How do you stretch ground beef with lentils?

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mommalah

Mon, Feb 08 2010, 12:32 pm

Can anyone give directions?
Red or green lentils?

TIA

RachelEve14

Tue, Feb 09 2010, 2:03 am

I use the red lentils. Cook the lentils in a pot until soft (about 40 minutes). Season the beef as usual (I usually do it with tomato puree, sugar, garlic, soy). I mix it about 50/50 lentils / beef, but you might want to try more beef in the beginning. I havne't used lentils in meatballs or hamburgers, but I use them all the time in meat sauce, sheperd's pie, meat pie, etc.

lech lecha08

Tue, Feb 09 2010, 4:54 am

Echoing what Racheleve said. I usually cook about 2 cups of lentils for a kilo (a bit over 2 pounds) of meat. They're really good in hamburgers. Mix with the raw meat and whatever else you usually add. You may need more of a filler (matza meal or whatever) to make the burgers form nicely into a patty

Rodent

Tue, Feb 09 2010, 6:50 am

When I use them in spaghetti bolognaise I chop and brown the mince and then chuck about 3/4-1 cup of lentils in (1/2kg of mince) and add the tomato sauce part, simmer until the lentils are soft (stir occasionally in case more water is needed, they soak up a lot and if it gets dry they'll stick to the bottom of the pan). Easy peasy. Sometimes I grate some vegies in also.

mommalah

Tue, Feb 09 2010, 8:24 am

Thanks for the replies. So I went ahead and attempted to make meatballs using 1 lb of ground beef and 1and 1/3 c. red lentils. I cooked it in a tomato sauce on the stovetop and they fell apart. I hadn't used eggs or matzoh mall. I'm guessing that's why they didn't remain meatballs? The kids ate it with no complaints (thank G-d). By the time dh came home I couldn't even lift a ball out of the pot without it falling apart so I mashed it all down and served it as a meat sauce over brown rice. DH said it was great ( Very Happy

) and he is insanely picky. It's such a cool way to stretch meat...

So if I add eggs and a grain next time will it remain a solid ball?

gryp

Tue, Feb 09 2010, 9:20 am

I used to do this all the time. It cuts the price of ground beef in 1/2, and is healthier too. (I haven't done it in a while because I haven't been eating ground beef much.)

You just make it as you would meat. If you usually add eggs, do the same. I used to add ketchup and mustard to avoid the eggs part and it worked nicely, but now I don't use ketchup either....

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