Quorn mince

Just a simple veggie mince one that has been popular at home when I've made it.

2 x 300g bags of frozen Quorn mince.
2 medium onions
olive oil
2-3 x Bisto vegatable stock melts or other veggie stock
1 can chopped tomato
Garlic puree
3 -4 large carrots
1 parsnip
4 flat mushrooms
black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 twigs of thyme
Water

Nothing I do is really fixed but this would get me to one that really went down well.

Usual sort of start. Chop the onions, put in a large pan and fry with some olive oil in a large pan.
Turn the heat down a bit,
Add the Quorn and chopped tomato and stir until the frozen Quorn melts.
Add say 2 stock cubes and an inch of garlic puree.
Slice or cube the carrots and parsnips (I like these fairly chunky) and add.
Peel and break up the mushrooms and add.
You might find you need to add some water during the above but aim for "just enough", you don't want it swimming.

Reduce heat, put lid on pan and simmer for maybe 15-20 minutes.

At this point, I'll add some black pepper to taste, let it cool off and add the herbs. I'll have done this by say 2pm for the 5pm evening meal.

Come meal time, heat up again. It may be necessary to add a bit more stock or perhaps you want to add something else. Let your taste be the judge.

Our most popular serving has been with steamed cabbage and mashed potato.

The quantities I use are 2 days worth for the 3 of us. My mother came up with an idea for the second day. She adds cheese to the leftover cabbage and potato and bakes it in the oven. We have this with the remaining mince and maybe another freshly cooked vegetable.
 
Your starting to sound like a regular kind of guy hehe......."fiber"
The dish sounds good

Me, I think with cooking, I'm one type of regular guy. A lazy and reluctant cook type with a very limited repertoire but all the same likes to try sometimes and certainly would not be stuck on just microwaves and takeaways if there was no one else around to cook.

Part of my own take on cooking is that (perhaps baking aside - one might need to be exact there) if you know the basics of something, it's harder to create the inedible than something that is at least passable and sometimes something can work really well. From what I sometimes read in the UK, there still seem to be younger people stuck on the sort of "I don't know how to/ can't cook" thinking but there's no need to be scared of cooking or worrying about experimenting or having the exact ingredients the recipe you find asks for.
 
I never heard of 'Quorn' before. I read through the wiki link some and thanks for teaching me something new. I guess it isn't something the U.S. has adopted too very much except if maybe you're a vegetarian. I'm curious if I can even find any in the store. I do the grocery shopping tomorrow, so I'll look and see if I can find it and I'll talk with my wife as to if she knows about it.

I do know that some ready made foods here have a vegetable paste substituted for meat. Could this be something like your Quorn?
 
Quorn does exist in the US. This is their website http://www.quorn.us/

Reading through the Wiki entry, it does seem their products met with strong opposition from some sources over there. I'd guess that's why it's not as well known as it is in the UK. That part of the article may be worth a read if you haven't done so as it seems some health concerns were raised. That said, my own reading would question the neutrality of the CSPI on this.

I don't know about the US but I've not heard of any similar mycoprotein products in the UK.
 
Yeah, I read that part in the wiki link about the U.S. opposing it. I wouldn't be surprised if meat producers had something to do with it not being accepted due to fear it would hurt their sales.

I guess more vegetarians here in the U.S. eat tofu, or similar products.

I'll check out the quorn site. Thank you for the link.
 
I should try making something with tofu sometime...

I guess the reason that we haven't used it is that historically, my mother never wanted anything that she would think of as a meat substitute. She (unlike my father who went vegetarian probably in his late 40s) finished from eating it at a very early age when she visited a friend's farm and was told her (I think) favourite piglet was on the table. I suppose Quorn sort of crept up on us, firstly with her looking for some vegetarian burgers to grill.

The mince was quite recent for us. It started off as a joke with my mother asking what I'd cook for dinner and me saying I'd do them minced beef (something I very occasionally cook for myself). Anyway, we agreed to try a vegetarian version and it proved popular.

(I'm not vegetarian but have tended to be very finicky with meat - white chicken/ turkey only, no fat, I can't even stand the smell of lamb and so it goes on... Once in a while I do have a meat dish but for reasons of convenience and perhaps increasingly taste (I seem to feel less and less inclined to just do myself a meat dish) usually eat the same meals as my parents. )
 
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