Instant Pot Cottage Pie. How to cook a delicious cottage pie in the instant pot pressure cooker from scratch. Ideal for using up leftovers, it is gluten free, healthy, and easy to tweak to make a vegan or vegetarian cottage pie.
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Instant Pot Cottage Pie
Do you know what our instant pot cottage pie, instant pot lamb shank, and instant pot bangers and mash all have in common?
They are all cooked in the instant pot using the instant pot mashed potatoes trick.
This is where you cook your meat below and your mash above at the same time. The potatoes that you will mash will be sat in the steamer basket and cook with your meat. That way you are cooking everything in one pot and then you mash your potatoes while your meat cools.
It saves on washing up and the meat (because of the steam) is flavouring the potatoes. Giving you the most delicious mashed potatoes, you have ever tried.
Its one of my favourite uses of the instant pot and it brings a smile to my face as I share with you how easy it is to make a homemade instant pot cottage pie.
What Is Cottage Pie?
Cottage pie is a popular meat and potatoes dish. If I were explaining cottage pie to an American, I would call it a recipe for shepherd’s pie with ground beef or ground beef mashed potatoes. Though to us Brits cottage pie is a comforting meal of mashed potatoes and minced beef.
However, if you checked a dictionary the cottage pie definition would be a British dish of minced beef with a mashed potato crust served with gravy.
- Why is cottage pie called a cottage pie? The name cottage pie goes back to the end of the 18th century. People from poor households that lived in cottages started using potatoes each day. They would then serve it with any meat they had available and the name cottage pie started and of course has followed on for many years. Also for that reason cottage pie is often mixed and matched with what vegetables you have and what meat you have.
- Which mince for cottage pie? Many people ask me if cottage pie is beef or lamb, well it is always beef in a cottage pie. If you are wondering about the lamb, then that would be shepherd’s pie.
- Where does cottage pie come from? Cottage Pie is British and is most common to eat in England and Ireland. It has also been a popular dish in Australia for some time now too.
- Is cottage pie healthy? This depends on the cottage pie recipe that you follow. Our cottage pie is free of processed foods and is a healthier take. But I know some people consider frozen peas to be unhealthy, whilst we do not.
- Is cottage pie gluten free? Our instant pot cottage pie recipe is gluten free, but many others are not. You see in British cooking there is a lot of Bisto gravy granules and OXO stock cubes used in a cottage pie. We avoid these ingredients and instead make healthy substitutes.
Instant Pot Vegetarian Cottage Pie
There are only 2 ingredients in our instant pot cottage pie that includes meat products. Minced beef and beef stock.
To make our cottage pie vegetarian or vegan, simply swap these two products:
- Swap minced beef for quorn
- Swap beef stock for vegetable stock
- Add a handful of red lentils
This is also how I make an instant pot vegan cottage pie when I want a meatless dinner.
How To Cook Cottage Pie In Instant Pot?
Cooking cottage pie in the instant pot is EASY.
- Sauté onions and brown minced beef in the instant pot.
- Stir in other ingredients.
- Place the trivet and steamer basket over.
- Load the steamer with diced potatoes.
- Pressure cook + mash + serve.
Cottage Pie Cooking Time
You will be impressed. The cottage pie cooking time is JUST 5 minutes. This will ensure that the beef filling is fully cooked and that your potatoes are soft enough for making easy mashed potatoes.
How To Reheat Cottage Pie?
What I love to do is save what I have left, load into glass bottom freezer containers and freeze for later. Then load the freezer container into the instant pot and reheat from frozen. You can follow our how to reheat food in the instant pot for this.
- Can homemade cottage pie be frozen? Yes it can. But I prefer to just freeze the minced beef and keep the mashed potatoes separate. Then you can freeze the filling and use it for either a soup or as it is. Then the mashed potatoes can become mashed potato cakes or air fryer gnocchi.
- Can cottage pie be reheated? Yes it can. You can reheat your cottage pie and eat it up to 4 days later.
- Can cottage pie be reheated twice? No it can’t. Meat can’t be reheated twice. But mashed potatoes can be. If you just have mashed potatoes left after 2 meals reheat this instead.
- Can Cottage Pie Be Made In Advance? Yes you can make your cottage pie ahead of time. Simply make it as you would normally, then place it in the fridge and reheat it when it is time to eat.
What Can Cottage Pie Be Served With?
I find that cottage pie is a filling substantial meal on its own and I don’t usually serve it with anything.
But just because I don’t, doesn’t mean you can’t.
My first recommendation would be our bread maker bread. That way you can have homemade slices of bread to serve with dinner.
Secondly, I would recommend a side of some extra vegetables. Such as our air fryer frozen broccoli or air fryer frozen brussel sprouts.
Instant Pot Cottage Pie
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Instant Pot Cottage Pie Ingredients:
- 500 g Minced Beef
- 1 Kg White Potatoes
- 1 Large Onion
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Large Leek
- 2 Large Carrots
- 100 g Frozen Peas
- 1 Can Tinned Tomatoes
- 200 ml Beef Stock
- 1 Tbsp Butter
- 1 Tbsp Whole Milk
- 1 Tbsp Thyme
- 1 Tbsp Bouquet Garni
- 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tbsp Worcester Sauce
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Peel and slice your onion, prep your vegetables and sauté in the instant pot with extra virgin olive oil. Load into the instant pot your minced beef and stir for a couple of minutes until the mince starts to brown.
- Pour in stock, tinned tomatoes and seasonings and stir.
- Cancel the sauté and lower your trivet over the minced beef. Add the steamer basket ready for the potatoes. Peel and dice your potatoes and load onto the steamer basket.
- Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and cook for 5 minutes on meat and stew. Allow for 5 minutes natural pressure release before releasing pressure. Once you have released pressure, stir in your frozen peas. They will warm up naturally because of the heat in the instant pot.
- Remove the potatoes and mash with salt, thyme, butter, and milk. Load the meat and potatoes onto dinner plates and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
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I love cottage pie and thank you for the recipe.
Its raining today and this cottage pie recipe is the perfect timing. Going to cook it tonight in my PKP.
Made your bangers and mash last night using your meat and potatoes PIP method. Now making your cottage pie for dinner tonight. Thanks for showing me how to use the instant pot.
Are you suggesting sauteing the carrots with the onion? When do you add the peas?
Hi Ruth,
Yes we do saute the carrots with the onion, and the peas get added after the pressure release on step 4, We missed that out sorry about that, we have added it in now and you should be able to see it in the instructions 🙂
For those of us in the US, how many grams (ounces) is the tinned (canned) tomato? I’m looking to making this and then the soup!
Hi Jeanie,
Sorry for the late reply we are in the middle of moving countries so we are a bit behind. We used a 400g of chopped tinned tomatoes about 14 ounces 🙂