Cutting down on meat consumption

kettlefish

Hi everyone

I was looked for a bit of advice really. We are hoping to cut down our meat consumption for ecological reasons. Obviously we therefore don't want to simply be replacing meat with Quorn or similar, as we feel that is defeating the object. At the moment, a 750g packet of mince will do 4 family meals (each feed me, DH and a very hungry toddler!) so we aren't using loads and loads of meat. If we have a sausage casserole or similar we would tend to have 2 x sausages per adult, ie 4 sausages between us all, with DD just taking from ours.

Which pulses / beans / veg would be best to use to bulk out dishes like spag bol, chilli, lasagne, shepherd's pie? DH doesn't do mushrooms

Thanks

ditsykitchen

Lentils and mushrooms are my favourite, combined in different proportions. For bolognese, etc I blitz a whole pack of mushrooms in the food processor and cook it like mince I use lentils or occasionally kidney beans for shepherds pie. I find chilli is fine without any meat or substitute. I'd use a recipe like this with kidney beans, as they're the cheapest. I sometimes throw in some chickpeas.

kittycat204

I use tinned green lentils the most because they hold their shape. I use them with most mince dishes now and I wouldn't know they were in there.

ziggy2004

I bulk out with lentils and with oats.

Veg wise I find that if I stick in a wide variety and keep the ones one person does not like large enough to easily pick out the lack of meat is not noticed. So eg a chili with at least two types of beans, whole or halfed mushrooms, chunks of pepper, tomatoes, onion and courgette and served with corn on the cob goes down just as well as the meat version

DH will pick out the courgette and DS1 the mushrooms but as long as they are big enough to pick out they do not complain.

kettlefish

Thanks so much for your help, especially the oats suggestion. Had never considered using in savoury dishes before but have a slow cooker so imagine they will take on the sauce's flavour nicely. Useful starting point for which type of lentils to choose, too; it's all a bit new to me! Looking forward to experimenting.

joedenise

If you want to hide the lentils the best way of doing so is to use the red lentils as they almost disappear once cooked. Personally I prefer the green lentils as I think they have more flavour.

Denise

[Deleted User]

grated carrot is also very good to 'bulk' things out a bit

vgstar44

I'm another fan of oats and grated carrot. My kids don't even notice the difference so good to get a bit extra veg into them too

zippychick

these threads may help

Bulking out meals

Any devious ideas for hiding veggies

Ill merge this later
Zip

sedment

Have you checked out a girl called Jack's blog? She has loads of veggie recipies, that are tasty and cheap!

zippychick

Oh - the vegetarian collection also useful