Turn leftover mash and veg into a pasty filling

A hearty pasty can be a real treat on a cold winter’s day - and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money either.

If you have leftover veg, mashed potatoes and other odds and ends you don’t know what to do with, you’ve got the ingredients for a perfect pasty filling.

What you'll need

Makes around 6 pasties

• a pack of shortcrust pastry
• 300g mashed potato
• 150g of fresh, frozen or leftover cooked veg
• a small onion
• a teaspoon of mixed herbs
• a little milk or a beaten egg for brushing

How to make them

1.  Chop the veg into small pieces and cook in a pan of boiling water for about five minutes until it starts to soften. 
2.  Put the mashed potato in a bowl with the chopped onion and herbs.
3.  After draining away any excess water, add the cooked veg to the bowl and mix it all together.
4.  Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out six circles, roughly 15cm across. You can use a small plate as a guide.
5.  Spoon some of the vegetable mixture onto one half of each pastry circle, leaving a little space around the edges.
6.  Brush the edges with a little milk or a beaten egg, fold the pastry over the filling and press the edges together firmly with a fork.
7.  Put the pasties on a baking tray, brush the tops with a little more milk or egg and bake at 200°C (180°C fan) for around 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and piping hot.

A real money saver

By using ingredients you’ve already got in, you’re already saving money and you don’t need to go to the supermarket and spend even more.

But another perk of a homemade pasty is that they taste just as good cold as they do when they come out of the oven.

So if you’ve made a few for tonight’s tea and can’t eat them all in one go, just leave them to go cold and save one for tomorrow lunchtime.

Alternatively, you could put a few spare pasties aside and put them in the freezer instead of the oven.

You’ve then got them on hand to cook whenever you need them on another day.

Just remember to leave a little extra cooking time so they’re piping hot all the way through.

A flexible meal option

The nature of using leftovers means what you make can be different every single time.

So embrace that by trying out other ingredients when making the filling, such as:

• carrots
• peas
• broccoli
• sweetcorn
• cooked cabbage
• grated cheese
• cooked lentils or beans
• curry powder
• paprika

You could even use leftover wraps if you don’t have any pastry.

They work just as well.

It means that even if you make a homemade vegetable pasty regularly, you can keep it interesting and varied every single time.