Name: Leftover Lamb Shepherd's Pie
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 pound leftover cooked lamb (shredded, chopped or ground ); ¾ cup leftover sauce from lamb recipe ((If you don't have leftover sauce, see notes for 10-Minute Sauce Recipe)); 1 cup frozen peas and carrots (defrosted and drained); 2 ½ cups prepared mashed potatoes

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You’ve made a lovely lamb roast or stew and are now trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. The good news is that as fabulous as freshly made lamb dishes are, leftover lamb is even better!

The flavor has time to deepen overnight before making an appearance in this hearty, traditional shepherd’s pie recipe.

Gather your leftover lamb and sauce and get ready for an effortless and delicious dinner the whole family will love. It’s the perfect comfort food and the best way to use those leftovers.

You’ll have a hard time resisting seconds and thirds! After my dad devoured his third helping of this decadent shepherd’s pie, he pushed the pie dish toward me and asked me to please take it away from him.

You’ll find yourself making my Slow Cooker Lamb Shanks in Rosemary Red Wine Sauce just for an excuse to make this Leftover Lamb Shepherd’s Pie.

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Ingredients

After the fabulous flavor, the best thing about this recipe is how easy it is to throw together. You’re using leftovers, after all.

Here’s the simple ingredient list:

Leftover cooked lamb: chopped, shredded, or ground lamb works very well in this shepherd’s pie. The goal is to get the large pieces of roast lamb leftovers, leg of lamb, or any cut of cooked lamb meat into small pieces that will be coated in the rich sauce. Some cuts, like the lamb shoulder and shank, will shred easily. Others can be chopped into small pieces or minced quickly (about 5-10 seconds) in a food processor. No leftover lamb? Quickly brown ground lamb in a skillet, which is the meat traditionally used in the classic version of shepherd’s pie. In a pinch, you can use ground beef, which makes this dish “cottage pie” instead of shepherd’s pie.
Leftover sauce from lamb recipe: Leftover sauce carries a depth of flavor produced during cooking and is even richer the next day. If you do not have leftover gravy or sauce from your lamb dish, see the recipe card notes for a 10-minute Sauce Recipe.
Peas and carrots: To keep it simple, buy frozen peas from the grocery store. Defrost and drain the carrots and peas to keep the shepherd’s pie filling thick and hearty. Moms, this is an opportunity to sneak in extra vegetables. You can double the amount of peas and carrots in the recipe or chop up leftover veggies and mix them into the pie filling.
Prepared mashed potatoes: These can be leftover mashed potatoes, freshly prepared mashed potatoes, or even store-bought mashed potatoes. 24 oz Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes are the perfect amount and are labeled gluten-free. You can also make this recipe with mashed sweet potatoes.

Birds Eye view: four cooked lamb shanks, topped with red wine sauce on a white rectangle plate.

This easy shepherd’s pie recipe was developed to use leftovers from my slow cooker lamb shanks. If you’re using leftover meat from that recipe, you’ll need about 3 leftover lamb shanks to get approximately 1 pound of shredded lamb. You’ll have plenty of leftover sauce from the crockpot. And, if you served the lamb shanks with mashed potatoes, you just may have enough of those on hand, too! The only thing you’ll need to buy is a bag of frozen peas & carrots.

Gluten-Free: This recipe is naturally gluten-free if you are starting with leftovers from my Slow Cooker Lamb Shanks recipe. If you or a dinner guest is on a gluten-free diet and you are using a different recipe for leftovers, please confirm that the ingredients in your original recipe are also gluten-free. For the 10-Minute Sauce instructions, be sure that your beef broth and Worcestershire sauce are labeled gluten-free.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400℉.

The recipe is so easy that you’ll have everything ready to go in a couple of minutes, long before the oven even finishes preheating. For efficiency, I recommend preheating the oven before you gather ingredients and prep (shred, cut) your leftover lamb.

This is a one-dish meal. Everything mixes and bakes in one ovenproof dish. Easy prep and easy cleanup.

In a 9″ pie dish, combine leftover lamb with defrosted peas and carrots. I love the authentic feel of this recipe in a pie dish, but an 8×8 baking dish is equivalent in size and works perfectly fine.

Birds Eye view: shredded lamb in a fluted pie dish.

Birds Eye view: shredded lamb, chopped carrots, and peas in a fluted pie dish.

Top the lamb mixture with leftover sauce and stir until well combined.

Birds Eye view: brown sauce being poured on a pie dish filled with mixed shredded lamb, chopped carrots, and peas.

Birds Eye view: shredded lamb, chopped carrots, and peas lightly covered in sauce in a fluted pie dish.

Spoon prepared mashed potatoes on top of the lamb mixture. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to gently spread the potatoes fairly evenly over the top of the mixture.

White plastic spoon/spatula spreading mashed potatoes on the top of pie.

Birds Eye view of unbaked mashed potato topped shepherd's pie in a round, fluted pie dish.

Place the pie dish on a foil-covered baking tray to catch any bubbling over of the filling. Bake for 30 minutes until the potatoes begin to turn golden brown.

Birds Eye view of baked mashed potato topped shepherd's pie in a round, fluted pie dish.

Allow the shepherd’s pie to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy family style with an easy side salad, like this delicious Mediterranean Cucumber Salad (with Greek Yogurt & Honey Dressing).

How Long Can I Store Leftovers?

Lamb can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or freezer for up to 3 months. Similarly, mashed potatoes are good in the fridge for 3-4 days, and they last much longer than lamb in the freezer.

Keep in mind that you need to start counting from the day you originally made the lamb and potatoes, not when you added them to the shepherd’s pie.

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