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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 mouthwatering 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 flavor. Got 500 g 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 g 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 2/3
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 flavors 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 flavor 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 5 years. So, look, this idea of stretching meat is good for your pocket. also good for the planet. Let's 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 cuz 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 kebabable 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 going to 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. Bosch. 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 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, to put some olive oil in a pan, take this veggies
here. A little bit of salt and pepper to get the seasoning going. Look at the colors. Come on. So, lentils. Some of you might be going, "Oh, lentils. Budget cooking lentil, you know." Okay, lentils are fantastic. They carry flavors, 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 to one. 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 four of these is about 200 g.
The rice is just fluffing up. We got our kebabs going. So, what I love about what we did with the bread, stretching the mince meat, you don't just get kind of a lighter meatball. You don't just sort of save money. Uh 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 of that will give you the most amazing color. 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 yogurt. 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. delicious flavor. The meatball, it's so light and sweet on the inside and then when it's got caramelized on the outside with that little hit of smoked paprika. The rice and the lentils is gorgeous and exactly what you want with it. M.
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 going to love it, and I think your family or 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 a portion. This is my mighty meatball bake. We're talking juicy meatballs baked in a sweet tomato sauce
with pesto and parmesan. What's not to love? See how delicate the meatballs are? For me, that is what clever midweek cooking for the family is all about. Using a mix of lean minced beef and blended lentils, which is better for the planet, better for your pocket, and it's also good for you. So, I am going to use a food processor. You don't have to, but I find you get a better result. First up, we're going to use some lovely lean minced beef, 250 gram, and then a tin of lentils. A great source of protein, full of fiber, and we're going to go 50/50. So, that's a really
clever way of taking the meat down, but also getting the protein and the nutrition in there, and it's really good value as well. So, we're going to go in with the lentils drained. I'm going to season with quite a bit of black pepper. I want a nice little hum of heat there. A seasoning of salt. If you had herbs around, you can put it in, right? It's not in the recipe, but you can. We're going to use bread about 75 g or two slices of nice, ideally wholemeal bread goes in. That is going to give you a nice texture, a nice lightness, and it's going to bind it really
beautifully. And we're going to add a little bit of pesto. Just a little teaspoon to give these meatballs a little bit of a vibe. Now, if you wanted to swap the pesto out for different things, different spices, you know, you can absolutely do that. So, we're going to w it up about 20 seconds and then we're going to pulse in our minced meat. Look at that. Brilliant. Super simple preparation. Really fast. And look, if I didn't have a food processor, what I would do is just get my hands in a bowl and really kind of mash up those lentils and
then kind of mix in the mince meat. Absolutely no trouble at all. So, look, before we shake these, I'm going to start blistering some pepper. I'm going to put my thumb where the kind of stalk is and just press it in because what I don't want to do is waste any and just tear it up into the pan dry. We're toasting and charring. And that's going to give a little element of smokiness which I really, really like. Imagine that with sweet tomato sauce. Let's divide up some balls. Some grease proof paper down. Whack it on there. Now, what I've done with the minced beef,
you can also do with minced pork or any blends of mints. So you can react to your budget and you can react to your preferences. What I'm going to do is just kind of turn it into a sausage roughly like that. Divide it in half. Divide it into quarters. And then roughly each quarter is going to give you three balls about the size of a golf ball. If you wanted to use this as a little burger patty, you absolutely can. I have a little tip for you. Get a little water in a bowl and just by keeping your hand a little bit moist, you're going to get a really nice smooth finish.
Why do you want them smooth? Just because they get nice and crispy. They got nice texture. Look at that. Nice and smooth. Let's wash my hands. So, have a little look at these peppers. You see how they're just scolding up and crackling? And that's all flavor and potential there. Put those peppers into the middle of the pan. Add some olive oil. And let's get these balls in. Boom. We're going to let them get golden crisp and they're going to be gorgeous. Wash my hands. After it's had a minute, just see how lovely they are. Look at that. Sizzling away. And get them nice and crispy.
Give it a nice little shake. Look at that. Mix it all up. Let's start the fun with the tomatoes. Beautiful plum tomatoes. Use your hand to break up the tomatoes. Then I'm going to use this tin about 3/4 full with water to clean the tin out, but also to add to this. So, let that come up to the boil. Give it a nice little grating of Parmesan on the top. That's just going to give you the most beautiful kind of crispy crust. You can do it in advance and you can reheat it. So, it's super flexible like that. You can serve it with rice, pasta, bread, you know, it really is
a fantastic all round dish. If you had kind of leftover carrots, onions, leaks in the fridge, you can get that in there as well and get even more veg in there. But there you go. Easy as meatballs. I've got the oven preheated to 180° C, which is 350 fah. 20 minutes. That's going to be beautiful. So, the room smells absolutely beautiful. Look at that. Just sizzling and gorgeous. Let's serve up a nice little portion. Look at that. Come on. And then all I do is just finish it. Just some nice little dollops of pesto. Just tiny bits. Beautiful colors. And then maybe a little extra parmesan. Just a little bit. There you go. Happy days.
that with some nice crispy bread, you know, pasta or rice, even a jacket potato. Absolutely beautiful. Right, let's have a little try. Come on. I'm going to try and get everything in one mouthful. Pesto, pepper, and a meatball. Really tasty. Like, I feel no compromise. There's plenty of flavor there. It's delicate. It's got a crispy outside, fluffy, light inside. I'm really happy with that. It's a great midweek meal. Fantastic value, super nutritious, and easy, right? Really quick to do, but really impressive. We're going to make the most gorgeous comfort food dish that's quick, easy, and is going to rock your
world. I'm talking moist, juicy meatballs with melted cheese in a showstoppping chunky gravy loaded into a soft, fluffy sub for optimum sauce dunkage. This can't help but make you happy. So, how do we start this lovely story? With the best meat ever. Just because it's minced meat doesn't mean it can't be the best. We got an amazing shoulder of pork minced here. Ask your butcher to get a chunk of pork shoulder and mince it for you there and then. It will be spectacular. Then grass-fed beef like a brisket or a chuck. We got a kilo of that in total. 50/50. Now, I've got
a little secret. I don't want dry balls, okay? You want juicy balls. Uh, and to do that, potato. A grated potato is a fantastic tip, which is going to keep it light and moist. And then we're going to get in there with our hands and just give it a good old mix up. I'm not going to add anything else. Now, that blend of beef and pork is a really clever blend because the pork really lightens the beef and the beef gives it a real kind of base of flavor. Roll into squash ball sized portions, leaving the meat of about three balls to use later. Give them a little drizzle of olive oil,
some seasoning of salt and pepper, and that's it. Very simple. They go into a preheated hot oven at 200°. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until golden. Next, some supercharged gravy. Starting with that remaining pork and beef mints and a splash of olive oil on a high heat. We're going to fry this off and break it up. And we're going to make an incredible gravy. As the mint browns, chop up one bowl of fennel. It's a delicious big bold flavor that's going to link in with the pork and the meatballs beautifully. And see all these little sticky bits. See that on the bottom of the
pan? This is what we're encouraging. They call it a dirty gravy in America because it's kind of like it's rough and ready. This is gravy on turbo. Add two finely chopped red onions. And once softened, add a heap tablespoon of flour for thickening. That will soak up all the natural residual fats in the pan. Now, if you look on the bottom of this pan, see if I really scrape it. That's your flavor there. So, we're going to break this kind of frying with moisture, but not any old moisture, right? We're going to use porter beer, okay? It's smooth. It's delicious. And it'll start cleaning
the bottom of the pan. This is incredible flavor happening right now. Once that molted dark beer is all cooked in, it's time for some beautifully British punches of flavor. English mustard, number one. Then, a tablespoon of ketchup. brown sauce and woristers sauce. Finally, a dollop of mango chutney. And then one liter of chicken stock. Bring it to the boil and simply wait for the magic to happen. It's just going to become one gorgeous chunky gravy. Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. And then it's time to get those balls out. And then we simply pour this gravy over the top.
Yeah. Woohoo! This is going to be beautiful. To add the most incredible perfume and flavor, add a few whole sprigs of rosemary. And finally, sprinkle over 100 g of red leester, the perfect melting cheese. Then simply grab a nice warmed up roll, bap, or sub. This is gamechanging. And then just take a wadge of water crest and then get in there. The whole point of this is you're dipping it in the sauce. These balls can get mighty messy. So, safety first. This is not a time to be primal proper. If you like the things in life that make you very happy, then this is the way to go.
Unbelievable. An apple a day really could keep the doctor away. And I'm going to use apples in the next recipe with one of their best mates, pork. This family favorite dinner of pork meatballs, apple gravy, protein packed canalini beans, and fiber richch oats will fill you full of the good stuff for just 591 calories per serving. We're not going to buy mince meat. We're going to control things. So, we're going to use a beautiful cut of pork. This is the fillet of pork. It's widely available. It's really lean. It's lovely to use your meat and mince it yourself cuz you know what's in the
minced meat. And traditionally, mince meat dishes, you know, meatloaf, burgers, meatballs are kind of around 15 to 20% fat. And we want to kind of take it from an indulgent dish that's gorgeous of course to something that's superfood friendly. Slice your 450 g of pork fillet into chunks. Add a 400 g tin of drained canalini beans. Great for packing in protein and fiber into your day. It's really good at stretching meat and it's a great carrier of flavor and it makes the meatballs light and delicious. Add 50 g of oats. These whole grain beauties are good for your heart, lowering
your blood pressure and keeping your cholesterol levels healthy. Add half a bunch of mint to the mix. And finally, a teaspoon of whole grain mustard. and we'll whiz that up. I just want to pulse it. I don't want this to be a puree. Okay. Pulse, pulse, pulse. Keep an eye on it. And once it kind of looks like a nice coarse mince meat, we're ready to go. And I'm happy with that. I'm going to fill a little dish up with some water. Whenever you're doing your meatballs, having a little bowl of water to keep your hands wet really helps you not getting messy and sticky. This
amount of mixture should give you 20 meatballs about the size of a ping-pong ball. For me, this is where superfood comes into its own because it's a way of thinking. It's a way of putting things together. It's about it being guaranteed safe good. What does good look like? Of course, we want cakes. Of course, we want indulgence. That's what life is all about. And we don't want to take any of that away. But we do need to have good as well. And sometimes good can pretend to be good and it's not. Or good ends up being bad. And if it's bad every day, everything goes pear-shaped.
So for me to be given a dish like this that feels naughty and is actually really, really good for you and your family and your friends. Happy days. Let's have it. Right, there's 20 beautiful balls right there. Let's start the cooking, people. Get your pan on a medium high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and throw in four of your meatballs. Let's break it up. Beautiful. I'm going to make what they would call in America a dirty style gravy. Now, don't be put off by the name. What it means is putting minced meat into the gravy. So, it's got true flavor and it's a bit
gnarly and rustic. I love it. Get two red onions. Peel them, quarter them, and they're going in the pan. Give the pan a little shake. Beautiful. Next, two apples. Cut them into quarters and core them, but don't peel them. That's where the best stuff is. With the apples, obviously, we've got those pectins that are so fantastic at controlling your cholesterol, which is great. Add the apples to the pan. And after a couple of minutes, once they've softened up a bit, it's time to add a really strong flavor hit. We're going in with woristers sauce. One tablespoon. And so many flavors there.
Beautiful. Great with pork. Then we're going to go in with mustard. a nice heap teaspoon of whole grain mustard. Add two tablespoons of whole meal flour, which carries almost three times the fiber of white. Season it up. And then you want a liter of good quality chicken stock, and bring it to the boil. You can see it's all thickening and starting to look gorgeous. Now is a time to just plop those lovely shiny bowls into that lovely gravy. In original meatball recipes, of course, you need the fat to make it juicy and sumptuous. I get it and I love it. But on a good day, and this is a good
day, a healthy day, totally balanced meal. We're going to cheat around it by using the porridge jokes, by using the beans, by building a kind of really moist environment, which is a gravy to cook it. Pop in the oven at 200° C or 400 F. And in 20 minutes, that liquid's going to cook down. And it's going to be so comforting, so gorgeous. Wonderful. Pot roasted meatballs. Nice. Then take them out and grate over 30 g of cheddar. Enough to look beautiful and add some amazing flavor. And then I'm going to use these beautiful seeded whole meal buns. After 3 more minutes,
back in the oven, it's ready. So guys, look at that. Come and have a look. This is a real family classic. So, let's just plate up a portion. Get your nice roll in there. Just tear that open. To finish this off, I've got a lovely simple salad of rocket water press and fresh mint. All dressed with lemon juice. Let's get in there. Let's have a little go. Look at that. Gorgeous. M. The harmony of the onions and the apple is brilliant. You know, often when you lower fat in meatballs, it goes dry. Horrible. Not here. We've gained and we've gained not just flavor, but nutrition. As
far as meatballs go, they are really, really good. Go and have a go at those. Right. Superb. So, um I'm going to do a beautiful dish um that completely celebrates how beautiful peas are. And I've got some water on spaghetti. And what I want to do is take about half of that, about two portions worth. Um, give it a little twist. Drop in here. Lovely. Maybe a little bit more for luck. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to make meatballs, right? The quickest meatballs. I'm going to make meatballs in the time it takes that pasta to cook. I got some fantastic sausages. These are from the butcher. And look at them. I mean,
they're pretty amazing. You can get any sausage you want as long as it's good. So, you know, something like a cumland or a fresh Italian sausage or something like that. All you have to do is get a pan hot, which that is. Have a nice drizzle of olive oil, right? And get your sausage and literally pinch it and pull it out. Drop. Pinch it, pull it out, drop. Dead simple. And you don't have to sit there and sort of go, "Oh no, I have to roll them around and get them absolutely perfect." Because, you know, life's too short. And quite frankly, I like things a bit rustic anyway.
Now, sauce. Tomato sauce. I've got the quickest, most delicious tomato sauce. So, what you do, slice up a couple of cloves of garlic. I want to use basil. Basil, tomatoes, best friend. There's no debate there. Stalk. I want leaves off. Right. You can pick out your little pretty camp leaves, which I love. Nice to sprinkle on top. The big old leaves. Let's chop them up. stalks. Nothing wrong with those. Don't you dare throw them away. Waste of money. Loads of flavor in there. I'm going to put the garlic and the basil stalks into the pan. That'll start frying. Let's have a little swirly whirly of a pasta.
All right. Not done. It'll be done in 2 minutes. I got to do this in 2 minutes. Nice and golden. Garlic's going. Basil leaves. We're going to cook it so short. So that whole thing about basil at the end, absolutely true. It is almost at the end cuz we haven't even started yet. So give it a little toss like that. And then in with some good tin tomatoes. Pour the juice in. Get the extra tomatoes in your hand. Scrunch them through your finger. All I want to do is bring them to the boil.
Have a little taste. Little bit more salt. A bit more pepper. I tell you what I'm going to do. Little cheat. Just a nice little blob of balsamic vinegar. That'll give it a nice little sweetness. Here we go. Lovely. And then what I'm going to do is I've got some golden oregano. You could use normal green oregano, thyme, even rosemary. Just take it off in with the meatballs. They'll crispen up. They'll look lovely. Oregano, meat, pork, lovely sausages are cooked through. Pasta's now nicely cooked. I'm not going to put it with my tomato sauce. I want to do it sort of slightly more Italian in the sense of toss it with the meat and all
the lovely juice and all of that sort of stuff. Straight in there. Give it a toss. And the first thing the pasta sucks up the all that lovely sort of like herbs from the oregano. Um the sort of lovely flavors that come out of the sausage. And then to serve it, all I'm going to do is take a nice wad of my pasta and get my lovely tomato sauce in the middle. Load it up cuz as soon as anyone puts their fork anywhere near it, it's going to cover it all in it. And then don't forget your meatballs. Right now, obviously, peas and broad beans is my day today. And there's not been a single
pea or broad bean go anywhere near this. But the tweak is, and this is I think this is completely genius. You know, you get your little peas, you crack them open, you know, pasta makes you feel happy. Lovely meatball. Lovely. And you got that sweet tomato sauce. And then you get these raw peas that are going through it. And just pop sweet. Really, really nice. And then just finish it with a few lovely little basil leaves. And that is a superb dinner. 10 minutes. So good.
