Excellent value at Continental Supermarkets!

Bigbobby

With the cost of living crisis over recent year I decided to cook from scratch again and make things in bulk.  I visited my local continental supermarket and I was amazed at the prices of many items.  Various flours, rice, herbs, spices, dried beans, gari, bulgur, jareesh to name a few.  Some of the ingredients I had never even heard of.
I have made various continental dishes such as curries and various breads having read online recipes.  The amount you get per portion is ridiculously cheap!  I recently made a dish called Bulgur Palif which is bulrgur, chickpeas with tomatoes and spice.  From a 1000g of bulgur I got 30 portions so that is a months supply to take to work for lunch and I worked out each portion less than 15p!
The big one for me has bean dried beans.  You buy buy huge bags of dried beans and once soaked overnight nearly double in volume so you end up with crazy amounts.  Rice can be bought in huge bags and flours.  I bought a 5kg bag of atta flour and worked out that from this one bag for £6 I am able to make 180 chapatis. 
Some might say it is time consuming batch cooking but I disagree.  It might take a couple of hours initially but it then means you do not need to cook for a month afterwards.
Others might say you need to factor in electricity; you could a done some overtime shifts instead; it tiring etc.  For me personally I see it now as a hobby and enjoy it rather than a chore.  I have also found that my health is a huge amount better both physically and mentally making food from scratch.
I would like to hear other people experiences of cooking from scratch using continental supermarkets!

Katiehound

Perhaps you need to name a continental supermarket, then we know which ones you are referring to! 

El_Torro

To be honest I normally shop at Tesco (it's the nearest supermarket to me) but I've been cooking from scratch my whole adulthood. Like you I like to batch cook, though 4 meals is usually as big a batch as I do, then I eat the food over the next couple of days. 

One of the reasons why I don't make bigger batches is that I don't want to eat the same thing for too many days in a row. Making 30 meals in one go and freezing them sounds like a nightmare to me. If you're happy with it though then you do you. I'm also not a big fan of freezing food, would much rather eat it from chilled. 

gwynlas

@Katiehound Continental supermarkets is an encompassing term  for shops predominantly catering to asin communities who use rice, beans, spices in larger quantities than you tend to find in general stores.

Meats might well be halal so do not purchase if this method of slaughter offends you

It depends where you live but some Tesco supermarkets offer cheaper spices etc in larger quantities in the World food aisle

PLRFD

We have a large one in Sheffield  called Ozmens its open 24/7 it’s got a bakery too the problem is the price changes from the shelf to the till and they don’t like it when you question it.

Katiehound

Ah, continental sounded like Carrefour  cross channel!

Asian stores here- no.
Large Tesco has a bit in the World food section.

Bigbobby

The store I use is called Kashmir Watan.  It's in Deepdale area in Preston.

Mnoee

There isn't one in my town, but I'm a big batch cooking fan. I buy a few ingredients online, like vital wheat gluten for bread and seitan, usually in bulk. I live in Northern Ireland where free shipping is often at a higher spend or not available at all, so I regularly have tubs of ingredients safely stored until needed. I'd love an Asian supermarket who'd deliver, but it's just not cost effective to be sending heavy parcels.

Murphybear

My OH is on a health kick and decided (or he read somewhere) that turmeric and ginger are very healthy, not just for curries  .  He found 2 big tubs of each in Holland & Barrett, very cheap.  I didn’t fancy taking them raw so I bought them in pills.

They do a lot of herbs and spices and a few “unidentified” things as well.  They also do their own curry mixes.  Ours is a big branch and they have a separate room for these.

Doc_N

There is a potentially dangerous downside - most of these smaller shops don't have the quality and safety checks in place that large shops and suppliers have. You may find that that cheap product you have in your cupboard isn't at all what it claims to be.

ShinyStarlight1

We buy rice and spices from the Asian shops near us - I agree with you, it’s much cheaper and often nicer.