cooking with quorn

[Sleepyfergus]

Hi, I have a packet of quorn mince in the freezer and I'm planning on making a cottage pie with it today. I'm not telling the kids/DH it's quorn, I want to see if they like it first without prejudice!

Anyway, quick question as it's the first time I'm using it - do I need to defrost it, or can I bung it in frozen?

No need to defrost it cooks from frozen.
Remember to use a little extra oil as it has no fat in it and can be dry otherwise.

I always soak / marinate it first. Make up about 200ml of beef stock (or veggie if anyone's vegetarian), add a squeeze of vegemite or marmite and then tip the quorn mince in to soak. Give it a mix every so often until it's absorbed all the liquid (about 20minutes), it plumps up and has more of a beef mince texture.
Helps it to not stick in the pan as well because of the lack of fat or moisture.

Fantastic, thanks v much

I always cook mine from frozen.

I find that adding a small (palmful) amount of oats to the mixture helps to get everything to hold together nicely and adds a time bit of desirable gloopiness which is otherwise missing with veggie mince of any kind.

Bung it in frozen.

I always add in a bit of extra 'stuff' to get back the flavour you loose from not having actual meal - such as a combination of the following, depending what I have in:

• Blend up a few sundried toms in oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce
• Wine/port

Oh god, I wouldn't make cottage pie with it, it's too hard to make it taste of anything.

I mean I cook it all the time, but not anything where you can't add things for flavour.

Success!!! We've just finishing tucking into it and neither DH or the DC blinked an eye. Still loads left over for tom night so I'm going to keep a schtum until after that.

Thanks for your advice all.