Can we have a credit crunch recipe thread?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

I've been thinking about this today, there are loads of posts about food poverty and how it's getting worse as the cost of living rises.

I thought it might be helpful to have a recipe thread for those on a tight budget, if anyone thinks this would be better in the recipe section please say and I'll ask HQ to move it.

One of my staple 'skint' meals is this, it's a thick soup/stew and it can be adapted to whatever you have in or whatever is reduced to clear at the supermarket.

2 carrots
1 stick celery
1 onion
1 tin tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
1 handful dried pasta
1 handful greens/kale
1 tin any beans (I use kidney beans as they're usually cheaper)
1 tin or frozen green beans
2 clove Garlic clove/granules or paste (not essential but better if you do have it)
Also tasty is a bit of paprika or chilli powder.

Chop all fresh veg and sauté until soft, add the tomatoes and chicken stock cube, 1.5 litre of water.
Add any herbs or spices now along with the pasta.
Simmer for 15 mins before adding all beans and finally the greens. Season well with s&p and serve when everything is softened to your preference.

It makes a big potful and it's lovely and warm and filling for not a lot of money.
I use value tinned ingredients and any veg that the supermarket has reduced to clear or on offer/sale.

My kids call it 'bits and bobs soup'

Good idea!

I also like this seasonal fruit & veg calander:

eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/calendar/

I am terrible for sticking only to recipes I know and find easy, and don't really think about seasonal variation to make more cheaply and sustainably.

I'm lurking...

I made a frittata tonight
Onion gently fried until soft, frozen spinach in micro and a tin of Sainsbury value potatoes sliced
All in the frying pan then pour over 6 seasoned and gently whisked eggs
Leave until the bottom is set then under the grill to cook the top
Quick and easy

We had a veggie chilli last night - stir fried 1/3rd onion, 1/3rd pepper and added some frozen sweetcorn (obviously this can be varied), added 2 tomatoes (could leave out), value can baked beans and a little pepper and chilli, served with value rice.

The above is enough for two, so would need to double for more - reckon it cost me about approx. 92p for two portions - I do buy everything value that I can, ie frozen sweetcorn, baked beans and rice, and buy the tomatoes and peppers from Lidl as cheaper.

Another meal I cook is potatoes, carrots, value broccoli and cauliflower (or whatever cheap or left over veg I have), put in a large dish and sprinkle with grated cheese - doesn't have to be totally covered to make it tasty (breadcrumbs could be added as well).

Thought of another I do, stir fry onion, add chopped potato and carrot and cooked in a stock (I just use a stock cube and water or you could make your own with herbs, pepper, tomato), then add butterbeans and parsnip - we tend to eat this with homemade dumplings or a slice of value bread - it's warming and filling.

You could make your "bits & bobs" soup even more filling by adding dumplings to simmer for the final quarter of an hour, or with any left over heat it up in the oven with a cobler topping.

(I have always loved your username Titsalina)

Ooh I do love a recipe thread!
Last night I made an amazing Moroccan chicken thingy, mainly with leftovers: leftover chicken from Sunday's roast, a quarter of butternut squash, 2 carrots, onion, half a courgette, some chopped up dried apricots, a tin of tomatoes and some tomato puree. Add in some coriander, cinnamon and cumin and a bit of harissa paste. We are spiceaholics and have industrial quantities of these, plus all manner of chilli sauce / paste / actual chillies known to man. It does make creating interesting stuff much easier even though it cost a bloody fortune buying it all in the first place.
Simmered it all for about an hour, then chucked in the chicken, served with couscous. Lush it was!

As an aside, last night was the first time I pared a chicken carcass literally down to the bone. It took me about half an hour using my fingers, but I got about 3 times as much meat off the carcass than I usually would. Can't believe how much meat I would normally throw away.

I use our chicken leftovers to make Monday Pie

It's the chicken and leftover veg (anything will do, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, peas) cooked in a sauce made from 1tbsp flour, marge or butter and then stock added slowly (like a roux) I add a tbsp mustard if I have it or cranberry sauce. Then cover with a pastry lid or mash potato and bake until golden. Then kids like it better than the actual roast the day before!

Oo I love recipe budget recipe threads, I have an amazing recipe from a budget MN thread a few years ago.

Boil rice and fry onions, add garlic to onions and chicken livers (they are so cheap) and when cooked add the rice and mix till the rice is coated.

This was a staple in our house for about a year and it will be brought back this year!

I also make chicken pies from our chicken roast dinners and bbq pork from roast pork dinners.

Isn't the roast chicken pie much better than making it from raw chicken. So much more flavour. Yummy.

Store cupboard sweet and sour sauce: mix and heat 50g each brown sugar, ketchup, malt vinegar. 1 tbsp soy sauce, half tin pineapple chunks. Add whatever veg (peppers and green peas are nice) and cooked meat/meat substitute you have. Serve with rice. You could scramble an egg and add to the rice too.

Dal
250g Red lentils (or yellow split peas, soak overnight if using
large onion
4 cloves garlic
Ginger if you have it
Coriander/Garam Masala/Cumin/Tumeric - to taste
Tin of chopped tomatoes

Rinse the lentils until water runs clear then cook in water until firm but soft - 15 - 20 mins. Do not drain.
In the meantime, chop an onion finely and cook until translucent in a drop of oil. Add finely grated/chopped garlic and ginger, and the spices and cook for a minute. Add tinned toms and reduce for 5- 10 mins till paste-y. Then add lentils a spoonful at a time, mixing thoroughly.

To this you can add:
grated carrot with the onion
coconut milk with the tomatoes
spinach or coriander at the end
roast sweet potatos or aubergines or red peppers at the end
depending what is at the bottom of the fridge or you can find in the reduced selection at the supermarket

Serve with homemade chapattis and/or rice

Ooh thanks I've been looking for a good dhal recipe

This recipe for vegetable curry is amazing. It makes loads, at least 10 portions and everyone I've served it to has loved it. It's quite sweet so children will happily eat it but you can always leave out the apple.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1374/vegetable-balti

Pensionerpeep I love the look of that meatloaf recipe. I've been looking for things to do with pork mince.

Lurker signing in :)

Spicy bacon and tomato pasta:

Fry one onion chopped in cubes until tranparent, add One little packet of bacon lardons (or 2 bacon slices chopped in small pieces) let the bacon fry until golden. Add a cup of pasata and 1/4 of teaspoon of chili powder. Bring itto the boil, lower the fire and simmer at low fire while you boil the pasta.

Using Aldi, it works out at £1,50 for 4-5 portions. It tastes like Spanish chorizo pasta.

And always have lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes on the fridge. A small plate of salad a day is really cheap and it provides you with plenty of vitamins and iron.

This is a fab idea for a thread.

Tomato Anchovy and basil with pasta

Fry garlic in olive oil, add carton of passata and tin of anchovies and a splash of water reduce until split. Cook pasta, strain & add to sauce. Mix in sauce and add a good handful of basil.

Tomato & lentil soup - fry onion & garlic, add passata / tin of tomatoes and plenty of water. Throw in red lentils, bay, dried herbs (oregano works well) simmer until gooked. Options are add bacon to the onion or chili.

Home made pasta sheet topped with tomato sauce (use the one for tomato & anchovy) and spinich (frozen works best). Sprinkle mozarella cheese across and olives if you like them. Season , add herbs if they are in the house. Roll up into a swiss roll and cut into 2cm rounds. Place the rounds in a baking tray and throw in the oven for about 40 minutes (low temp). This has endless variations because you can put what ever filling in you like.

basic bread - 600g flour, 400g water, slug of olive oil, yeast, salt & sugar. Mix until flour is just wet and leave for 20 minutes (this is important!). Knead the dough for 10 minutes (it may be sticky but keep going) and go out and do something for a couple of hours. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface gently. Shape into a ball - then take a large pinch of dough and pull it to the side and under to stretch the top of the ball. turn 90deg and repeat. keep going around until the top is really tight but not tearing. Leave on a floured tray to rise for another good couple of hours. When well risen slash the top & put in the oven (180 deg C) immediately.

This dough can also be used for pita bread - roll out small balls of dough and cook in a hot oven (200deg C) and pizza bases - cook for about 5 min before putting the toppings on to get a crisper base.

Tortilla - flour, baking powder and a tablespoon of lard - rubbed in. add enough water to make a soft dough. rest for 15 minutes. divide into golf ball sized sections & roll out as thin as you can. In a hot dry pan (no oil or anything) cook each tortilla for a minute or so - tip over and cook the other side. Chapatti are the same - just use butter / ghee and wholemeal flour.

Marking place for later.

cooklikeajamaican.com/jamaican-corn-soup/

^this soup recipe is amazing and I leave out celery, potatoes and coconut milk, it freezes really well and it's so cheap to make.

Pensionerpeep? What size load tin? And how long in the oven? Sounds yummy!

Can I join? I'm looking for things to do with kidney beans, please.

We've just had bacon pasta for lunch, v similar to Anacoreta's recipe. I use half a big pack of cooking bacon, from the sainsbury's basics range, and cook it on a low heat in the oven for ages. I also add red pepper and/or frozen sweetcorn.

Another store-cupboard stir-fry: Mix 4 tsp cornflour with 2 tbsp water. Add 4 tbsp soy sauce and 2 tbsp honey. Fry some garlic, ginger if you've got it, and 4 servings worth of whatever meat/meat substitute you have in a wok. Add 2 sliced peppers and 200g chopped veg - whatever you've got/is on offer - and cook another 2 mins. Add the sauce, cook until thickened and coating the other ingredients. Serve with noodles or rice.

Serves 4 adults but would probably do 2 adults 3 young kids easy.

I've been cooking this so long that it is now a recipe that is measured in 'some'. However, iirc, this is the recipe I got out of a M&S cookbook circa 1984. I've posted it before.

1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots finely chopped
2 rashers of bacon finely snipped up.

Soften these in an ounce of butter or a tablespoon of oil then when they are soft add one ounce of plain flour. Stir carefully for at least a minute then slowly add a pint of veggie or chicken stock with a tsp of mixed herbs, a dash of worcester sauce, a tsp of dry mustard and some optional marmite. Simmer for twenty minutes, remove from the heat and stir in a handful of grated cheese.

It is pretty good without cheese (me and dh are intolerant of cheese) and can be played about with endlessly.