crock pot means you can put it on in the morning knowing that it will be ready when you are in the evening – and your whole house will smell fantastic too. This lazy version means that the pie is ready quicker than a traditional pie and takes less work to create too.

Slow Cooker 'Lazy' Cottage Pie Recipe — Slow Cooker ‘Lazy’ Cottage Pie with mash

Can you vary cottage pie?

This is a healthy basic slow cooker cottage pie recipe but you can use it as a way of using up pretty much any vegetables you have in the cupboard or fridge – we love adding green beans when we have them.

If you’d prefer a slow cooker shepherds pie you can substitute the ground beef with lamb mince and lamb stock instead of beef mince and beef stock. You can even add a good splash of Worcestershire Sauce for a bit of a kick too if you like.

Can you freeze the Lazy Cottage Pie?

This cottage pie slow cooker recipe freezes really well so you can batch cook and freeze the beef mixture knowing that next time you have it for dinner at home you only have the mashed potatoes to prepare.

The depth of flavour really increases when it’s been frozen too, adding even more flavour to a really wholesome, hearty meal. This recipe is so easy to double up – I usually make extra every time.

Serve this lazy cottage pie filling with mash – potatoes or sweet potatoes – or if you’d like a proper cottage pie, put in an ovenproof dish, top with mash and grill until browned.If you have an oven proof slow cooker dish you can just add mash and put the whole slow cooker pot under the grill!

You could even just use instant potatoes if you wanted! I love how versatile this recipe is, giving you whatever cottage pie you like each and every time.

If you’re looking for more recipes to try why not give our Slow Cooker Beef Chilli, Slow Cooker Beef Rogan Josh or Slow Cooker Lasagne a try? You can find all our recipes to date here.

So here’s our easy Slow Cooker ‘Lazy’ Cottage Pie Recipe

Ingredients

spray oil
1 kg mince beef
2 onions chopped
3 carrots chopped
3 celery sticks chopped
200 g frozen peas
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 tablespoon tomato puree
250 ml red wine
500 ml beef stock
4 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves

Instructions

Spray a large pan with oil and fry the minced beef until browned. Transfer to the slow cooker.
Add the vegetables, stir in the flour and add the rest of the ingredients.
Cook on low for 8 hours.
Serve with mash or if you’d like a ‘proper’ cottage pie, put in an ovenproof dish, top with mash and grill until browned.

If you’d like to print or pin the Slow Cooker ‘Lazy’ Cottage Pie Recipe for later you can do so below. Enjoy!

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