Mince quantity question (stretching and portion sizes)?

fashionlover10

I usually add a tin of kidney beans to every mince based meal in our house.

torbrex

I add an extra onion or some frozen peas if I need to stretch the leftover mince or if I have any, I add some chopped up cooked sausages or bacon.

Tillytrotter1

Thank you for the replies. I added a couple of spoonfuls of red lentils and extra veg and I thought the result was lovely. In fact I thought the lentils made the sauce even nicer than usual. I will definitely be doing this again

System

I always add a tin of heinz BIG beef and vegetable soup

krustylouise

I'm really sorry for yet another silly question. But I am about to start batch cooking ready for the winter so I was thinking of making a couple of lasagne's, cottage pies, and perhaps some bolognese. But I was wondering how much mince do you lot buy and bulk it out? I normally (for 1 lasagne) buy 400grams of mince, but to me this could be bulked out more with leeks, grated carrots, porridge oats etc. How much could I bulk it out? Like from 400gram of mince how many lasagnes should I be aiming for?!

Thanks alot

trolleyrun

That depends on the size of your lasagna dish, I suppose. I can make 10 portions of bolognaise sauce from 500g of mince. I pad it out with carrots, onions, mushrooms, courgettes, peppers and lentils. I use the same sauce for a lasagne, so in theory, you could make around 10 portions.

I made a huge batch of this sauce yesterday (in the SC) and I've got 10 portions. 2 for pasta, 3 for cottage pies, 2 for lasagne, 1 for a friend and 2 for a chilli (I'll add the beans at a later stage)

krustylouise

Thanks for your reply. Yes stupid question - I didn't say whether I was feeding 1 or an army! We have a family of 3 - that's on nights when DP is with us. Another thing is lentils - I've never used them. Do you just put them in raw, unwashed etc? Or do you have to soak them?

trolleyrun

I use the little red lentils and throw them straight in with the other stuff in the slow cooker. If I use them on the hob, I boil them for ages as I want them broken up and to "disappear". Can you tell I don't really like lentils? :rotfl: Lentils are a good source of protein though, and I don't mind them hidden in other dishes

krustylouise

Thank you so much trolley run - guess what I'm doing tomorrow morning while DP and DD are away?? Lol.

trolleyrun

Enjoy! Have fun with it