I want to show you some really cool principles in this recipe that are going to teach you how to
stretch meat and make it go a lot further. To do that, my mouth-watering meatball kebabs use bread
for lip-smacking taste and incredible texture. Served on a fluffy rice, lentil and spinach base,
this delicious crowd-pleaser is a genius way to elevate cheap cuts without scrimping on
flavour. I've got 500 grams of minced pork that I'm going to use, and I'm going to take half of
it for this recipe. And of course you could say well why not just buy a 250 gram pack of
minced pork? It's cheaper to buy the bigger pack, right? So I'm thinking about cost all the time.
One of the ways to stretch it is actually using breadcrumbs, stale bread. So first up one of the
biggest wasted items in this country is bread. So if you have any leftover bits and pieces, dry it.
If you've used the oven, when you've turned it off just pop some bread in there and it will last for
ages and ages. But look I've got fresh stuff here because you might not have dry bread. Give it a
little bathe in water, like this. Gently squeeze it so the excess water comes out. Can you see,
about two-thirds of the volume of the meat we now have in bread, and you can lower or increase that
depending on what your budget is okay? So we're then going to scrunch this almost like we're
mincing the bread, right? And really it's the little edges, the kind of crust that you want
to work on so it's nice and fine, you don't want big chunks around. But also a lot of the
flavour's in the crust as well so that's why we don't cut it off. Now there's some benefits here,
by adding the bread that's going to absorb the fat and flavour from the pork. It's also going to give
a lightness which is really nice when you eat it. Just season it. Sea salt there, plenty of pepper.
So I'm going to wash my hands and actually while I'm doing that, water is quite handy.
And you might be thinking "why?" Because having wet hands helps you make a nice
smooth meatball. We need to make 16 meatballs because we're making this for four people right,
so I'm just guessing it roughly and hoping that my guesstimate is about right. And we're going
to make little kebabs. I'm a very passionate meat lover and I love all that sort of stuff
but the idea of reducing meat is definitely something I've been working on for the last
five years. So look this idea of stretching meat is good for your pocket, also good for the planet.
Just wash me hands, we got these lovely balls here. Let's talk veg. So, peppers. Just take
the pepper off the side like that. You don't want to waste any of this stuff, we'll just take every
last bit off. And I'm going to remove the seeds and the inner part, we don't really want that.
So you can compost that. Slice this pepper up into nice little chunks which are roughly
the same kind of size as those lovely meatballs. I've got two onions here,
and all I'm going to do is cut it into quarters because these are small. Getting the bags of
small onions is often much cheaper. What I'm going to do now is take it apart
into little petals. And I've got a little pile here of kebab-able onion and peppers,
and then this sort of tatty part here can go over here because I'm going to use that later.
But let's get going. A green pepper... a red pepper. I'm going to then go in with a little
cup facing in because the angle of the cup is gonna cuddle our little meatball, so we're just
going to put that on there like that, okay? So this is where we're going. You can put bits of
herb in between there you can change up your veg, you can do whatever you want, but this is fun.
Bosh. Once you get going you start speeding up, just don't skewer your finger. So when
I was thinking about cooking this I was going to do it in a really hot oven and just roast it up,
but actually the oven is more expensive to run than a gas hob or an electric hob so I'm going to
do it all in the pan today, so you get a golden crispy little kebabs. Last one look the amounts
are pretty good. Sometimes I get excited and I load the first couple and then it gets stingy on
the last one. A little olive oil on your kebabs, and dust them with pepper and seasoning of salt.
Just roll them in the olive oil, salt and pepper right, and then they're going to cook lovely.
I am going to do a little dish to go with this. Chop this up so it's nice and fine,
this will be the base for a lovely rice, lentil, spinach dish which is really nice
underneath these cooked kebabs. So I'm gonna put some olive oil in a pan, take these veggies here.
A little bit of salt and pepper to get the seasoning going, look at the colours, come on! So,
lentils. Some of you might be going oh blah blah, lentils ugh, budget cooking lentils y'know,
okay lentils are fantastic they carry flavours, really nutritious great source of protein, good
for iron. Delicious. You could use dried lentils which take about 25 minutes to cook, these are
already cooked right so I'm going to put them into the pan, juice and all. But also I'm going to pour
some rice into the can and half-fill it, and then I'm going to put this into the lentils.
This rice takes about 10 to 12 minutes to cook so it's a quick meal. Then I'm going to use this tin
as a measuring cup and I'll fill it with cold water, to the top. So, half rice, full water,
2:1. Gives you perfect rice every single time. So that goes in, happy days. Got it on quite a
high heat, put the lid on and that'll also save you energy so much more efficiency there. Now
I want to get even more veggies into this and I'm going to use a best friend, frozen spinach.
Brilliant brilliant for curries, going into stews at the last minute. So once that's kind of boiled
for a couple of minutes I'll just plop a couple of these in and they'll cook together and this
will be a lovely dish. Let's get the kebabs going now I'll turn this pan on, sort of medium-high.
Just turn them quite regularly so it gets golden and crisp and gnarly. Take care of it, love it,
and you'll have something really nice to be proud of. And actually in the sort of like 10 - 12
minutes is about perfect for the kebabs and the rice dish. So let's just have a little wash up.
Now this has had about 5 minutes let's go in with the spinach. Just 4 of these is about 200 grams.
The rice is just fluffing up. We've got our kebabs going.
So what I love about what we did with the bread, stretching the mincemeat, you don't just get kind
of a lighter meatball you don't just sort of save money, you also create this sort
of meatball that if you overcook it slightly it doesn't go dry as quickly. So it's nearly there.
I have budgeted for a teaspoon of smoked paprika but you could use any spice. So that will give you
the most amazing colour. A little bit of heat. Not a lot, a little bit on the outside. So we're done,
it's time to serve up. Fluffy perfectly cooked rice. The lentils are just like a best friend.
Look at that.
Sizzling, golden, gorgeous.
Flourish at the end with some yoghurt, little pinch of paprika.
It's a lovely plate of food. What I like to do is get me fork in there, break it off, oh yeah.
It looks cool, it smells amazing.
Mm, delicious flavour.
The meatball, it's so light and sweet on the inside and
then when it's got caramelised on the outside with that little hit
of smoked paprika. The rice and the lentils is gorgeous and exactly what you want with it.
This dish is delicious but it has all the key principles about being thrifty and clever and
celebrating food, but most importantly keeping those costs down. I think you're gonna love it
and I think your family, your friends, they will too. I've taken the average cost of each
ingredient and quantity used across four major supermarkets. The only things I've assumed that
you have are salt, pepper, and oil, and the cost comes in at 90 pence a portion.