What is your cheapest tasty dish?

[hidinginthenightgarden]

Looking for a few cheap and cheerful recipes.
My cheap dish is dhal.
20-30p of lentils, coconut milk for 70p, passata 33p, onion, 20p = £1.53

@hidinginthenightgarden we're like you but I think it's because we have a big store cupboard so I'm always restocking! I need to be more organised and only buy what I need but I see something on offer (that will last) and then stock up on it!!

Campfire stew is nice and pretty cheap!

Small gammon joint (or gammon steaks!) from Aldi around 3 quid. Put in slow cooker and add chopped peppers, sliced mushrooms, tin of sweetcorn, chopped tomatoes, passata and a tin of baked beans. Add paprika and chilli flakes.

Cook overnight (or all day) on medium then shred the gammon joint.

Really hearty and will do 2 days. Serve with rice to make it last 3 days or on its own. Could even be used to stuff peppers with a little cheese on top and baked in the oven.

Or could make similar without the gammon and bulk out with chickpeas and lentils? That would be very cheap but still tasty! Could add chopped bacon?

Corned beef and potato pie is pretty cheap and filling! Especially using the ready rolled pastry (it's a pound). Tin of corned beef around 1.50. Boil potatoes, mash and season with black pepper and a little salt. Add corned beef and mash together. Roll the pastry into two halves and cover a plate with one. Fill with the mixture. Cover with the other half of the pastry and cover with an egg wash. Bake in oven for around 20 mins.

Bacon and egg pie works too! Chop up bacon and spread over the pastry. Whisk up 3 eggs and pour over the bacon. Add pastry lid. Egg wash. Oven for 25 mins.

Pork mince in Aldi is only 1.99 and tastes no different in a chilli! Passata, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans (or baked beans) and chilli flakes. Can be bulked out with lentils/more beans).

I use passata as a pasta Sauce with frozen veg, paprika and chillli.

Pesto pasta with peas and broccoli is a winner in our house!

Green pasta bake.

Pasta, broccoli, green beans, peas (whatever is left in the fridge/freezer) - boil, put in an oven dish, cover in cheap cheddar, bake til top bubbles and goes brown.

"Enchiladas" - wraps, tin of spicy mixed beans, tin of tomatoes, cheese - heat beans/tomatoes, put in wraps, put wraps in oven dish, cover in cheese, bake...

Sausages and lentils.
Fry onions and sausages
Put in casserole dish or slow cooker with water, stock cube and lentils. (We use brown ones)

Beans, bacon and cheese on toast.

Rice and whatever I have i the freezer / fridge cooked in coconut milk.

Boiled egg and toast soldiers.

Chicken liver pate is dead east, chicken livers are 50p-60p frozen in any supermarket.

packet of chicken livers, half a block of butter, one small onion.

peel and roughly chop the onion, it can just be cut in half, add the liver and butter, season and add any 'extras' such as brandy or herbs.

Once the livers are cooked through put through a blender, pour in to a bowl and leave to cool then in the fridge overnight.

Chili con lentejas
Tin of lentils, tin of kidney beans in chili sauce, an onion

Another chickpea and sweet potato curry but it’s not just cheap, it’s one of my favourite dinners, so delicious (and I’ve tried lots of veggie curry recipes). I switch the proportions of sweet potato and chickpea though. www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sweet-potato-and-chickpea-curry/

Also love this roast cauliflower curry www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/roasted-cauliflower-curry/

Cheap meat dish that (miraculously) everyone in my family enjoys www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/amatriciana-chicken-traybake

Sausage pasta bake. Toad in the hole.

A good student cook book got me started in the kitchen for cheap and healthy meals.

Left over chicken cut into small chunks put in oven poof dish add chicken soup top with mashed pot`s and top with chicken crisps
Cook till golden,
Very cheap and tasty.

Cauliflower cheese with wedges and peas.

About 1.80 for the cauli cheese dish (might cost more soon as a cauli shortage apparently). wedges for 4 - approx £1. Frozen peas about 50p. So all 4 fed for less than £1 each.

any ideas for cheap lower carb recipes? Don't need super low-carb but not all pasta/rice/bread/potato based, which is obviously what a lot of cheaper meals depend on

and I'm not at all keen on eggs or lentils, which makes it hard. but I'm definitely spending too much money on food right now!

5 spice drumsticks with rice and veg.
Our butcher does 10 (pretty plump) drumsticks for £2.75.
I make a sort of paste with tablespoon of oil, 2 tablespoons of 5 spice powder and slash the drumsticks and leave (often overnight).
Bake in oven for 30 mins, nuke a pouch of Asda egg fried rice, 45p, steam some broccoli and frozen sweetcorn.
I reckon it costs all in for 3 of us £4.

Shashuka - Use a small frying pan.
If feeling fancy add some chorizo or chopped bacon.
Add veggies such as: diced onion / spring onion / sliced peppers (fry in the chorizo oil / bacon fat or use a teaspoon of oil if not using meat)
Add one tin of tomatoes and a pinch of chilli flakes.
Create two wells in the tomato saucd using the back of a spoon and crack two eggs in each well. You could add some grated cheese at this stage.
Cover with a large lid until eggs are cooked but yolk still runny.
Season with salt, pepper, herbs.
Serve with warm pitta bread or your favourite toast.

I slide the finished dish from the pan easily into a pasta bowl, as I don't have any cast iron pans like they use to serve in restaurants. Can easily be doubled up in a large frying pan.

I could eat this any time of day!

Gnocchi with mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes and basil. Boil gnocchi (75p) then fry for a bit in a little olive oil. Add cherry toms (70p), soften and add a bit of basil. Finally tear up a ball of mozzarella (45p) and cook for a bit in the same pan until the cheese melts. This is my dds favourite dinner and it takes about 15 mins

I make balsamic vinegar pasta.
Cook mushrooms and bacon. Add balsamic vinegar and creme fresh. Then stir in cooked pasta. If I’m feeling posh I add chicken.

Granhands - I love gnocci!
Writing these recipes down! Thanks ladies.

Blueberriesandcream - it is so hard to eat low carb and cheap. Veg is super expensive! I guess things like veg stew and veg curries or soups would be your go to meals.

Chickpea curry - chickpeas, onions, tin tomatoes, spices.
Veg compartment paella - tiny bit of chorizo to start off, then all the bits of random veg that are left in the bottom of the fridge chopped, rice (does have to be risotto rice mind you), stock.
A bloody gorgeous basmati with aubergine, chickpeas and onions, could eat that every week.
Beans on toast.
Homemade lentil soup.
Veg fajitas - two peppers, half an onion, some tom purée and spices, packet of wraps.
Any kind of veggie curry - I'm lucky to have lots of Asian grocers in our city so spices are really cheap. Stocking up somewhere where you're getting big packets of chilli or whatever for 1.50 means you can be liberal when it comes to spicing things up, which makes cheap veggie meals more interesting.

I have so much food in my freezer at the moment.
I have enough to make meals for over a week

Cauliflower and potato curry. Lots of recipes online.

BlueberriesAndCream

Try my chicken liver pate, eat with salad instead of bread, little parcels made of lettuce and pate inside. Although it is high in fat.

Offal is generally cheap.

Hummus made with tinned chick peas and low carb veg to dip in.

I also agree with Lonny get to an Asian grocer for cheaper veg and more variety of veg, 5 different types of aubergines, tinder, spices and huge tubs on mango chutney.

Tuna Fricasee

Fry an onion lightly until translucent in butter. Add flour. Fry, stirring, for 30 secs. Add milk. Making basically a bechamel. Add drained can of tuna or two. Season well. Serve with rice.
Surprising lovely.

When we were very strapped for cash in our first years of marriage this was one of our staple dishes. I'd forgotten all about it till a few weeks ago and we've had it a couple of times since and really like it.