4 Quick & Healthy Mince Recipes

These lamb and quinoa koftas are super simple, plate beautifully and work as a starter or main meal. This recipe calls for grass fed and finished lamb mince but we've also made a beef and mushroom and pork and sage version, and all combinations work. The quinoa makes these less dense than a meatball which works really well with rich and flavourful lamb.

Ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees.
2. Cook the rinsed quinoa in 220ml of water (absorption method).
3. Combine all the ingredients, including the cooked quinoa in a bowl and mix evenly. 
4. Using your hands, roll heaped tablespoons of the mixture into oval shaped koftas.  
5.  Brush or spray each kofta with olive oil and bake on a tray in a 190 degree oven until cooked (20 -25 minutes). 

Serve

As an entree serve 1 - 2 koftas with a dollop of hommus, a little pool of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika. 

As a main, serve with a crisp salad, and a yoghurt dipping sauce (greek or natural yogurt, lemon, mint, honey, salt & pepper to taste). 

2. BEEF & PORK POLPETTE

Easy to make, nutritious, tasty—we love meatballs in all their forms. The base of this recipe is interchangeable with other flavour combinations (pork, fennel & chilli / chicken, cumin, coriander & spinach). These meatballs freeze well and are perfect for batch cooking. Buon appetito! 

Ingredients

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 
2. Saute onion in olive oil until soft.
3. Combine all ingredients (except passata) in a bowl.
4. Roll heaped tablespoons of the mince mixture into balls. 
5. Pan fry balls in olive oil for a minute each 'side' until they begin to brown.
6. Place balls on a large tray and bake in oven to complete cooking (10 mins). 
7. For the tomato sauce, heat the passata in a saucepan, then whizz with a stick blender—adds air and a lovely light texture. Season with salt & pepper.

Serve

We serve these with zucchini noodles or wholemeal or spelt pasta. Use a microplane to finely grate pecorino or parmigiano cheese and add any fresh herbs (basil, oregano) you have on hand. 

*Breadcrumbs are optional, the meatballs will have a meatier texture without the breadcrumbs but will still stick together and most importantly, taste delicious. GF breadcrumbs are also a great substitute.

3. QUICK STICKS CHICKEN SAN CHOI BAU

This is the quickest san choy bau recipe in town. It stars our gorgeous pasture raised chicken mince but you could swap this out for pork too. We have used white quinoa as that is what we had in the cupboard but black or the tri-colour (black, red & white) mix will give this dish a bot of 'wow'. We also usually double this recipe and keep half in the freezer so all we need to do next round is sort the lettuce out! 

Ingredients

500g Ethical Farmers pasture raised chicken mince (1 pack) 
1 cup of quinoa (rinsed under water)
1 small tin of water chestnuts finely chopped 
4 cm piece of ginger, finely grated on a microplane (otherwise chop as fine as you can)
2 cloves garlic, finely grate on a microplane or crush
1 - 2 chillies to taste
1/3 cup gf tamari or soy
2 tbs real maple syrup 
1 tbs oil (olive, avocado or macadamia) 
1 tbs sesame oil 
1 iceberg lettuce for the cups (cos is a good alternative if you can't find a nicely-shaped iceberg)
Garnish with any combination of fresh coriander, sliced chilli, red onion, capsicum or cucumber.

Method

1. Cook the rinsed quinoa in 1 and 3/4 cup of water (absorption method).
2. In a large pan or wok add oils and cook the mince, ginger, garlic chilli & water chestnuts.
3. Once most of the pink in the meat has gone add tamari and maple syrup, stir through.
4. Add the cooked quinoa to the mince mix and stir through. 

Serve

Serve in lettuce cups and garnish with herbs and veggies of choice. 

4. LEFTOVERS MEXI MINCE

There are no rules to this dish. It's exceptional with any mince and is perfect for using any half finished vegetables in the fridge. You can omit the chilli as there's plenty of flavour in the spice mix without packing heat. This is a batch cook staple—enjoy it on toast for breakfast, reheated by itself or with rice.  

Ingredients

500g Ethical Farmers pasture raised chicken mince (1 pack) or pork or beef
2 gloves garlic crushed or grated on microplane
1 red onion finely diced 
1 red chilli sliced (seeds in if you love heat)
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp each of smoked paprika, dried oregano & dried parsley 
1 capsicum diced (any colour)
1 zucchini diced
Small tin of corn (optional/if you have)
Small tin of beans (optional/if you have)
4 fresh tomatoes cut into chunks (or add an extra tin of tomatoes instead)
1 x 400g can tin tomatoes
Olive oil 

Method

1. Saute garlic & onion in olive oil until soft. 
2. Add chicken mince and cook until almost all pink has gone.
3. Add chilli, chilli powder, cumin, paprika, oregano & parsley. 
4. Add tomatoes, beans, corn, capsicum & zucchini. 
5. Cook until the vegetables are not completely soft—about 10 minutes.  

Serve

Serve on its own or with toast or rice.