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MINCED MEAT IS the staple of many a dinner – particularly for the time-strapped amongst us.
It can be whipped into a number of classic dishes from spaghetti bolognese to chilli to a nice burger, and best of all – it’s not restricted to one type of meat. You can have lamb mince burgers, turkey meatballs, beef bolognese – the options are endless.
And within each recipe there’s room for experimentation – whether for health or taste reasons. Spice up your bolognese with chorizo for example, or swap the pasta for courgette noodles (we’ll show you how).
Here we round up a few of the more interesting recipes starring this dinner hero in order to give you delicious twists on familiar recipes – and another excuse to spice up dinner.
This is Greeky, cheesy comfort food. Subtle spices and tomato flavours are combined with the minced lamb, aubergine and topped with cheese. This is a great dish to serve with a light salad. Here’s a wonderful classic recipe.
Spaghetti is so easy to make, you could probably make it in your sleep. As we said above, it’s also a great one to try to experiment with. Red wine and red peppers are a nice combination, or using different meats with the appropriate complementary flavours (lamb mince with rosemary for instance).
Here’s a recipe for a classic spaghetti and to increase the health stakes, or for those with any kind of gluten issues, here’s a nice alternative to wheat pasta – although calling it ‘pasta’ is a bit of a stretch.
Keeping to the Italian theme for just a moment more, here’s a really delish recipe for meatballs and mash. Filled with loads of flavour and a healthy option using turkey mince, we defy you not to go back for seconds.
No ordinary chilli con carne here, oh no. We bring to you a pork mince chilli con carne (which can of course be made with the more traditional beef). Interesting additions here are wine and cocoa… sounds good to us.
You can’t beat a burger for sheer taste satisfaction and a classic beef burger with mustard, ketchup and some chips on the side…heaven. But in our quest to keep things interesting we found this Korean burger. Utilising Asian influences such as teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds with loads of garlic, it’s unusual and really tasty.
While not quite a one-pot dish, as the lasagne needs to be cooked separately, this is a nice quick way to make a lasagne without looking through the oven window for the hours it takes to cook normally*. Here’s a nice recipe that takes a mere 30 minutes.
*Alright, not quite hours, but surely you feel our waiting pain.
And now for something completely different. Polenta is a type of cornmeal, so good for those following a gluten-free diet and is a really easy to use ingredient (can be ready in 2-3 minutes). There’s a nice recipe here, which kind of seems to be a giant casserole sandwich… no complaints here.
Can’t beat a Shepards Pie.
Pretty sure in No.2 everywhere you’ve said spaghetti you’ve actually meant to put bolognese
Pretty sure it’s a copy and paste job from The Food Network in USA, who uses the word “Skillet” in ireland
Starving now.
Zucchini? Was that even necessary to leave in, what I assume was a copy and paste job?
Agreed, Manford. They are courgette in Europe. How lazy is this?
A copy and paste job on the Journal….never!!!
Don’t they teach kids in school the basics of cooking any more…….
In home economics you learn how to cook.
No you don’t you learn how to make one edible meal to get you a pass and mine was leek and potatoe soup something i never made again! I only finally learned to cook properly last year at age 25 and only because i was eating terrible!
Okay Sharon obviously your school wasn’t good at teaching home ec because I learned how to cook and bake over 30 meals over the 3 year junior cert course.
Did you not learn to cook at home Sharon surely you ate proper meals there?
I was thrown out of home economics an unfortunate incident with an oven going up in flames.
I learned to cook at home from family where we should all be learning that skill anyway.
Buy your meat at an independent local butcher… Not at a chain-store
In Scotland mince and tatties is the only one.
I am poor – I’ve spent years cooking all of these dishes. What a piss poor ad for Supervalu
Looks more like linguine in the photo then spaghetti
Cottage pie is another beauty
No.5 – Those Korean meatballs are the dogs bollox!
What about some good ‘ol meatballs! These look so good! http://happinessandhazelnuts.com/?s=lamb+meatballs
Have lamb pieces out but don’t want to make a stew any ideas?
Shish Kebab, or mince them and make kofta – yum.
Try a different take on stew? http://happinessandhazelnuts.com/2015/03/09/moroccan-lamb-stew-with-apricots/
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