Stretching mince

[laughoutquiet]

I'm trying to reduce our meat intake and costs a little. Today I used our pack of mince to make a chilli and bolognese. To stretch it a little, I added lentils to the bolognese which tasted really nice. I put sweet corn to the chilli but I was not really keen on the taste/consistency.

Does anyone have any bright ideas for something extra in a chilli? Or any other dish for that matter! How do you stretch out your meat meals?

Thanks

I chop mushrooms in the food processor so my dc don't know they're there and add to bolognese and chilli. Plenty of kidney beans and butter beans too!

Tinned beans! Kidney beans and or black beans in chili, lots of onion, celery, red peppers

Onion celery mushrooms lentils in bolognese

@laughoutquiet

I'm trying to reduce our meat intake and costs a little. Today I used our pack of mince to make a chilli and bolognese. To stretch it a little, I added lentils to the bolognese which tasted really nice. I put sweet corn to the chilli but I was not really keen on the taste/consistency.

Does anyone have any bright ideas for something extra in a chilli? Or any other dish for that matter! How do you stretch out your meat meals?

Thanks

Kidney beans or black eyed beans are often dirt cheap (you can get entire crates of KFC ones for £3 when there’s an offer).

I've literally just done a half and half chilli.

I've done a whole large slow cooker of it to freeze. I think it's about 3-4 litres so you might want to reduce quantities.

3 whole peppers (red,green &orange)
2 courgette (just green this time but have used mixed colours in the past)
Handful of large mushrooms
Handful of chopped baby corns
1 tin red kidney beans
1 tin mixed beans
Celery
2 tins chopped toms

Not always popular but we use quorn mince. Started off mixing it with real mince then gradually upped the quantity. That with lentils and lots of veg gave us a huge amount. Although now I don’t use meat at all.

Quinoa is a good one

Chickpeas

Dried soya mince. It is s cheap and tasty, and you just reconstitue it with boiling water. Even if you don't want to use it 100% in chili, bolognese sauce etc, you could use it to replace part of the mince. (We're vegan so use a mix of this and frozen store-brand vegan mince, works a treat.)

*so

All the veg you can find, lentils, tinned tomatoes, it all goes in!

Beef and lentil cottage pie www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-lentil-cottage-pie-cauliflower-potato-topping

Chicken and bean enchiladas www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-bean-enchiladas

Lamb and chickpea curry www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/lamb-chickpea-curry/

Sausage and tomato pasta www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chunky-sausage-tomato-pasta or mushroom and sausage pasta www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-sausage-pasta

I chop onion, carrots, celery and mushrooms for pasta sauce or cottage pie. Almost the same for chilli but without the mushrooms. You can have double amount of beans in chilli. You could halve the mince and bulk up with the chopped veg.

YY to lentils in almost everything with minced beef.

Chicken and sausage you can chop or slice them. Before DDs went to Uni I would use 4 sausages for 4 adults by slicing them. I also sometimes squeezed them out of the skin to make a type of meatball for pasta sauces.

You can mix chopped chicken with veg and roast that, serve with rice/pasta/mash/ etc.

Also, chicken thighs are much cheaper than chicken breast.

Some people add oats to sauces, I haven’t but I think it needs more water added.

Doi be careful about quinoa.. some people are highly sensitive to it... I am one and I can and do eat pretty much everything hings without problems...But the twice I had quinoa the first was - how to say politely- rather unexpectedly and violently explosive, and the second time I thought that I had gall stones, the pain was so bad for an hour or so . I only connected the two incidents when DH pointed out that we had had quinoa again for me only the 2nd time ( he was fine btw both times). Then I read about natural Saponins which coat quinoa seeds and which some people are allergic to..

I just add extra beans to a chilli, so it's more beans than meat, sometimes lentils too, although these days I think I prefer a vegan chilli anyway.

You can use lentils successfully instead of mince, rather than as well as, in any mince recipe.

I always buy 1kg mince and add a whole bag of frozen Peppers, a whole bag of frozen onions and whatever else, celery, grated carrots, sometimes leeks - basically whatever we have. It normally does about 6-8 meals for us as a family of 3, I would add beans and lentils too but my guys are bloody fussy (annoying)

Not tried it yet myself but some people put a handful of porridge oats in to Bolognese to bulk it out

I use oats. Or red lentils.

Aldi and asda both do "taco beans" which are mixed beans in a spicy sauce. Go lovely in a chilli. Some of the beans break down and thicken up the sauce while others stay whole and add a bit of interest. Baked beans or kidney beans work well too and are slightly cheaper.

I also add quite a lot of veg to things like spaghetti bolognese. Grated carrot, parsnip or even broccoli stems add nutrition without changing the flavour or consistency too much, although I wouldnt overdo it!

I would just make the whole chilli vegetarian.

Jamie oliver has a great sweet potato chilli recipe.
Bosh’s ultimate chilli is a favourite here.

A tin of chickpeas, or a tin of flageolet beans. Flageolet beans work well in a bolognese imo.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions

I use grated courgettes in meals that need a lot of mince, such as lasagne. It isn't recognisable either, my dc wouldn't eat it if they knew.

With chilli I just chop up loads of veg really small and add that. Anything I've got in the fridge really.

Use a blender to puree a cougette, an onion, & some mushrooms for the sauce for bolognese, I use a couple of tins of tomatoes & blend them up too. DD won't eat any of those veg on purpose, & won't eat any pieces of cooked tomatoes. It makes cooking so much harder. So now a lot of our sauces are smooth, with hidden vegetables... at least there is less chopping.

Grated carrot stretches mince well.

Jamie Oliver's recipe with a tin each of chickpeas, kidney beans and butter beans is great. I add chunks of sweet potato and you hardly need any mince, I have done it without meat too.

Instead of the balsamic vinegar I add a couple of squares of very dark chocolate. I also at least double, if not quadruple Jamie's spice recommendations.