Beef and Butternut Squash Cottage Pie with Mash or Sweet Pot Mash

There is always a dispute in our house. When baking a pie we always disagree on what kind of potato should go on top. A very long time ago my son Ted and I would have voted for sweet potatoes. Nowadays I’m the only one who wants sweet potato. My husband Howard and Ted will always vote for white potatoes. So I decided to make a pie with half potato and half sweet potato.

The pie was made for 4 people so the final quarter of the pie I gave to my mum. My Mum is like me and likes sweet potato too. Since Dad passed away a few years ago I have been freezing our leftovers for her. Mum does not say no to free food and I knew that this meal would be very well received. I thought this might be a helpful recipe for people with a family like mine. We all loved it and we hope you do too.

Do you like normal potato or sweet potato and which one would you pick to put on your pie? Let me know in the comments below and please don’t forget to like, comment and follow me.

Equipment

• Vegetable peeler
• Sharp Knife
• Chopping board
• Baking tray
• Blender or Nutribullet
• Large saucepan
• Stirring spoon
• Tablespoon
• Teaspoon
• Large bowls x 2
• Baking dish

Ingredients

• Beef x 500g
• Butternut Squash x 1 large
• Bone broth or chicken stock
• Onion x 1
• Carrots x 2
• Courgettes x 2
• Red pepper x 1
• Dried mixed herbs x 1 tsp
• Tamari or soy sauce x 1 tbsp
• Potatoes x 500g
• Sweet potatoes x 500g
• Butter x 4 large nobs
• Milk x 20 – 50 mls
• Salt and pepper to your tastes
• Oil for the saucepan and drizzling.

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C or gas mark 4.
• Peel the butternut squash and remove the top and bottom from it.
• Slice it lengthways with the knife and cut it into small 2 centimetre pieces.
• Put the pieces into the baking tray and drizzle with oil and the dried mixed herbs.
• Sprinkle over salt and pepper to your tastes.
• Wash and pierce the potatoes with a sharp knife.
• If you can, add in the potatoes around the sides, but if not put into another baking tray underneath.
• Put the baking tray into the oven for around 30 – 40 minutes or until golden brown.
• Once cooked, remove the butternut squash and set aside until cool enough to touch.
• Put the potatoes back into the oven for another 20 minutes or until they are soft all the way through.
• You can put a knife in to test whether the potatoes are soft enough.
• If the potatoes are not soft, put back in until the are soft enough.
• When the butternut squash is cool, add it to the blender or nutribullet along with the broth or stock.
• If using a nutribullet you may want to do this bit by bit.
• Add a bit more salt and pepper to your taste.
• Now blend these ingredients together.
• Set the sauce aside.
• Peel, slice and dice the onion.
• Then peel the carrots and courgettes and slice them.
• Remove the top from the red pepper and discard the seeds and the stalk.
• Slice the flesh of the pepper and then dice it.
• By now the potatoes should be cooked so remove them from the oven and set side.
• Put the large saucepan onto a high heat and add oil to the base of the pan.
• When the pan is hot, add in the onion and fry until soft and see through.
• It should take around 5 minutes or so before this starts to happen.
• Add in the mince beef and fry until it starts to brown in the pan.
• Again this should take a good five minutes before it starts to happen.
• You may need to turn the heat down if the food starts to stick to the bottom of the pan.
• If this does happen, add a little bit of water from the kettle and it should help to loosen the stuck food.
• Now add in the carrots, courgettes and pepper to the saucepan.
• Fry these until they warm through slightly.
• Pour over the butternut squash sauce from earlier and bring everything to the boil.
• Then turn down the heat and leave to simmer.
• Cut the potatoes open and scoop out the insides.
• Put the potato into the bowl and the sweet potato into another bowl.
• Add half the butter to one bowl and half the butter to another bowl.
• Mash the potatoes and if necessary add a little milk.
• You may need more milk or a little less than the amount I have written in the ingredients.
• Just add the milk a little at time until you have a consistency you will enjoy eating.
• When the potato is mashed, set it aside.
• Now turn the heat off on the hob and remove the pie filling.
• Spoon the filling into the baking dish.
• Next spread the potato over one side of the pie and the sweet potato over the other side.
• Put the shepherd’s pie back into the oven for about 25 – 30 minutes or until the sweet potato is golden brown.
• Once the shepherd’s pie is golden brown remove from the oven and serve with a vegetable of your choice.
• Then enjoy.

Beef and Butternut Squash Cottage Pie with Mash or Sweet Pot Mash was very gratefully received in our house. My mum was very pleased to receive her frozen quarter too. As you may have guessed all of these ingredients are freezable. So you could make a big batch of the pie and freeze it for another meal. You can also make the beef and butternut squash sauce at the weekend then freeze this for an even quicker mid week dinner. However you decide to eat this dish, as always, please enjoy. Thank you xxx