40 Recipe Ideas For Minced Beef, Lamb, and Turkey (plus vegan options)

Mince whether it be beef, lamb or turkey, must be one of the most versatile of ingredients (and very budget-friendly too). Today I have 40 ideas for dinner using mince, including beef, lamb, turkey and vegan alternatives.

There are thousands of recipes for mince, and I’m sure you have several of them ingrained in your head, as I have.

Spaghetti sauce springs immediately to mind. I bet you have your own special version of it too!

But there must be lots more you can do with mince other than spaghetti sauce, right?

So, today I have plenty of ideas, so you don’t have to hear the words ‘not [insert sauce] again’, again!

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Cooking tips for mince

• Brown your mince in batches for more evening cooking.
• For maximum flavor, deglaze the frying pan by adding some water or stock and gently scraping the bottom of the pan to dissolve the brown stickiness.
• To save time, use tinned tomatoes with added ingredients such as herbs and garlic.
• If you are not going to use your mince immediately, freeze it for up to two months.

Batch cooking with mince

To save time I like to make a big batch of ground meat cooked with some chopped vegetables and tomatoes.

Later, I can make each batch into something else by adding extra ingredients such as:

1. Mushrooms, garlic, herbs, and some extra tomato purée to make spaghetti sauce.
2. Chili peppers, and a can of kidney beans to make Chili con Carne.
3. Mashed potato to make Shepherd’s pie or Cottage pie.

Ways to cook mince

Mince of any kind is so versatile. You can cook it in a slow cooker, on the stove, in a pressure cooker, or in the oven. You could make some homemade burgers or meatballs and fry them up in a pan.

I usually like to brown the mince first otherwise it can turn out mushy, plus I can remove some of the fat before it goes into the main dish.

OK, let’s get on and see what ideas for dinner using mince I have for you today!

Dinner ideas with lamb mince

I love lamb mince, it is so flavorsome!

Lamb mince is quite a fatty usually. You would definitely want to brown it first in a frying pan, so you can remove most of the fat.

If you buy your mince from the butcher’s shop, ask for neck and belly for a rich mince, and leg mince for a leaner version.

A classic lamb mince dish is Moussaka, of course, traditional Greek fare and so good!

Another one I love is shepherd’s pie. I pretty much grew up on it. Unfortunately, we don’t have it very often in our house, as one of my sons won’t eat the mash on top. Very odd I know!

Dinner ideas with turkey mince

Turkey mince or ground turkey is something I admit I don’t use enough of in my cooking. I tend to go for beef or lamb. I don’t know why, other than it isn’t so popular here in the UK as in other countries.

Turkey is a great alternative to beef if you are on a low-fat diet because the fat content is much less than beef or lamb and the protein content is just as high.

The great news is that whatever you can do with beef or lamb you can certainly do with turkey too. That includes meatballs, burgers, ragu, and casseroles.

So, what can you make for dinner with ground turkey? Here are some delicious recipes made with turkey mince.

Dinner ideas with beef mince

Now we are on to beef mince.

It could be said that turkey mince isn’t as flavorsome as beef mince. Personally, I think it is the fat content in beef that gives it more flavor.

Here are some delicious beef mince recipe ideas I found from around the world.

Dinner ideas with vegan mince

I’m not vegan, but, these vegan mince recipes look so delicious I just had to list some too.

Several of these recipes are made with soy mince or lentils, and they are all packed with flavor.