How do I make a meal feed more people than planned?

Extending a meal is straightforward as long as you remember to season for the new volume. Adding bulk without adjusting salt and acid is what makes stretched food taste thin.

What you'll need

• Starch — rice, pasta, bread or potatoes (optional)
• Tinned pulses (optional)
• Frozen vegetables (optional)

Step by step

1. Add a starch rather than more of the main ingredient.Rice, pasta, potatoes, couscous or bread. It is cheap, fast, and it turns a small amount of a main dish into a full meal.
2. Add tinned pulses to anything saucy.Chickpeas, beans or lentils bulk out a stew, curry or sauce substantially, add protein, and cook in minutes.
3. Add frozen vegetables.Peas, spinach, sweetcorn or mixed vegetables go straight in with no preparation and add volume and colour.
4. Add a side rather than extending the main dish.A salad, bread, or a bowl of roasted vegetables. Often easier and better than diluting what is already made.
5. Increase the seasoning to match.This is the step people miss. A dish that has grown by half needs proportionally more salt, acid and seasoning or it tastes flat.
6. Add liquid if the dish needs it.Stock, tinned tomatoes or water for a stew or sauce. Then taste and re-season, since the liquid dilutes what was there.
7. Serve family style rather than plated.It disguises the quantity and lets people take what they want, which naturally distributes a smaller amount further.
8. Add something rich to compensate.Cheese, cream, butter or good oil. It restores the sense of substance that bulking out can dilute.

Tips

• Bread and a salad are the fastest extension available and require no cooking. Both are perfectly respectable additions to almost any meal.
• An extra course — even just cheese and fruit afterwards — makes a small main course feel like enough.
• Eggs extend almost anything. Fried on top, stirred through, or as a quick side dish.

Common mistakes

• Adding bulk without adding seasoning — The dish grows and the seasoning does not, so it tastes flat and diluted. Re-season for the new volume.
• Adding water to a stew to make more — It dilutes everything. Stock, tinned tomatoes or pulses add volume without weakening the flavour.
• Plating up in the kitchen when short — It makes the small portions obvious. Serving family style lets people take what they want and distributes it naturally.

Questions people ask