To think I could add quorn mince to beef mince and get away with it?

[Ilovehamabeads]

Disclaimer.. I've never tried quorn mince.

I'm trying to make our meals a little healthier and less red-meat heavy. We don't eat badly, but my children's two favourite meals are made of beef- spag bol and cottage pie. I already add as much veg as I can without altering the meal beyond recognition so wondered if I could swap out some of the beef mince for soya mince? Would that work or does it taste really different and be disgusting?

I always do this and it tastes the same because the beef gives it the meaty flavour the quorn just bulks it out.

I'm sure you could but if you want to avoid quorn (it triggers nasty bowel issues for about 10% of people) you could try red lentils instead. And if you serve a quorn mince mix to guests you should warn them in advance, some people actively avoid it, me included.

i am a bit anti Quorn...you do know it's mushroom crap right? ;) ....but have certainly used soya/tvp mince to bulk out normal mince and no one noticed

Dh will notice if it is totally soya mince but not if half and half.

red lentils are also good for this sort of thing if you'd rather not use TVP.

I like Quorn, but the texture of Quorn mince is a bit odd, so I think it would be noticed.
You could try adding some kind of bean instead, cannelloni beans are nice, or kidney beans and pretend it's a chilli!

I just don't fancy Quorn, it has never done anything to me or my insides . I usually bulk up curries with the red lentils I'm going to give mince dishes a boost with some too.

If I'm bulking out with veg, I add sliced/diced carrots for obvious veg but grated carrot for hidden. I also use onions, peas, very finely chopped celery and leeks. My DH and one of my DDs are veggie-phobes (though soup is okay) so I have to do some stealth-vegging.

I'd say it to whoever's eating as people have said, however that's one of the veggie dinners I've fed my Dad before and he hasn't noticed it's not meat (aka no "hippie food" comments after). Anything like that where it's covered in sauce it generally works as a substitute so go for it and see if they notice :)

I use dried soya mince, half and half lean steak mince, no one notices. The soya tastes of whatever you cook it with.

noone would notice but you should fry the quorn before the beef mince as it takes am age to get any colour.

soya mince is a better substitute in texture but more in calories.

saying that you need more oil with quorn.

i am veggie but never had a problem with tummy and quorn mince.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice. All very helpful.
Never thought of bulking out with red lentils but I imagine they disappear quite nicely so that's one to try too thanks .

I don't think you'd get away with it at all - completely different texture IMO. You can still make tasty spag bol with Quorn though. It's just different (not sure about Cottage Pie).

Maybe do the half and half thing as suggested above, then gradually reduce the meat.

I've done this for the much less worthy reason of not having enough queen or mince to do one or the other! No one noticed. I don't really like quorn either so I would moan (to myself!) if it tasted funny.

no, because it givez many people stomach cramps and unbelievably smelly farts

I'd personally go for lentils too unless you are putting in a slow cooker, I find Quorn rubbery.

Grated carrot is quite good for bulking out mince.

some people may have an intolerance to quorn hence the problems, i've been eating the stuff for year as a veggie and never experienced problems, guess i lucky on that score, but after i went veggie i lost 3 stone as my eating was a lot better and recently i've gone vegan and lost 7lb in 2 weeks, and no smelly farts either, family would soon say something about that ;) [sorry STILL trying to learn how to do the smilies !]

oh, don't use tofu, urgh, trust me i know, tastes like bath sponge !

I just use red lentils. Quorn gives me bad bellys and squits something chronic. Might want to test with a little bit first.

I would go for a tin of green lentils and gated carrot instead

canned puy lentils, that's what I use to make my veggie spag bol. Red lentils go a bit mushy. Also finely chopped mushrooms and carrots.

We tried quorn once. Bluergh. Never again. The most horrible thing I have ever tasted.

I use turkey mince instead. More flavour full and less of the nasty texture that quorn has.

I'm veggie and fine with Quorn but do know a couple of people who react badly to it. Most people are fine though.

Quorn isn't really meant to change colour so don't worry about 'browning' it! Just add it to the beef mix before you add the sauce. I always add a blob of marmite to give the dish a more savoury flavour that the quorn lacks but if you're using beef as well then that might do the job well enough.

weirdcatlady what did you have with your quorn ? just nosy that's me !

I actually made spag bol with Quorn mince last week. I had it myself and as much as it TASTED the part, I couldn't tolerate the texture of it as I'm so used to mince.
The kids however, I never told it was Quorn and they scoffed the lot declaring it to be beautiful!

I used it for the same reason, wanting to cut back on the amount of meat we're consuming.
With six DC it is more cost effective to buy supermarket deals on mince, chicken etc even though the quality isn't always that good.

So I think for my sake, I can easily change my diet, but with the little people I can get away with Quorn for dishes as such.

I second turkey mince.