What is your cheapest tasty dish?

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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

Sausages and rice in the slow cooker

5 chocolate sausages cut up
Rice
X1 tin chop tomatoes
1 onion
Frozen peas sweetcorn and green beans
Chicken stock
Cook on high for 2 hours ish and serve. Everyone in my family loves it

@BlueberriesAndCream

Try Rose Elliot's low carb vegetarian. Loads of second hand copies available now

For more general cheap eats (not low carb) this blog is worth following https://cookingonabootstrap.com. I especially love the ideas at the end of each recipe for using up leftovers. They always sound delicious.

Spaghetti with garlic and chilli. Perfect store cupboard emergency rations.

My own perfect comfort food is my mothers 'shepherd's pie'. She would use half a tin of corned beef (saving the other half for a form of risotto the next day ) and onions topped with mashed potatoes.

My version is to Fry as many onions as you can bear to prepare in butter with a splash of oil. Once they are well and truly caramelised (tinged with black at the edges) add a tin of corned beef then tip the kit into the bottom of a deep -ish ovenproof dish. Boil potatoes in salted water , skin and mash with some butter and hot milk. Milk must be hot , skip the butter for the sake of economy. Add an egg if you can spare it.

Spread potato mash over beef and onions and bake for 30mins reasonably high heat do you get the benefit of the egg.

We eat the lot between two of us, rather than half the corned beef for our family of four, which just about qualifies as economical. .

Thanks, I'll look that up. It's expensive buying meat all the time, but hard to make a meal otherwise if you aren't using pasta/rice/potatoes/lentils/other carbs, and don't eat eggs! Veg and cheese are good though.

@JapaneseBirdPainting
Heaven knows why mine was called Fricasee! It is yummy though.

Spaghetti with breadcrumbs (slice or two of white bread, grated) that have been fried in olive oil with lemon and either/or chilli flakes/basil, stir in grated cheese at the end. Actually nicer than it sounds!

Bean chilli jacket potatoes. I make the bean chilli from dried beans, can of chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli powder. Jacket potatoes are easy peasy. I do extra toppings depending on how cheap I need it to be. Cheese, jalapenos, a sprinkle of chopped onion, dollop of sour cream etc all make it fancier if you have the stuff in.

Vegetable soup and cheese toasties. Basically just uses all the odds and ends of veg and potatoes. Toasties are really just for the extra calories.

Following

Jambalaya: one pot, chuck it in recipe.

Leftover roast chicken from Sunday. Two to three good handfuls easily feeds 4+
Chorizo: about 1/3 of a ring or some cubes
Frozen onions and peppers. A mug of each, or more of you fancy. Add any wilty looking veg from the fridge too. Courgette, carrot, aubergine, mushrooms work well.
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes. Fill the tin with water and add this too.
250gm basmati rice
Tablespoon of Cajun spice mix.

Bung it in the oven at 180 for 30-40 mins, stirring once. I like some creme fraiche or sour cream with it too if there's any in.

Serves 4 normally with leftovers for lunch which are delicious cold.

Bacon, Leek & Mushroom pasta.

A few slices of cooking bacon, ( £1.12 for a Kilo pack in Lidl)
a handful of leek (chopped frozen less than a £1 a bag in Farmfoods)
a few mushrooms (buy value ones or use up leftovers)
about a pint of milk
1 tbsp cornflour to thicken
50g butter (or use a spread)Value past (29p for 500g in Lidl)

Soften leeks in butter, add bacon and then mushrooms. Mix cornflour into milk and add to the pan, stir well until it thickens. Season with pepper and serve with cooked pasta.

You can use cheese instead of mushrooms.

Make it think and it is a nice jacket potato filling

This

V nice veggie paella

For anyone who uses coconut milk, don't buy it in cans, buy it in blocks.

Asda sells a block for about 70 pence that you mix with hot water and is the equivalent of 4 cans of coconut milk so massively cheaper and you can use any amount that you like Probably also available in other supermarkets and Asian grocers.

Also buy frozen crushed garlic and ginger - much cheaper than fresh (400 g for about a pound). Spices don't have to be expensive either if you get the big bags of Asian branded ones not little Schwartz jars, which are probably the most ridiculous thing ever as you can't even get a spoon into the jar. In fact, check out the Asian section of larger supermarkets for loads of stuff much cheaper than UK brands.

My latest obsession is chole - chickpea and spinach curry - if you like dhal, you should like this. I haven't made it yet, just bought it for £££s from my local Indian Street Food bar, but I keep meaning to make it and this recipe looks good:

www.manjulaskitchen.com/chole-palak-chickpeas-with-spinach/

Apart from the asfodeita, all the spices used are basic, cheap and used in many Asian recipes so good ones to have in the storecupboard. I'd just use frozen spinach which is really cheap for a big bag that lasts ages and you can do other stuff with like paneer and spinach curry.

Thanks all - some lovely sounding things on here to try, and, what I like most, things that you might actually have in the cupboard, not recipes that list all sorts of things you'd have to go out and buy specially.

Spicy Rice -

Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan, add chopped garlic, dried cumin, coriander cayenne, paprika, oregano and basil (all to your preference - I like about a tsp of each and double the paprika) then add dried rice (around 60g pp) and fry hot for a couple of minutes until rice is coated.
Add a chopped onion, a tin or 2 of chopped tomatoes and half a tin of water.
Cover and simmer until all liquid has disappeared and rice is fully cooked.
SUPER cheap and yummy- you can add veg/meat/black beans etc if you have it but the base will cost next to nothing and goes with everything

Chickpea tagine
Fry up some onion, add cinnamon and cumin to your taste, tin of chickpeas, Tim of tomatoes, add water & simmer. I add dried apricots sometimes, it chunks of sweet potato.

Egg, chips and beans.

Anchovy pasta-

Mash up a tin of anchovies with 3 cloves of garlic and a good pinch of chilli flakes. Cook in a good gulf of olive oil. You can at this stage fling in some tomatoes or spinach or leave as is.

Stir in some cooked drained spaghetti and some finely grated Parmesan. It’s very tasty and cheap.

howwudufeel, by "beans" you must mean dried canellini beans, right? 😂 Mine and yours are the only non chick pea and rice meals.
Nothing against chick peas and rice but my kids won't eat them so they're off the table here for now. 😪

Bacon and egg fried rice. Bacon bits or streaky bacon, eggs, onions, peas, cooked rice and Soy sauce as core ingredients. Only improved by adding peppers or mushrooms, if you have them and flavouring with garlic and five spice.

Grilled sardines. Brush with a bit of oil, squeeze of lemon, any herbs you fancy. Delicious.

I got an old WI cookbook about a year ago, have had a great time trying out the vegetarian compatible dishes in there.

All cheap to make - uses bog standard easy to find ingredients and not a million expensive herbs and spices. Highly recommend finding an old WI book to anybody looking for cheap recipes that aren’t super faffy

Jamhandprints Definitely beans of the baked variety