A Hearty Leftover Turkey Cottage Pie Recipe For BLW
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Cottage pie using leftover turkey
Using leftover turkey to make a leftover turkey cottage pie is a perfect way to create a nutritious and baby-led weaning friendly meal.
Simply shred the turkey into small, manageable pieces and mix with onion, garlic and herbs.
Using cornflour is a delicious way to thicken the sauce, then top with creamy mashed potatoes, ensuring they are soft and easy for your little one to pick up easily.
Bake until golden brown and bubbling, then allow to cool to a safe temperature before serving.
This dish is perfect for introducing new textures and flavours while making the most of leftovers.
What to do with leftover turkey
Leftover turkey from thanksgiving leftovers or Christmas leftovers/holiday leftovers is a wonderful ingredient for baby-led weaning meals, providing a good source of protein and flavour for winter nights.
To keep meals interesting and nutritious, try turning the turkey into a mild turkey curry by gently cooking diced turkey with soft-cooked vegetables such as sweet potato and peas in a light coconut milk base, seasoned with a pinch of mild curry powder.
Alternatively, create a turkey pie by combining shredded turkey with yummy pastry and finely chopped steamed vegetables, then baking until golden and soft enough for little hands to grasp.
Both options offer varied textures and tastes, encouraging your baby to explore new flavours while using leftovers efficiently.
Ingredient information
Potato - I have used white potatoes for this recipe, you can use whatever you have or if you need to use up leftover mashed potatoes.
Butter - I have used an unsalted butter, you can use an olive oil or avocado oil as non dairy alternatives of you wish.
Turkey - I have used leftover turkey for the recipe, but the recipe will equally work well with leftover chicken, ground turkey or pork shoulder shredded if you wish. It is basically a great recipe to use up the leftovers.
Stock - I have used a chicken stock cube, but if you have saved the stock from the Christmas turkey then that is a win win and you can use that too up to 300ml.
Onion and garlic - I have used an onion, you can use red or white onion. I have used 1/2 teaspoon of garlic granules but you can use a small crushed clove of garlic.
Cornflour - I have used a little cornflour to thicken the sauce (gluten free too).
Rosemary, sage and thyme - I have used dried rosemary, sage and thyme for this recipe as the flavouring herbs. These herbs are so yummy and work so well with the turkey.
Cranberries - I have used a handful of cranberries to add a festive flavour to the cottage pie. On non festive days you can leave these out.
Serving suggestion
You can serve the turkey leftovers pie with vegetables such as broccoli, green beans, or roasted carrots or mixed veg mix from the freezer!
Or I know some people out there like cottage pie with baked beans, so you could serve with some reduced salt and sugar beans or even make your own homemade baked beans and tomato ketchup.
Other recipes you might like: BLW mac and cheese, spaghetti bolognaise, Shepherds pie or Tuna pasta bake.
Storage instructions
You can keep the leftover turkey recipe in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container, so great if you would like to portion up for dinners in the week, you could use small airtight containers to do this
The cottage pie can also be frozen for up to 3 months in the freezer, in airtight containers, large or small. Making it a great freezer meal.
If you are freezing, let the cottage pie cool down to room temperature before popping in the freezer.
To defrost the cottage pie, defrost in the fridge overnight, to reheat, transfer from your airtight container into an oven proof dish, pre heat the oven to 180 C or 350F and heat for 20-25 minutes and enjoy.
Once defrosted you will not be able to re freeze.
Equipment used to help with this recipe
6x6 inch dish - A stoneware baking dish that I find very versatile and use in lots of my recipes.
Airtight container - I much prefer the click-shut lids on these containers compared to others. They are also dishwasher and freezer safe and BPA free, so very suitable for food use.
Saucepan - So many pan sets out there but I particularly like to use pans with a non-stick surface for ease of cleaning and ones that are suitable for different types of hob surface.
Recipe | A Hearty Leftover Turkey Cottage Pie Recipe For BLW
Cottage Pie With Lentils Recipe For Baby And Toddler
This is a great recipe to use if you have leftover turkey over the festive period. Suitable for the whole family from 6 months old.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Start Preheating your oven to 180C.
- Add the potatoes to a large saucepan with hot water and cook them on a medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes or so until soft.
- Add the butter to a medium saucepan and melt on a medium heat.
- Add the diced onion to the butter and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes or so.
- Next, add in the garlic and herbs and cook for a minute or so.
- Add the leftover turkey meat to the onions and herbs and mix together using a spoon.
- Add the chicken stock to the turkey mixture followed by the cornflour and mix together and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes or so.
- Once cooked take off the heat and add the dried cranberries to the turkey sauce and mix together.
- Drain the potatoes using a sieve and place back into the sauce pan.
- Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth. You can add a little more butter and milk at this point if needed.
- Spoon the turkey sauce mixture into a 6x6 inch baking dish and top with the mashed potato and smooth over using a fork.
- Pop into the oven for 20 minutes or so until golden brown.
- Leave to cool before serving to your baby.
Notes
You can use other leftover meat such as cooked chicken or cooked pork shoulder.
You can add shredded cheese such as cheddar cheese on top of the cottage pie if you like.
You can also top the pie with puff pastry instead of potatoes.
Why not try using sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes as an alternative.
Hope you and your whole family enjoy!
©The Petit Spoon
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