Cheap midweek dinners are something we all strive for, but it’s not always easy to keep costs down and flavour levels high!

A friend had sent me a recipe for a mince dish that sounded delicious so, despite Kyle’s horrible memories of grim school dinner mince, I decided to give it a go last night.

Jack caught between wanting some mince and looking guilty!

The cooking process was ridiculously easy, which is just what you want after a long day at work. I started by dicing some onions, two green chilies, and a clove of garlic. Then, I warmed some vegetable oil in a large pan before adding the onion, chillies, and garlic. The mixture needs to be fried until the onion is soft and golden.

The onions and chillies frying nicely

At this stage, the mince goes in and, once browned, a tablespoon of plain flour is stirred into the mince and onion mix. Once the flour has been stirred in, add 250ml of beef stock (I used a Knorr cube) and let it bubble away.

Frying the mince

After a couple of minutes, crumble in a chicken stock cube (Knorr again was the handy choice in our household) and let it simmer before the sauce has thickened up.

Even Mog can’t resist the smell of the mince!

Towards the end of the cooking process, add three tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce and a teaspoon of hot chilli powder and let it all rest for five minutes before serving.

The finished article – yum!

I served the mince with sweet potato chips and sweetcorn, but next time I might make it with some creamy potato mash instead as I feel like that would be a better combination.

The mince had a deep, rich, almost naughty flavour, with the beef stock combining nicely with the Worcestershire Sauce. The chillies added an extra dimension as well.

If you have bad memories of mince from school, this recipe will banish them for good. It’s cheap, quick, easy but most of all, delicious!