Does anyone else add baked beans to cottage pie mince?

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I've always made cottage pie by adding a tin of baked beans into the beef mince mix. I was looking through recipes recently and none mentioned baked beans, so I now feel like some sort of heathen. What do you include? 😬

Absolutely not! Yuck!

No
But if you like it that's fine 🙂

Yes sometimes if I want to bulk it up a bit more! I thought it was pretty normal 😀

My mum! I like it, but DH isn't keen.

Yes, if I have some leftover in the fridge. DD has high cholesterol and is supposed to have pulses twice a week. She doesn’t particularly like them. It’s one way to get a portion into her!

I've never added baked beans but I have added tinned haricot beans which is very similar without sweet red sauce. Also lentils. It makes the mince go further.

I don't really like the sweet red sauce you get in baked beans

We used to call it "cladding"! It's a useful way to bulk out the meat and adding more fibre/veg

No but my mother always used to serve baked beans as a vegetable with shepherd’s pie.

I guess it’s a way to make the beef mince go further, so it’s not a ridiculous idea at all. It wouldn’t be in a standard recipe for cottage pie though.

I don’t. But I’m not opposed to the idea.
Usually I start with an soffrito base and make a nice gravy. Maybe add a little bit of tomato puree and/or Worcester sauce.

Yes, always, plus beef stock cube and Worcestershire sauce. Delicious 😋

Yes I usually do.

It's how we had it when I was a kid, and it's just how I do it now too.

It seems wrong without the beans to me.

No, but my ex husband always liked baked beans next to his cottage pie.
I think it’s a horrible combination but he loved it.

I always add a ton of green lentils to the mix when I do mince - boosts the protein/veg and makes the mix go further

I always put beans or lentils or sometimes both into the mix, along with carrots courgettes, tomatoes/passage and spinach. Then decide whether it's going to be spaghetti colognes, lasagne, sheherds' or cottage pie.
I am allergic to maize, so can't est actual baked beans.

I do bulk out mince with lentils but not sure about baked beans.

No, but my mum always does!

I bulk out the mince with red lentils, I couldn’t imagine baked beans in in though I am partial to them on toast.

This is a crime against humanity

I don't add them too it but love them on the side

No because I'm not a wrong 'un

Baked beans as an side dish - yes definitely. In with the actual mince not done that but might do now!

No way, that would ruin it

I’ve also added grated carrot occasionally, to my son’s horror!

I'd only contemplate it if the sauce was rinsed off.