Everyday cheap vegan recipes please

[Penelopepeace]

DS has come to live back home after university - he is also a very new vegan. He is a keen cook and so far has produced beautiful meals for the 2 of us. However, most seem to contain exotic and expensive ingredients. He also drinks vast quantities of milk substitutes. Overall, my shopping bill has gone through the roof (he is job hunting, so is not contributing financially at present).

The cheap meals we have had are lentil shepherds pie, chickpea and butternut squash curry, lentil bolognes, tofu stirfry. I am not a vegan or a vegetarian, but am happy to go with the flow provided we can cut the costs.

Quorn nuggets, chips and beans.

Pasta bake with veggie sausages, tomato ragu and vegan cheese in it.

Mushroom stroganoff.

Fajitas/enchiladas with veggie and bean filling, guacamole and vegan cheese.

Baked potato with beans and cheese or vegan chilli.

Vegetable stir fry

Vegetable rice

Chickpea and aubergine tagine wth couscous.

Homemade soups & bread.

Risotto

Falafels

You have my sympathies, the milk substitutes are really expensive. He needs weaning off those!

Vegetable soup with combo of pasta/ rice/ potatoes/ beans/ noodles/ herbs/ spices/ soy/ passata basically whatever is in the cupboards.

Jacket spud and beans

Pasta and any garlicky tomato based sauce with chilli or herbs, olives, capers, grated veg, meat subsitute mince.

Chilli with meat subsitute mince or beans

Thai curry made with veg and coconut milk, serve with noodles or rice

Dhal and rice

It's not the meals that's the problem cost wise. As you can see from the examples already given, vegan cookery can be very cheap, certainly cheaper than eating meat.

It's the milk substitutes and other exotic and expensive ingredients that cost, so if you're on a budget, he'll have to be a vegan without those, or strictly limit them. What is he doing with the 'vast quantities of milk substitutes'?

A carton a week will be more than enough for coffee and cereal etc and he'll have to find something else to drink - water?

www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/10-cheapest-vegan-meals

Cheaper but relatively easy way to do “Mylks” for a tasty, nourishing drink is to buy nut butters and whizz them up in a blender with some water. (My blender isn’t good enough to do whole nuts and I don’t like the faff of stranding out pulp). I do this with peanut, cashew, hazelnut, almond, tahini and coconut for DH. You can add cocoa, cinnamon or vanilla for extra flavours. Good for the basis of smoothies too.

He might be using the milk subs for their added vits/minerals though-they often add B12 and calcium. If so, a supplement will be cheaper/better. Watch calcium supplementation re heart health though- Myles tend to have calcium carbonate added, whilst I’ve read that calcium citrate is less likely to furry arteries. Tahini is a good source of calcium is you’re making Myles as above btw.

Some great ideas here. Mushroom strogonoff sounds delicious (but will only be cheap if I can keep him away from rare and exotic mushrooms) Chickpea and aubergine tangine would also be right up my street.

I am not keen on Quorn (I have only tried the mince and didn't like the texture)

What is he doing with the 'vast quantities of milk substitutes'?

He has a huge smoothie for breakfast - which uses a litre everyday, plus general use

@ZazieTheCat - the mylks would be right up his street. He has a blender that will cope with nuts. They don't sound cheaper though.

I think the problem is that he is starting from scratch with this and is still learning - I am not convinced that he has got to grips with the nutrition side. He does a lot of sport so needs to be more aware I think

Ah, a litre of vegan milk a day will be costly. Plus the obligatory avocados and nuts too, I imagine?

If he uses coconut milk, you can get blocks of solid coconut cream for under a pound in the world foods aisles of most supermarkets. Each block makes the equivalent of 4 tins of coconut milk, so vastly cheaper than buying it in cans.

Or is there some sort of vegan protein powder that he can mix with water for the smoothies that might be cheaper? Along with using cheaper fruit/veg like apples and frozen spinach?

Or canned or frozen other fruit and veg in the smoothies?

I thought that, until I noticed how little of the headline ingredient is in most Myles. It only takes about 20-30g of nut butter or nuts to make a little of nut milk. The quantities of nuts in the mylks are tiny- like 2-3%. So I’ve found it a good bit cheaper, usually at least 50% cheaper.

1l of Alpro almond milk is about £1.25. You can often get it on offer, so let’s say £1 a litre. It is 2.3% almond.

Sainsbury’s Almond butter is £4.50 for 340g, £1.32 per 100g. If he uses 25g of almond butter to make a 1l drink, that’s a 33p a litre. To be realistic, he might be a bit imprecise with his measurements, but even if he uses 30 or 40g of nut butter to make a drink, that’s still only 40-50p a litre, and almond is one of the dearer butters. So at least half price.

Tahini and peanut butter are much cheaper generally, plus I shop,around for multi-buys of big jars on places like Amazon and Realfoods.

If his blender can handle nuts, it’ll be even cheaper, they’re a lot cheaper than the butters.

Vegan chilli is good and freezes well, it costs very little to make a big batch. All you need is some veg, lentils, tinned tomato’s, spices, and a few tins of different beans.

get him value soya milk, much cheaper than nut milk.

Buy him basics, if he wants fancy mushrooms, or expensive brand almond milk or whatever, he can pay for them himself...

We found a lovely vegan recipe for a red Thai curry.

About a kg of sweet potatoes.
Red curry paste
Tin (or two) of coconut milk.
Big tablespoon of Peanut butter
Bag or washed baby spinach to finish.

It's actually lovely, very cheap and you can add extras like lentils, meat and coriander if you want.

Depending on what he's using the milks for, he could try switching to supermarkets own brand versions. They are much cheaper than alpro, koko, etc. The cheaper ones do tend to curdle in coffee but one they are fine in tea, in cooking, in porridge and for drinking. I'm sure they would be fine in a smoothie.

Other than that though, there is really no need for veganism to be expensive. Just avoid the substitutes and stick to things which are naturally vegan like rice, potatoes, dried pasta, vegetables, beans and lentils, etc. If you do that then it will work out cheaper.

He sounds like he's into eating healthy and clean but if he wants some junk food then it's also worth pointing out that there is a lot of accidentally vegan junk food out there.

A lot of biscuits like Oreos, party rings, bourbons, biscoff, etc are vegan. Some pot noodles are vegan (the beef one definitely Is!). Lots of crisps, sweets, crumpets, coop jam and custard donuts are all vegan.

Obviously these things are not good for you but if you want something junky then you don't have to spend loads on free from treats. I think a lot of people don't realise how many foods are actually vegan.

Oh and I don't buy avacodos. I eat nuts but I don't eat loads of them so I don't buy them on a regular basis.

Well if he gets a job and a house to run he needs to learn to budget anyway so I’d set him a budget of £20 for the weeks food for him.

I do vegan food because I have a milk allergy and it’s so cheap. I do flat breads, muffins, pitta breads and it’s so much cheaper than shop bought not to mention cheaper.

@Fluffycloudland77. You are right he needs to budget. I think he has got carried out with his love of cooking and the opportunity to try new recipes

Check out Jack Monroe’s website, her recipes aren’t exclusively vegan but there are tons of vegan recipes and all are pretty cheap. I can recommend the carrot and kidney bean burgers.
I often make a pasta arabiata for a vegan friend of mine (dried pasta). It’s delicious and really cheap.

I’m vegan and I find it cheap as chips. I spend next to no money on food

Favourites here
Veggie Thai curry (check for fish paste)
Veggie stirfry with rice noodles
Veggie fried rice
Lentil bolognese/chilli
All manner of Indian food
Homemade bean burgers and wedges

Tuscan beans and greens
Cauliflower and chick pea curry
Tomato soup
All sorts of soup, really
Pasta with roast veg
Bean burgers
Boston Baked beans
Bean loaf
Gigantes playing with crusty bread

Chickpea, Spinach and Coconut Curry is my go-to dish when I need to feed a vegan friend.

Fry onion in vegetable oil with curry powder or paste to taste. Stir in 2 drained cans of chickpeas, then a tin or two of coconut milk, depending on how 'wet' you like your curry. Simmer for 20 minutes, then fold in a bag of baby spinach leaves and leave to wilt. Serve with some of those crispy onion things scattered over, alongside a bowl of rice.

Carrot and kidney beans burgers sound interesting.

Thanks everyone- I think I will be more involved in the meal planning. I have cooked tonight and made a chickpea and spinach curry with ingredients from the cupboard/freezer tonight. It probably cost about £1.50 and there will be leftovers

This Jamie Oliver veggie chilli is a favourite of ours. We're not vegetarian or vegan, but trying to cut down our meat consumption www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/veggie-chilli/ We don't use the cayenne pepper as that makes it too hot for us (DH sprinkles it in his own portion).

Link didn't work www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/veggie-chilli/