Times are hard, the cost of living is rising, and so, like many people, I’m trying to cook cheaper meals for the family. I recently did the Piri-piri chicken wing, wedges and corn traybake from BBC Food.
Wings are cheap, potatoes are cheap, and corn isn’t crazy expensive. The limes were probably the most extravagent ingredient. Total price, probably £2-£3 per person.
It was great, and the family all enjoyed it. To the point where it would go on the regular rotation even if we had suitcases full of cash stashed around the place!
What are your best economical recipes that aren’t just beans, chickpeas, and rice? Meals you actively looks forward to, rather than just a budget way of getting calories inside you?
On my list for the coming week:
- Carbonara
- Sausage and mash with onion gravy
- Chicken Quesadillas
- Mac and Cheese with salad
- Spicy black bean tacos
- Stir-fried tofu
- Slow cooker leek and potato soup
I can supply recipes for any of these.
two jars of salsa
chicken thighs
veggies
crock pot on low for 4 hours
serve with rice
Mille feuille nabe. It’s cabbage and pork (sliced thin) layered together and cooked in dashi or whatever broth you have. Pack it with other veggies, mushrooms, whatever is on sale. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, serve with rice or noodles.
I like to put the whole pot on the table and have people take pieces like hot pot.
Also a good time to break out any sauces you have. Ponzu, chili oil, sriracha, whatever your taste. It’s very flexible.
A good stew. Most expensive ingredient will be the osso-buco, or any similar meat-on-the-bone.
You cook the meat, bone and all, till the marrow melts out. Vegetables can be… Anything. One pot can last you a week and it’s a real hearty meal.
put anything you want into a rice cooker and that’s it
I tried this with dried beans and it didn’t turn out too well
didn’t make me shit myself though
im regularly cooking lentils with beef/chicken, eggs and vegetables
Kale chips! Take some kale, remove the stems, brush it with oil and seasonings, then throw it in the oven on some parchment paper
some bread you like(soft bread is good for this), cheese slices, tomato. optionally tuna or salmon if you can find some with decent price, maybe some spices(i like dill and oregano). You can also just skip the tuna/salmon, its pretty good with just cheese and tomato too.
Butter the bread, put tomato slice on it and cheese on top of it. Put it on oven and set it to 200c. Let them be there until cheese has properly melted and bread has toasted a bit. Take it out and put tuna on top of it or small slice of salmon. or put something else you like on it.
You can put the spices on top of the cheese before the oven or after it.
And naturally you dont have to make just one singular bread, make as much as you want.
Another food i have been occasionally making is mashed everything. I boil some potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots until they are soft, then just mash them with the wooden… smasherthingy…? (perunanuija). Add some cream if you want, also some salt and other spices you feel might work (again, i like dill and oregano, they go with everything. Some other spices might work for you better so experiment). If it tastes good, its done, if not you could try putting it on stove for some time so new ingredients mix up better.
Curry.
- Any vegitables
- chickpeas or tofu
- rice
- curry paste or some spices
- coconut milk
Prep:
- cut and steam vegetables, rice
- bake tofu
- mix everything
- wait 20min
Lovely vegan curry. Could switch to meat if you want. Costs me roughly €2,50 per portion for a very tasty and healthy meal.
Yeah, I’ve cooked Chana Aloo recently, but I’m looking for things that aren’t just pulses and rice or beans and rice!
You can go wild with pasta sauce, ingredients and herbs wise. White sauce or red sauce for example. There’s loads of different kinds of pasta too. Or just go for the simple pasta pesto garlic spinach.
Also one of my favorite things to make during winter is pea soup, from split peas. It’s a traditional Dutch recipe, called erwtensoep or snert. Here’s a recipe. But I make it vegan. Also really cheap and fills you up like crazy.
+1 for curry! My favorite paste is Cock Brand Curry paste for 3€ per 200g, which is 4 portions. Absolutely worth it though, as it’s really the only seasoning you need and it turns out perfect every time. I usually throw in frozen Cauliflower and smoked Tofu.
If I’m feeling fancy, I also start the curry by searing a roughly chopped onion in a big scoop of vegan butter and mixing in a bit of flour, then slowly stirring in the coconut milk similar to how you make bechamel sauce. The flour thickens the curry up, which really improves the texture and shortens the cooking time, as you don’t have to wait for water to evaporate and thicken it up naturally.
I bought these 1kg buckets for €6 each at the local Asian supermarket.
I like baking the tofu with soy sauce and ketjap to a crispy state (takes a while) but it’s that extra bite in all the softness of the marinated vegitables.
Some cashews are also nice to add but they are expensive AF.
What is ketjap if I may ask?
I had to look it up. I thought it was a common product, but apparently it’s Indonesian, so that’s why it’s common in the Netherlands (our dark colonial history) but not internationally.
It’s an Indonesian soy sauce. I found a wiki page with 14 languages, including Dutch, but not English xD
Here’s the Deepl translation:
Ketjap (Indonesian: kecap) is an Indonesian soy sauce. It is made from a fermented mixture of soybean flour, coarsely ground wheat, spices, sugar, and salt.
There are many types of ketjap, including:
Ketjap manis: very sweet soy sauce Ketjap sedang: less sweet soy sauce Ketjap asin: salty soy sauce Ketjap kendal: dark, syrupy soy sauce; similar in taste to ketjap manis Ketjap medja: dark, syrupy soy sauce; sweet and salty. Its flavor is between manis and asin Ketjap asin is used in the kitchen when preparing dishes, while ketjap manis is used at the table as an addition to flavor a meal. Ketjap manis is the most commonly used type.
Indonesian ketjap is characterized by its dark brown color and syrupy consistency. This differs from Chinese and Japanese soy sauces, which are thinner and usually not sweet.
Interesting. I dont think I have ever seen it. Maybe in an asian market if I look for it.
And be hungry in an hour
Why? It’s a well balanced meal
Tater tot casserole.
We don’t really have tater tots here.
Potatoes and lardons
I do a tartiflette which is pretty similar to this.
I’d love to see it on the cooking sub °o°
My student days:
Curry Super Noodles
After draining most of the water crack an egg in there and give it a small stir, also add small tin tuna and some frozen sweetcorn
Tip into a bowl and drown in Sweet Chili Sauce
Easy to make, only dirties one pan, has pretty much all the nutrients you need. Corresponds to no known world cuisine so name it whatever you want.
I’m not really looking for student-budget level recipes, more a step up from that.
Posting questions and then complaining that the answers aren’t good enough for you, is what I would, at my most diplomatic, call ungracious behaviour. You had the option of just scrolling past.
Indian food my friend! Loads of pulse based dishes that are not difficult, and very inexpensive. Dal, Channa, Pani Puri, Paneer etc… If it works for 1 billion modest Indians, it will work for you.
Even if you add meat, you can use the cheapest cuts and include the bones for savoury broth making built into the dish.
I did Gobi Aloo last week!
Pulse? Is that a typo for potato?
Pulse crops are things like lentils, peas, chickpeas, etc. Similar to how cereal crops refer to things like wheat, barley, oats, etc.
Thank you, never heard of that before
(And thanks to the guy asking for all the uncultured swines, like me)In the states that’s not a commonly known word, probably because we eat almost none of those foods. Thanks for the info!
Apparently ‘pulses’ are a subset of legumes that are used for human consumption, as opposed to livestock feed.
Pulse is pulse. No potato. Is only dream.
*Cries in Latvian.
Oh, man, I’d almost forgotten about the Latvian potato jokes from reddit :D
One of the small things that make your cold and dark day a little darker is finding an odd Latvia joke in the wild
Usually when people say “pulse” in this context they’re talking about lentils.
In my search for a reference for you, I discovered that it’s a bit more complicated than that, and many beans are considered pulses too.
See “terminology” section https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume
I could really use some insta pot recipes
Beans and rice takes many forms, and is generally cheap, and fairly nutritious
I’m a fan of pork butt (or shoulder) in a slow cooker all day (or oven on low) it manages to be pretty cheap per serving, and you can spice it to match any cuisine
Beef is just for special occasions unfortunately
Some fish, like tilapia, can be cheap proteins… I cook mine with lemon and dill
Canned proteins should not be overlooked
Bread is one of those things that is cheaper to buy than make IMO
If only cheese wasn’t so fucking expensive lol
The noble potato, savior of many a meal
Bread is one of those things that is cheaper to buy than make IMO
I checked my Walmart. Premium bread flour is $5.25 for 5lb (enough for 6-7 loaves). The cheapest bread is $2.50. Bread is a pain to make, I won’t deny that, but your time would have to be pretty valuable to erase the savings.
For me it was more the responsibility to keep the sourdough well and alive, without really baking a loaf every few days/once a week
At least it didn’t work for us last time
Maybe, I should give it another try and read up more before - because bread is a delicious rabbit holeI’m a huge fan of soda bread, which does not require sourdough (or yeast). You can go from “I have no bread” to “I am eating bread” in about 40 minutes.
The rising is done via buttermilk and baking soda.
How is your bread so expensive? Cheapest loaf here is £0.45 for 800g in Aldi, most other shops same size is about £0.70-£0.90
Yes, I can make more money than I save by making my own bread with the time used
Beans and rice is a very good suggestion. Grains alone are missing many amino-acids. Legumes add them. And legumes are almost as cheap as grains are.
Meat is expensive, so veggie meals first. Something simple, nourishing and tasty is Risotto
Indeed, I did a mushroom risotto last week!
Are you just sick of beans and rice or have you not found a recipe you like? If the latter, try this one. I made it a day or two ago and it’s good.
Serious Eats Foolproof Pan Pizza is one of my regulars. You can put all kinds of stuff on a pizza and it’s still good. I’m vegetarian so I use fake chicken and such, but here are a few of my favorites. (they all have mozzarella)
- Teriyaki sauce base, fried tofu, green beans, mushrooms, red onion, fried eggplant
- Barbecue sauce base, chicken, mushrooms, red onions, pickled jalapenos, sweet corn
- Refried bean base, cheddar, onions, mushrooms, pickled jalapenos. Top with Romain salad w/ ranch.
- Tomato sauce base, mushrooms, onions, peppers, olives. (flexible, use what you like)
You can make the pickled jalapenos. And the refried bean base is just a can of beans with a little water, garlic, and salt. Heat to cook the garlic then blend/mash.
I also like a good vegetable pot pie. That one is made with simple ingredients like potatoes, carrots, celery, and mushrooms, along with any spices you like. She has a nice pie crust recipe too. Turned out well when I made it.
I have half a dozen beans and rice recipes, from Red Beans and Rice to Rajma Masala to Nigerian Rice and Beans. But I’m looking for recipes a step up from that. Might try the homemade pizza, it’s been a while!
