To have found the best cheap lunch

[Overthebow]

with the cost of living going up I’m trying to find cheap lunch ideas for work.

this week: pot of pate £1, loaf of bread £0.80, bag of apples £1.50. Pate on toast and an apple, cost for the whole week only £3.30 and really filling.

anyone else got any cheap lunch ideas?

OP your lunch in no way seems like a lunch to me. No vegetables, for one thing. And I can't see a pot of pate lasting 5 lunches. Anyway, enjoy OP.
I eat a lot of lentil & vegetable & rice soups/stews for lunches.

But the point in this thread is how to make lunch for around £3 a week, not per day! Meal deals aren’t a cheap option for most people.

Anyway, I usually have soup - sometimes home made, sometimes from a tin but usually around the 50p mark. Add a slice of bread (60p loaf) or a crumpet (around 4p) and some “light” crisps (to pretend they’re healthy 😂) - £1 for 6 bags. Comes in around 70p, give or take. Could add a piece of fruit too but I usually have that for a snack in the afternoon.

Green or puy or beluga (basically any that aren't red) lentils stir fried with bacon or chorizo bits leftover from another dish. Stir in a spoonful of mustard. Delish and good for staying full.

Dhal made with red lentils and onion and carrot.

Jacket potatoes stuffed with cheese and any other bits of veggies you find in the fridge drawer - stir fry up onion, garlic, maybe the end of that old courgette... my favourite.

veggiedesserts.com/red-lentil-dahl/

Imo, this is the best dhal recipe I've tried. I made and served this at work to vegans, veggies and meat eaters, all of them were impressed. I'm also not a cook.

I've made this by crushing the whole spices, but also with the garam masala substituting the whole spices, and both are delicious, nutritious, cheap and easy.

my best lunches are falal wraps with hummous, olives, sometimes hallumi.

I also LOVE dumpings. I can get 3 bags of chinese dumplings or gyozas for about £12 and i get about 5 lunches out of them. Pure joy, especially knowing it pay £1 per dumpling in a food market.

I always swear by eggs for a cheap and filling meal, boiled, fried, omelette, poached, scrambled, anything goes. I can't eat processed bread so I have a breadmaker. A loaf costs me circa 40p to make and is a lot more filling than supermarket bread.

Dal and rice or roti is my favourite, too. If you have any kind of salad or something like carrots for a pile of grated carrot or some carrot sticks, it really lifts the meal.

This is the best flat bread recipe (West Indian rather than actual Indian but very easy and very good): www.alicaspepperpot.com/paratha-oil-roti/
You can make a stack and freeze them if you have a freezer. They can be heated briefly in a frying pan or microwave to serve.

For dal, Madhur Jaffrey or similar is the best: cookeatshare.com/recipes/madhur-jaffrey-s-chana-dal-538616
Moong dal is quicker than chana dal and very similar in taste. You can buy a kilo of moong dal on eg Amazon for a fiver.

The cheapest way to do the ginger in the dal is to buy a big jar of mushed up ginger in an Indian or Caribbean shop and use that. It lasts for months and months in the fridge.

I alternate soup and fruit
with salads and fruit
the exact ingredients depend on the yellow stickers

My Mum used to make it, years ago, very popular amongst her foodie friends. She used to freeze it, no problem.

Quite a few of these are not cheap and / or time consuming and / or not practicable or too smelly for an office. Some of them, however, look quite yummy

I wish I liked dhal. I'm so hideously fussy and hate that about myself. I don't like onion or sweet potato or spring onions or red onion. I don't think I like chickpeas but I do love hummus so I must if the texture is right

<cries>

I miss carbs <sob>

I eat exceedingly low carb to avoid medication for diabetes, by by god do I miss Dahl, bread, toast, pasta...

also, it's not cheap.

That sounds delicious!

I like beans cooked with garlic and onion, or a turkey wrap with mustard and lettuce and apple, or sometimes a baked sweet potato with a little salt.

This is a great dhal recipe

https://www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegan-recipes/crispy-mushroom-dal-with-coriander-chutney

A lot of good soup and lunch ideas on this thread. Potato or parsnip soup is a great one and very satisfying.

My Mum used to make it, years ago, very popular amongst her foodie friends. She used to freeze it, no problem

Good to know! LoveSpringDaffs

Deliciously Ella coconut and lentil dahl.....so tasty

Dahl

I get Tesco value noodles for 14p, a packet of 4 sachets of chicken and veg cuppa soup for 35p, and add chilli flakes and black pepper for taste. Soup mixed with noodles plus a piece of fruit is a cheap and filling lunch. Not overly calorie dense either.

I mean lovely but there is 22 ingredients not counting salt.

You can obviously make lots of other dishes from the spices but that’s a fair few things to have in the cupboard (looks sadly at the shrivelled ginger that’s made 3 curries but is awaiting further supplies to make more).

75p rice bags at Waitrose. Mexican Indian Italian. Hear them up. Really filling.

I wish I liked lentils, really don't like any type of daal and I've tried loads. I think it's a texture thing.
I tend to have a couple of pre-toasted pittas or flat breads and a pot of salsa/houmous with some chopped peppers plus five dates for pudding. Just about gets me through a 12 hour shift.

I had a recipe in a vegetarian student cookbook many years ago, it was a sort of rice & lentil pilaf. Basically, a small cup of white rice, the same of red lentils, a couple of sticks of celery & an onion finely chopped, & a tin of tomatoes. Fry the veg in a bit of oil until soft, add the dry ingredients & enough water to cover, and the tomatoes. Stir, & simmer until done by absorption method. Just make sure they don't boil dry before it's cooked. You can add stock, herbs or spices etc as you like. Rice plus lentils make a complete protein.

AnjumAnand's tanka dal is just incredible- and cheap. You can substitute canned toms for fresh.

It's a Mumsnet video, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hlB8kmsVvyk

Another dal fan, with brown rice though. Costs approx £2 to make enough for 2 people for lunches all week (lidl prices)