Show Jamie How To Cook On A Budget Champagne Contest

Starter: 3-bean Salad

Take one can of each of: pinto beans, borlotti beans and cannellini beans, drain well and mix together with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed with half a teaspoon of mustard.

Sainsburys:

Beans – 3 for £1 £1.00
Dressing £0.20

Total: £1.20

Tesco:

Beans £1.03
Dressing £0.20

Total: £1.23

Main: Vegetable Lasagne

Take 1/5 a packet (about 3 handfuls) of red lentils, and the same amount of green lentils, and simmer them until tender but not completely cooked through (approx 15 – 20 minutes). Drain well and leave to soak in the juice and zest of ½ a lemon.

Chop 2 medium onions, and lightly fry in 1 tablespoon olive oil/knob of butter, adding 3-4 chopped cloves of garlic. Add 2 teaspoons of mixed herbs. Open up 3 tins of tomatoes, chop them up into small pieces and add them to the onions and mushrooms. Add a splash of soy sauce and season to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix 4 heaped tablespoons (about 34g) of plain flour with a small amount of cold water, and make a paste. Boil up 1/2 litre of water with vegan stock and a bay leaf, mix in the flour paste. (Sieve it if you get lumps). Stir and keep the heat up until the sauce has thickened, then add ½ litre soy milk and 4 -5 lumps of frozen chopped spinach. Stir well until the spinach has thawed out.

Take half the lentil mixture and scatter it about the bottom of your lasagne dish. Add sufficient tomato mixture to cover the base, and layer on 6 sheets of lasagne pasta. Take the remaining lentil mixture and scatter on top, and add the remaining tomato sauce. Next, carefully pour on half the spinach sauce and put another 6 lasagne sheets on top. Finally, pour on the remaining spinach sauce.

Place on the middle shelf and cook for 40 – 50 minutes at 190 celcius. If you intend to serve it immediately, leave it in the oven for a further 10 minutes in the oven with the heat turned off to allow it to set a bit. If you are going to refrigerate it and serve it re-heated another day, then this won’t be necessary.

Serve with steamed peas, carrots and sweetcorn (I’m assuming there are 5 people to feed, and I’ve allowed 50g of each veg for each person).


Sainsburys Cost:

Red Lentils £0.17
About 1/5 of a bag
Green Lentils £0.15
About 1/5 of a bag
Half a lemon £0.13
26p ea
2 medium onions £0.14
72p/kg (1 onion weighs about 100g)
Cooking fat £0.05
3 - 4 cloves of garlic £0.09
About ¼ of a bulb at 36p ea
Mixed herbs £0.04
30p/16g
3 tins tomatoes £0.57
19p ea
Soy sauce splash £0.05
Flour £0.01
24p/kg
Vegan stock £0.07
http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/frameset/navigation_frame.jsp
Bay leaf £0.02
http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/frameset/navigation_frame.jsp
½ litre Soy milk £0.30
60p/litre own brand
Spinach £0.20
1.29/kg
12 lasagne sheets £0.48
£1.28/kg
Seasoning salt and pepper £0.02
Peas £0.27
£1.08/kg frozen economy
Carrots £0.16
62p/kg fresh loose
Sweetcorn £0.14
55p/kg

Total: £3.06


Tescos Cost

Red Lentils £0.14
69p (£1.38/kg)
Green Lentils £0.06
£0.31(£1.59/kg)
Half a lemon £0.13
2 medium onions £0.14
72p/kg
Cooking fat £0.05
3 - 4 cloves of garlic £0.09
35p each
Mixed herbs £0.04
12p/10g
3 tins tomatoes £0.57
19p ea
Soy sauce splash £0.05
Flour £0.01
32p/kg
Vegan stock £0.07
70p for 10 cubes
Bay leaf £0.02
48p/10g
½ litre Soy milk £0.36
71p/litre so good
Spinach £0.14
89p/kg
12 lasagne sheets £0.48
£1.28/kg
Seasoning salt and pepper £0.02
Peas £0.27
£1.09/kg frozen
Carrots £0.16
62p/kg loose fresh
Sweetcorn £0.15
£0.58/kg

Total: £2.95


Pudding: Pineapple sponge cake

1 can of pineapple pieces in juice (19p Sains/23p Tesco)
250 g sugar (Sains granulates @72p/kg = 18pTesco caster@ 77p/Kg = 19.3p)
van. essence to taste (Sains @ 22p/10ml = 11pTesco @17p/10ml = 8.5p)
150ml of vegetable oil (Sains @ 7p/100ml = 11p, Tesco @ 10p/100ml = 15p)
350 g self raising flour (Sains @ 24p/Kg = 8.4p Tesco @24p/Kg = 8.4p)
3 teaspoons baking powder (Sains @ 2.18/kg = 1.6p, Tesco @ 2.18/kg = 1.6p)
Sains cost = 69p
Tesco cost = 76p

Mix the first sugar, vanilla essence and vegetable oil together. Pour the pineapple juice into a measuring jug, and pour in enough water to get a volume of 330ml. Add the juice mixture to the other wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients together, and add them to the juice mixture a little at a time, beating them together well.


Prepare 2 8 inch cake tins, (greased and floured) and pour half the batter into each tin. Sprinkle half the pineapple pieces over each tin, and bake for about 25 minutes at gas mark 5 until they are golden brown.

Meal Total Cost:

Sainsburys = £4.95
Tesco = £4.94

This isn't meant to be a criticism so please don't take it as such - just a comment which could help keep the cost down even further.
Somebody up there (Mike, I think) mentioned cooking croutons in the oven, for which he has to heat up a 180deg. oven just for cooking some cubes of bread. Unless the oven's already on (which it wasn't for his menu) it costs less to cook them in a frying pan. They have oil on already so there's no extra fat.
Just wanted to point out that it's no use saving on the food costs if you spend more on cooking it. Also worth thinking of cooking double quantities which use the same amount of energy plus a little bit of microwave power.

To be fair, lets not knock them for doing this (though obviously it's clever marketing!). I'm amazed at how much most people spend on their shopping every week! A £5 meal probably sounds impossible to those people who don't OS!;)

A quick meal I often make is pasta bake with home-made garlic & herb bread. It's very filling so we don't tend to have a starter or pudding - usually fresh fruit to finish.

For 4 people:
300g pasta (3 kg Tesco fusilli = £2.97) : £0.30
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes (4 pack Tesco chopped toms = £1.62) : £0.81
420g tin butter beans : £0.40
330g jar pitted black olives : £0.77
150g mozzarella : £0.75
garlic : £0.35
jar mixed herbs : £0.36

Cook the pasta. In a pan, bubble up the tins of tomatoes until they reduce slightly (add a few cloves of crushed garlic and a few teaspoons dried mixed herbs). Near the end, add the tin of butterbeans (drained) and the olives. Heat through, then mix the pasta and sauce in a large dish. Top with the mozzarella and bake in an oven at Gas Mark 5 for about 25 mins.
It's actually quite nice just as pasta with the sauce, minus the mozzarella if you want to save even more, or obviously using value packs would be cheaper too!
Total = £3.74 (and you still have some garlic and the jar of herbs left for the bread)

Herb and Garlic Bread recipe I got from here: http://www.frugal.org.uk/herb.html
500g plain flour (1.5kg Tesco plain flour = £0.75) : £0.25
1 sachet yeast (Tesco easy blend yeast 8 pack = £0.50) : £0.07
garlic and herbs left from the pasta bake

This recipe is so easy, and makes a lovely ciabatta style bread that you can cook along with the pasta bake.

Total cost = £4.06. The only extra you need is some olive oil, and you would still have some of the mixed herbs left. As I said, you could make it much cheaper using value brands.

If you're still hungry then there's enough left to buy a couple of tins of fruit and some ice-cream!:j

Off to have a look at some of the other ideas!:T

I like to eat mainly organic food, but just wanted to post this to show you can still feed four people organically for under £5. It's based on Delia's shepherds pie recipe, but without the leeks.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/shepherds-pie-with-cheese-crusted-leeks,713,RC.html

Cottage Pie

500g Tesco Organic British Beef £2.19
1kg Tesco Organic Potatoes £0.66 (from a 1.5kg 99p pack)
2 Tesco Organic Onions £0.17 (from a 99p pack of 6)
1/4 pack Tesco Organic Carrots £0.23 (from an 89p pack)
1/4 Tesco Organic Swede £0.16 (64p for a whole one)
1 tbsp tomato puree £0.17 (whole tin is only 17p but won't last after opening)
1 beef stock cube £0.07 (from a 70p pack of 10)
50g Tesco Organic butter £0.23
1 tbsp Tesco Organic plain flour £0.05 (95p for 1kg)

£3.93

Brown the mince, chop and fry the carrots, swede and onions then mix together with 300ml stock, the flour and the tomato puree. Add salt and pepper to taste and any herbs you might have in the garden or cupboard (thyme is nice). Cook for about 30 minutes.

Boil the potatoes seperately and mash with the butter. Make up the pie and prinkle the top with cheese if you like, then cook in the oven until the top is nicely browned.

You can also add a tin of baked beans to stretch it a bit further. I always make 2 or 3 of these at a time anyway as they freeze well.

I am delighted with all the recipes so far. This is my contribution - VERY cheap like some of the others.

500g value spaghetti. Cook.
3 tins of tomatoes - chop if not chopped - heat.
150 grams full flavoured cheese - value - grated

Put on the grill.

In a large dish put the drained spaghetti.
Pour over the tinned tomatoes.
Shake the dish to distribute well.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top and put under the grill till brown and bubbly.

This is divine - and costs about £1.50 for 4 people. I like bread with it.