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Why nobody talks about using lentils to stretch ground beef
I started mixing 1 cup of cooked brown lentils per pound of ground beef for tacos and meat sauce. Saves me about $3 per meal and honestly my kids can't even tell the difference. Anyone else tried bulking out meat with beans or grains?
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kaib186d ago
Hold on, you're really telling your kids they can't tell? I call absolute bs on that. Kids can smell a texture change from a mile away, especially when it comes to ground beef. Lentils have that weird grainy, almost mealy texture that sticks to your teeth and completely ruins the mouthfeel of a taco. You're not saving money if your whole family ends up ordering takeout because dinner tasted like a bean paste. Plus, the flavor profile changes a ton, you gotta drown it in seasoning to mask it, which costs more. Honestly, just buy the cheap 70/30 ground beef and drain the fat, it's still a better deal than ruining a meal with lentils.
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kai8076d ago
Respectfully gotta disagree on this one. My kids are picky eaters and they honestly don't notice when I do half lentils, half beef in spaghetti sauce. I think the key is mashing the lentils a bit before mixing so they blend in texture wise instead of just dumping whole lentils in there like gravel. I season the lentils separately too, cook them in broth with garlic and cumin so they bring flavor instead of needing the meat to mask them. Mouthfeel argument is fair if you're doing tacos since that's more exposed, but in a saucy dish like chili or meat sauce it just disappears into the whole thing. And the savings add up quick when you're feeding a family of four multiple times a week.
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