I’ve started cooking some red lentils in some beef stock, adding them and some breakcrumbs to mince meat to pad the meat out a bit (and hide some extra veg in the meat). With meatballs you cant even tell the difference. What are some of your hacks/tips/tricks?
This is not really a hack or trick, it’s just something people skip over a lot these days:
Always reuse scraps for broth/stock/soup. Everytime you cut up your vegetables, put all the ends and unused bits in a freezer bag. They will add a lot of flavour and nutrients when slow cooked with the leftover bones (from roast or fried chicken, for example). Then just strain the liquid and use it for whatever you want.
Time/temp/liquid ratio?
if you have a slow cooker - enough water to cover, and then half more, turn on low, leave for 6 hours or until it smells good.
I don’t really have a set method. Just add some water, come back a few hours later and see how it’s going. If it needs more and adding more won’t weaken the broth too much, I’ll add more. It’s a long and slow process at a low heat, so there is room for error and plenty of opportunity to find a solution.