We all know the joke about fast food hamburger being half sawdust, but while their fillers may or may not be suspect, they've got the right idea: stretch the protein so you get the taste you want, at a fraction of the price.
You, too, can add filler to your ground meats. There are a myriad of options, some better than others for specific dishes. Making meat sauce for spaghetti or other pasta? Use half hamburger and half cooked red or black beans. Mash them and mix in well with the raw hamburger before cooking. Making meatballs? Make panade filler out of bits of bread or broken up crackers and milk, and/or add grated vegetables like carrot and celery. Swedish meatballs? Add cooked mashed potatoes (not the dish mashed potatoes, just potatoes that have been mashed.) Hamburger patties? Mix in blended cooked oats or bread crumbs. Taco meat? Mashed black beans or blended cooked rice.
Other possibilities include cream of wheat, quinoa, and lentils. I'm sure other people use things I haven't listed. Just adding mote veggies to your dish is always a great plan to get cheap, healthy substance and cut down on the meat needed, but if you have a picky family like I do, using filler can almost always go under the radar.
January 19, 2018 at 12:27AM
