Bulking out Meals?

spike7451

Easier way is get a cheap tin of baked beans & bung them into the pot,reducing the sauce to allow for the tomato sauce in the beans.What I do is this;

Beef mince
2 onions
chopped mushrooms
tin of beans
Handful of frozen mixed peppers
Handful of frozen peas
Handful of frozen sweetcorn
Sachet of chili con carne sauce mix

Bung the mince in the pot,brown off,strain & set aside,Fry off the onions & mushrooms.Add the mince back into the pot as well as the frozen veg & beans.Then add the chili con carne sauce to taste.By doing it this way,the frozen veg will let off enough water to thin down the sauce after adding the chili mix.
This way is also kid friendly as a lot of kids get scared off by kidney beans.Of course you can also use them as well as a small tin of chopped tomato.

prowla

Use rice...

Mrs_Chip

Yes another tin of toms will add more depth of flavour and extra liquid.

Essentially you can add/leave out what you like - to suit what you have in and what family will eat:-

Mushrooms are good and add extra liquid themselves;
chickpeas - OH hates RKB so I use these instead;
Frozen veg - good way to use up ends of bags, and get family to eat veg;
BN sqash chopped small;
Potato - cold boiled cut into cubes added near the end of cooking to heat through. When you really need to stretch!

Don't be afraid to play around - the best recipes are happy accidents, and these become family favorites.

msgnomey

I often add grated carrot to bulk out meaty meals

becs

We use half a pack of mince, about 4-5 mixed peppers cut into chunky bits, tin of chilli kidney beans, tin of chopped tomatoes, a bit of tomato puree and this will do 4 portions. Forgot add appx teaspoon of smoked paprika and a chunk of dark choc if you haveany and a teaspoon of bisto. It's my hubby's recipe and everyone that has had it goes mad for it!

aberdeensaver

Just posted this recipe elsewhere but have a look at this.... http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/good-old-chilli-con-carne, we make this with the 500g of beef and it does 8 adult portions when served with rice and some sour cream.

CupcakeLisa

if im using red lentils do i throw them in dry?

Penelope_Penguin

CupcakeLisa wrote: »

if im using red lentils do i throw them in dry?

You do I'll add this to the exsitng thread now, to give you more ideas.

maman

Personally I love red beans and they're only about 19p a tin in Aldi so cheaper than other types. If you add some/all the things suggested (I use diced carrots, onions, peppers, beans and xtra beans & toms) then your pack of mince will make lots of xtra portions. Or if you'e not desperate for meat you could make a vegetarian chilli instead. A good tip I read on here is to finely slice the 'stalks' from broccoli and add to chilli too. I find the most filling way (and you don't need such a big portion) to eat chilli is on a large jacket potatoes and I often eat peas with it too.

Similar 'bulking out' advice goes for bolognese too. I love it so much with xtra veg I wouldn't go back to just plain meat.

Same with curry, a basic chicken curry is really good with veg added.

RedLass

I'm a big fan bulking out and batch cooking (perhaps not always very good at it, but having a go anyway!), and try to chuck extra things into the pot to save waste. I am forever stumbling over the same problem when making a big batch of "sort of" bolognese though...

I start with mince and onion, and a large jar of ready made sauce. Generally it goes along the lines of adding chopped carrot, chopped red/green pepper, chopped green beans, a tin of tomatoes and a handful of red lentils. I usually have to add a little extra water too. I have a big casserole pan that gets to about three quarters full.

But it is always really bland by this point

So I add a random amount of dried basil, dried oregano, extra salt and pepper, maybe a squeeze of tomato paste, and some garlic. Things do improve a bit, but it never has the depth or the thickness/sauciness that you get from a jar of sauce with nothing extra added.

Does anybody know what I am doing wrong, or if there is one particular seasoning that I need to focus on to bring it back? I know perhaps that I could solve the problem by just buying two or maybe three jars of sauce instead of adding the extra water etc, but it seems extravagant and not very MSE/OS then. I know that ideally it'd be good to cut out the jar altogether, but since I can't even get the flavour right when stretching it, I'm afraid of failing horribly