Cheapest recipies.

mfmaybe

joedenise wrote: »

One of my cheap veggie meals is chickpea & butternut squash curry. I usually add a handful of red lentils as well. It's one of the few veggie meals that I do that my DH doesn't complain about for having no meat in it.

Denise

That sounds lovely, do you have a rough recipe?

joedenise

mfmaybe wrote: »

That sounds lovely, do you have a rough recipe?

It's quite long but here it is:

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CHICKPEA CURRY
Serves 4
1kg butternut squash
4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
1 large tomato
1 red chilli
3 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin
3 tbsp groundnut or olive oil
150ml vegetable stock
200ml coconut milk
1 x 200g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
A small bunch of coriander, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200c.
Peel the butternut squash and scoop out any seeds and pith (you’ll find it’s easier to do this with a knife rather than a peeler due to their tough skins) and cut into 4cm/1 ½ inch chunks. Crush the garlic and roughly chop the onion and tomato. Deseed the red chilli and finely chop.
Place the squash into a large roasting pan, scatter over the spices and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Season well with salt and pepper, mix together and then roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic and chilli and fry over a low heat for around 10 minutes until the onion is starting to soften but not coloured.
Add the roasted squash to the onion, pour over the stock and coconut milk and gently stir together. Add the chopped tomatoes and chickpeas, cover and then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 5 minutes before scattering over the coriander and serving.


Denise

mfmaybe

Thanks, I will give it a try. Sounds lovely.

Thanks for the thread merge too, I knew there must be one somewhere.

~Chameleon~

Tesco value noodles (20p) cooked in miso paste or chicken bovril, add in sliced mushrooms, sugar snap peas and pieces of cooked chicken.

poppycracker

Chinese flavour Super Noodles, a tin of tuna and a small tin of sweetcorn. Easy and cheap and one of my favourite meals when I was a student.

Not advised for a family, but I also used to make up a bowl of smash and stir in a spoonful of Heinz sandwich filling (not sandwich spread, it was different)!!

Nowadays its tuna fish risotto - one onion fried in a dessertspoon of curry paste, then a tin of tuna and a tin of chopped toms stirred in with a handful of frozen veg. Cook about 3-4handfuls of rice seperately and stir in when cooked. Simmer for 10-15 minutes and serve. Serves three hungry people easily.

mcculloch29

Since the last recipes were posted in this thread Jack Monroe's A Girl Called Jack cookbook has appeared on shelves.
These really are mega-cheap recipes, many of them vegetarian or vegan (or can be adapted to be so).

Her Creamy Salmon Pasta with a Chilli Lemon Kick is excellent.

I recommend more spices than Jack uses - I added turmeric and some chilli powder, plus a crumbled veggie stock cube - for the Cumin, Carrot and Kidney Bean Burger but it is still very good.

This recipe for Thick Onion Tart is virtually identical to one of Jocasta Innes's

The only one I would not cook again is Diet Coke Chicken. This needs something sugary to make it sticky as Jack describes and the recipe doesn't contain any. Her recipe for spicy dhal is also inaccurate; it contains substantially more liquid than my normal recipe for spicy lentil soup!
Minor issues aside, it's a brilliant book.

ClaireJ23

I absolutely love the Ella's kitchen 'the Cook Book'. There are so many recipes that my daughters and husband love and the majority are very thrifty and easy to prepare.

One of my faves summarised here is the easy cheesy courgette frittata: 6 eggs (beaten), 250g Cheddar cheese (grated), 250g courgette (grated), 50g raisins, 75g leek (chopped), pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder, oil.

Mix all together and fry for 2-3 mins then pop under grill for 3-4 mins.

Easy, nutritious and not expensive.

room512

ClaireJ23 wrote: »

I absolutely love the Ella's kitchen 'the Cook Book'. There are so many recipes that my daughters and husband love and the majority are very thrifty and easy to prepare.

One of my faves summarised here is the easy cheesy courgette frittata: 6 eggs (beaten), 250g Cheddar cheese (grated), 250g courgette (grated), 50g raisins, 75g leek (chopped), pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder, oil.

Mix all together and fry for 2-3 mins then pop under grill for 3-4 mins.

Easy, nutritious and not expensive.

Wow, that uses a lot of cheese. I love cheese but that seems a huge amount in one recipe! I'm sure it tastes nice though.

Lleucu

Tuna salad and rice

1 tin tuna in sunflower oil
1 tin red kidney beans
onion x 2
tomatoes - 2
cucumber - quarter
2 boiled eggs
soy sauce - a few drops
chili jam - teaspoon or so **
rice

1. Mix tuna with soy sauce red chili jam and mayonnaise
2. Add chopped salad ingredients
3. Chop onion and cook for 5 minutes, I do it in the microwave, cool and add to the tuna mixture
4. Cook rice
5. Add chopped boiled eggs to the tuna mixture
6. We serve with chopped chives, coriander or spring onions but you can add whatever you like.
7. Serve hot rice and cold salad, you can also allow the rice to cool and mix it up.
   Recipe can be dressed down to really basic ingredients or dressed up with prawns, olives, good with smoked fish, rice can be flavoured or bicoloured, we had it last night to get over Christmas gluttony and felt better for eating it!

Cost of basic recipe about £2.30 for 4 people.

** home made using Nigella recipe excellent!

mcculloch29

Jack Monroe has a new book out now with loads of great recipes - A Year in 120 Recipes. Unfortunately it costs quite a bit more than A Girl Called Jack, hopefully there will be a paperback version.
I do recommend scouring Am@zon for out of print copies of really good 'cheap eating' books - I have original copies of all of Shirley Goode's books, but they come up for sale regularly. More For Your Money is probably the best. The recipes are slightly dated, but none the worse for that, you can easily adapt them. Plus offal and cheaper cuts of meat have made a comeback. I have a Shirley Goode recipe for roasting breast of lamb over a bed of cabbage, onion, bacon and lemon that is absolutely delicious.