Bulking out meals with veggies

[Kirstos1]

Trying to incorporate a lot more veggies into meals for health and to bulk them out/make meat go further. What veggies are best grated into bolognese or curry sauce for them to not really be tasted? Also do you fry them off before adding or just grate and bang it in?

Bit embarrassing that I dont know the answers to these questions and any info welcome! 😀 any other tips to make meals go further are welcome too.

For bolognese I use finely minced aubergine, courgette, carrot (sometimes mushrooms)

I do bulk up my meat most of the time aubergine, courgette, mushroom and lentils, I find are the best ones at giving you a meaty feeling

I put carrots and a pepper in bol. I don’t grate it though, just pulse it in the food processor so the bits are match head size. Onece the bol is cooked down you can’t even see them, they just look like bits of meat. I put them in after I’ve browned the mince, just for a couple of minutes before adding the tinned tomatoes.

If you want to make the meat go further, and add healthy protein, I also rinse and add red lentils. They cook down to nothing, might need to add extra liquid, I use a tin of toms & a carton of passata and find that’s enough for a large pack of mince. I batch cook.

Thank you! Do you cook them first before adding them in?

Lentils are what you need! Brilliant for making soups, bolognaise, curries, chilli - really versatile, healthy and cheap compared to meat.

Thank you Anotherpassenger! Much appreciated.

I did an oven casserole the other day and had some oxtail and I put a layer of lentils over it and then the rest of the vegetables

Mostly I tend to oven roast or fry the vegetables to add up to the meal like giant couscous with vegetables and a little bit of chicken (honestly 2 chicken breasts for 3 adults and 3 children!!!)

I've got a bag of red lentils I was going to make some soup with, I never thought of using them in a bolognese for some reason. Thanks all x

Carrots, courgettes and mushrooms have all found their way into Bologna's. Frozen chopped spinach works too - my children thought the green flecks were oregano for years.

Autocorrect doesn't like Bolognese. 🙄

Whenever I'm doing spag bol/shepherds pie/chilli it's always onion, carrot and celery then pepper and/or courgette depending on if I have it and what meal it is. Plus a couple of tablespoons of red lentils. They really bulk it out and absorb the flavour too.

I 'sweat' finely chopped onions, carrots, celery and pepper in a bit of oil. Then add it all to my browned off mince. It makes a lovely difference to the flavour. My dd could smell mushrooms from a mile off as a child so I'd put button mushrooms in that she could pick out, otherwise she wouldn't eat them at all!

Porridge oats will stretch mince too OP