More exciting mince recipes

chuckles1066

keren29 wrote: »

I seemed to have amassed a haul of mince - beef, pork and turkey, in the freezer so it is going to be used quite regularly over the next week!!

I was wondering about expanding my 'mince repetoire' - anyone want to give me their favourite mince meal??

this is what I do already

chilli
bolognaise
cottage pie
meatballs (with pasta)
burgers
keema
lasagne
meatloaf
pasties (occasionally)

There might be other things, but they are the ones I mostly do.

Beef mince is defrosting tonight and at the moment I'm thinking of doing bolognaise but I'm happy to be inspired

enchilladas :j

Pink.

Hi Keren,

There's an older thread with lots of ideas so I've added your thread to it as it helps to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

Burlesque_Babe

ah yes chuckles, that's one I've missed off my list!

(thankyou pink winged )

Edit: And the winner is...................(drum roll)...........stromboli!!! Excellent idea, I'll do that tonight - looking forward to it already. Many years ago, I did a Jamie Oliver one which was filled with prosciutto ham, mozzarella, basil and topped with rock salt. It was amazing.

Cruiksl

I've been a bit of a whizz in the kitchen today and decided to see how far I could pad out 500g of mince which cost me £2.39.

Well so far, I've made 3 meals for a family of 4:

• a scrummy cottage pie, with onions, carrots, peas topped with mashed potato and cheese
• Bolognese which was split into 2 with onions, chopped tomatoes, and mushrooms. One family meal with pasta
• Lasagne - using the other half of the bolognese, making a cheese sauce and dried pasta.

I'm really chuffed - have been able to do this so the challenge is - how far can you make it go ?

ka7e

Well done! I usually use the whole 500g on any one meal for us 4 adults.
If I'm cooking for 5 or 6 I pad the mince with soya granules!

MrsBartolozzi

Well done!
I too would normally have used 500g for a four person meal, but last week I was intending to make chili con carne, only to find that the portion of mince in the freezer was the remains of a bigger bag and only weighed 216g!!
Add a whole tin of kidney beans a small handful of lentils, an onion, 2 peppers and a carton of passata, spices etc and we had enough for 4 hearty portions!
I was really surprised, and was ready to add a portion of HM bolog from the freezer to bulk it out, but no need. It has really opened my eyes and I will be bulking out more often.
Not sure I am at your standard yet though cruiksl! lol

MrsB.

lil_me

**picks up mince and throws across the kitchen** about 5.9 metres :rotfl:

Erm, messing about aside, depends what I am making and how much I want to stretch it. I find if I am adding other things the cost almost levels out and DP prefers things meaty so keeps him happy to use more. Bag of mince will usually make 6-8 portions of chilli without adding soya, lentils etc. Lasagne, I usually do 2-4 bolognese and 2-4 lasagne with one bag of mince depending what extras I have added.

Bags of mince I usually get are between 400 and 500g.

I suppose it also depends on portion sizes aswell? What amount you put on the plate etc.What quality the mince is? Portions I said are adult portions from the mince, would split each into 2 for the boys.

Cruiksl

My DH is a big meat eater and I'm not going to tell him that I've padded it out until he's finished all the meals ! Will let you know his reaction.

Bungarm2001

This reminds me of years ago when me and an also very skint mate had competitions going on how far we could stretch out certain items of food. We both had two kids with very healthy appetites, oh, and a husband each! Neither of us had huge incomes, in fact we did struggle a bit hence the cheapo recipes.

One week, we decided to do 'ten things to make using mince' and between us, we came up with a fair few options!

Here's our list as far as I can remember it...remember, these meals went down really well 30+ years ago...!!

Meat balls in gravy...we padded the mince out with chopped onion and fresh breadcrumbs (lots!) + an egg to bind.

Mince and potato pie...self explanatory really. Made with HM pastry and to be honest, far more spuds than mince!!

Mince and kidney pie...again, self explanatory. Kidney was very cheap in those days. Great flavouring...you can't beat it! Although, you could try a rather large splash of Guiness instead!

Shepherds (or cottage pie) We threw in every available vegetable with this..anything cheap and seasonal. I grew my own in those days.

Mince kebabs on skewers. The kids loved these...mainly mince with a bit of onion, egg to bind and some breadcrumbs. I always sneaked in a bit of pork sausage meat too..sounds awful, but it did taste good and the meat mix stayed on the skewers better. Flatten them a bit before grilling.

Mince and onion pancakes..again, sounds a bit weird, but the kids loved them. Make the mince mixture with tinned toms, a bit of onion, anything really. Sweetcorn is good and it looks pretty! Make the pancakes as usual, then serve with the cooked mince mix rolled up inside.

HM beefburgers...again, breadcrumbs played a big part in these plus fresh herbs, onions and egg to bind. Cook and serve with a big slice of cheese on top in a roll

Mini steamed puds. We used to make these in teacups (remember them??) Suet pastry lined cups with cooked mince mix inside topped off with a suet crust lid. Tie up with foil etc and steam for 40-50 minutes..lovely! I always added a bit of gravy to the mince mixture otherwise it was too dry.

Mince stew. We used to call this 'mince mess' in our family. Basically, mince chucked into a saucepan, browned off a bit then added ingredients like spuds, carrots, chopped onions etc etc etc anything you like really. Couple of stock cubes, tinned toms, bit of puree maybe...the choice is yours. VERY filling if served with dumplings.

And last but not least..mince in batter. Brown the mince off with some onion, pepper, herbs etc and place small amounts into one of those yorkshire pudding trays, the one that has room to bake 12 puds. Make up a batter as usual; put the tray into the oven to heat up, when hot enough (you'll have to judge this carefully..it could burn..) chuck in the batter as if you were making yorkie puds. Bake and serve up to your delighted kids with loads of veggies. 500gms of mince will make about 15-20 of these depending how mean you are with the mince.

Anyway, there were more, but I can't remember them. All the above can be adjusted with additional herbs, veges etc and all can be served with extra veg on the side. I didn't include anything with pasta because we simply didn't use it it those days. All I remember is the gunky stuff in cans!!

Anyone else think of any more mince recipes?

SPINKO_2

Always pad out my meat meals if I can due to meat increasing so much in price:eek: I always chop into the smallest of pieces carrots,courgettes,leeks,mushrooms,parsnips and cabbage.If I use passata and tom puree and plenty of herbs oh,ds and dd never notice:j Mind you it does take a bit longer to cook!!