Scottish stovies are the ultimate comfort food. Made with the leftovers from Sunday’s roast dinner, it’s a super easy Monday meal to make. Serve with oatcakes and sliced beetroot for the perfect Sunday leftovers meal. This recipe has been made in collaboration with Try Lamb.
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Scottish comfort food at its finest
Nothing beats a proper Sunday roast lamb, except perhaps, for the leftovers.
No cooking on Monday, woohoo! Leftover roast lamb is an incredibly versatile ingredient – you can make it into soups, sandwiches, stir-fries, or, as we do here in Scotland, stovies!
Scottish stovies are comfort food at its finest, and this slow-cooked dish can be enjoyed where ever you live in the British Isles or worldwide. Every family has its own way of making it, and the beauty of this ‘recipe’ (and I use the word loosely), is that you can make it however you want. Use whatever leftovers you’ve got – cubed roast lamb, leftover roast vegetables, leftover gravy – and make it as solid or liquid as you like by adjusting the quantities accordingly.
Ingredients for Scottish Stovies
- lard (or butter or olive oil)
- brown onion
- leftover Sunday roast lamb
- turnip
- potatoes
- leftover lamb gravy
- water
- salt
- pepper
How to make Scottish Stovies – step by step instructions
- Heat lard in a large pan over medium-high heat and fry the onions until they soften (don’t let them colour!).
- Add your diced, cold, leftover roast lamb.
- Add half of a small peeled, chopped turnip.
- Cover with a layer of peeled, thickly sliced potatoes.
- Pour in any leftover gravy you have and enough water to reach just under the layer of potatoes.
- Pop the lid on and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, shaking the pan occasionally.
Scottish Stovies – Recipe Video
Scottish stovies are the ultimate in Scottish comfort food. Made with the leftovers from Sunday’s roast dinner, it’s a super easy Monday meal to make. Serve with oatcakes and sliced beetroot for an authentic taste of Scotland.
An ice cold glass of milk often accompanies too.
You can also serve it with lashings of brown sauce if desired.
Stovies – Cookery for Northern Wives
In 1925, Shetlander Margaret B. Stout published a cookery book about Shetland Islands recipes: Cookery for Northern Wives. One of these recipes was for stovies, which she describes as:
- One and a half pounds of Mutton.
- One pound of potatoes.
- Pepper and Salt.
- One onion. Half a small Turnip.
- One tablespoonful of Suet.
Method: Cut mutton up finely; chop suet; put these into pan and pour on enough boiling water to cover; simmer gently for one hour. Chop onion finely, grate turnip and potato; add these and stew gently for another hour; season and serve hot.
This is a perfect example of simple, honest, Scottish home cooking, and the reason why I include turnip in this Stovies recipe. You could also include carrot or even any leftover roast vegetables you have from your Sunday roast. Just add these in at the end of cooking, to warm through.
How do you make your Stovies? Let me know in the comments!
Scottish Stovies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp lard or butter or olive oil
- 1 large brown onion finely chopped
- 450 grams leftover roast lamb cubed
- 0.5 small turnip peeled and chopped
- 700 grams potatoes peeled and thickly sliced
- 250 ml leftover lamb gravy
- cold water to cover
- Shetland sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
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Instructions
- Heat lard in a large pot over a medium-high heat. Fry the onion until softened, but without colouring it.
- Add the cubed lamb and diced turnip.
- Layer over the potatoes, and pour over the leftover gravy.
- Add enough water to come up just underneath the layer of the potatoes.
- Season well, pop the lid on and simmer for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
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Environmental Information
A collection of our other leftover Sunday roast lamb recipes. This leftover roast lamb soup is ready in just under half an hour if you use a pressure cooker. It makes for a perfect packed lunch to fill you up with plenty of vegetables, pearled spelt and green split peas. A hearty & filling soup made with homemade lamb bone broth, leftover roast lamb and seasonal winter vegetables. Perfect for picnics, this simple sausage roll recipe will be sure to impress children and adults alike. A simple make-ahead Christmas Canapé of roasted lamb on a mini bannock topped with mint or redcurrant jelly A quick and easy midweek supper made with leftover Sunday roast lamb (or any other cooked lamb). Proper comfort food!Other Leftover Roast Lamb Recipes
Leftover Roast Lamb Soup with Split Peas & Spelt
Leftover Roast Lamb & Winter Vegetable Soup
Leftover Roast Lamb & Mint Sausage Rolls
Roasted Lamb & Mini Bannock Christmas Canapés
15-Minute One-Pan Lamb & Quinoa Midweek Supper
Date and Oat Muffins
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No good reading recipes when I am hungry – this looks amazing
Looks and sounds delicious. Perfect for a chilly evening to warm you up.
Now this is proper comfort food for sure. My other half would love this xx
Such a lovely recipe, perfect to use up leftover meat and reduce waste.
What a hearty dish, it looks so yummy and filling, definitely want this for the weekend.
Ooh this looks like my kind of meal! I love proper, filling, hearty recipes, although in this house there is never left overs, haha!
Now this sounds like a delicious recipe. It seems like it would be really warming and filling to tuck into at the end of a long day.
This sounds like the sort of recipe my husband would love. He enjoys a meaty, hearty meal.