[Elaine G]

I keep reading about adding lentils to mince. But all the recipes I’ve seen say something different. Bit like gardeners really!!

So I want to make spaghetti bolognese but add some lentils to make it healthier.
I have a few questions.

Which sort of lentils can I add? I have red and green. And do they need to be cooked first if I am throwing it all into the slow cooker!

Also what quantity should I add? The recipe is 750gm of mince which I already have so looking to make more portions rather than cut down on the meat.
Any assistance greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Elaine

[jaydig]

I add lentils to everything I can hide them in as my husband is diabetic and they are very good for helping to regulate blood sugar.  Mince for lasagne or cottage pie done in the slow cooker gets a good couple of handfuls  to around 1k of mince - more if I think I can get away with it.  Home made vegetable soup gets loads. At the end of cooking this I use my stick blender to crush some of the soup to thicken it and you can't even see the lentils.  I find red ones easier to hide than green but it depends what you're trying to hide them in I guess. Slow cooked curries is another meal I use them in.

[New shoot]

Red lentils dissolve to mush, so I would throw a handful per 250g meat into the slow cooker straight from the bag.  They will absorb some water from the sauce, so make it a bit more liquid than usual.  This works fine for bolognaise, but for something like chilli or a cottage pie filling I prefer green lentils.

Green lentils retain more of a texture and tbh it is difficult to say what is mince and what is lentil when you eat the finished product from a slow cooker.  I do 50/50 with the meat, so it really does make a lot of portions for freezing.

I bring them to a boil with enough water to cover in a saucepan, let it simmer at a fairly rapid pace for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave them to cool in the pan.  This is usually overnight as I am getting ready to set the slow cooker off in the morning, but a couple of hours will do.  If there is a lot of surplus water, drain that out before adding to the slow cooker, otherwise just tip in. 

[mumofstig]

I made a shepherd's pie tonight had 300g of lamb mince in the freezer and added a good handful of red lentils to it. I'm eating it now and can't tell that they're in there, cos they've taken on the flavour of the meat, seasonings and stock cube 

[DanielCoffey]

Green lentils with the skins on will take longer to cook than split reds and will retain their shape but anything over an hour in a slow cooker and they will be done for sure.

One more thing to watch out for - if you are buying whole lentils from health food stores or even UK growers where they might be direct-from-farm, give the dry lentils a careful once over before washing to make sure there are no bits of grit or soil in them. The machines used to clean the harvest have difficulty telling the difference between a green lentil and a slightly smaller chip of stone or soil. They should be uncommon.

I might find three or four bits of dirt and a few wheat or grass grains in about a cup of lentils but you only need to bite onto something sandy once to know it was there.

[Elaine G]

Thank you for all your replies.
It turns out that OH has no objection to my adding lentils so I will be doing that in future and I don't have to worry about hiding them!!
Every little helps when trying to eat less red meat.

Elaine