Recipe: Skillet Beef & Ale Pie

With a luscious ale gravy and a hearty filling of beef and vegetables, it’s no wonder this pie is well-loved by my friends and me. This is comfort food at its finest — a dish that’s easy to assemble and can feed one for days, or a whole crowd for the evening.

While eating meat on a student budget can be difficult, pies work wonders at stretching that package of beef into a satisfying meal for six. I sometimes like to go heavy on the vegetables, especially mushrooms, because they have that “meaty” texture and can be ridiculously cheap. What I’ve done here is add a can of cooked beans to bulk out the filling while adding some protein.

When I find ground beef with a “multi-buy” offer at the supermarket, I cook up a big batch of the filling, use half of it for this pie, and then freeze the rest in a few individual freezer bags for another time. To give that frozen filling a new lease on life, eat it like a stew with some crusty bread for dipping or cooked grains (pearl barley is really good!). If I still want pie but don’t have puff pastry on hand, I’ll top it with mashed potato or cauliflower and bake until golden.

Beer is something every university student will have around in the UK, but if you can’t get your hands on beer, you can use beef or vegetable stock — it’s just as tasty, I promise!