Cheap and nutritious pasta/rice recipes

[2bagsofpasta]

Having to rely on the food bank every week now - just looking for good quick healthy pasta meals as we always get lots of pasta and rice.

We have store cupboard things (salt pepper usually some veg or chicken stock cubes)

just looking for some ideas as i always do tomato pasta 🤦‍♀️ it’s a bit boring !

Pasta with vegetables, whatever you can get, meat, fish, poultry. If you can get, example, sausages fry and chop them and mix with the pasta and vegetables. Can you look out for yellow sticker offers?

need to know more ingredients OP?

adding paprika can lend a dish a completely different feel to it

Chicken thighs, rice, onion, stock cube and whatever seasoning you have.

https://www.recipetineats.com/oven-baked-chicken-and-rice/

are you given any tins? We like pasta with tuna and chopped onion/red pepper/ black olives loosened with a little oil (olive or sunflower or whatever you have).
Also with cream cheese (eg Philadelphia) stirred through and veg alongside.
My DH is v keen on frankfurter bake - fry an onion and a pepper, add rice, add the relevant quantity of stock (any flavour) and chopped up frankfurter sausages. I also put in bits of broccoli/peas/other veg. You can make it on the hob like a risotto or bake in the oven and the liquid will be absorbed.

If you can get a small pot of cream, or a spoonfuf of cream cheese, it really makes a difference to a tomato pasta dish.

You can skin a packet of pork sausages for meatballs, or just skin and break them up into chunks and fry.

@SunnySomer
That sounds really nice - not cheap at all, but really flavourful

Yes we get tins - usually chopped tomatoes, sweet corn, baked beans and occasionally chickpeas and kidney beans. I think I will get some paprika I’m wondering if it’s just different spices that will make a difference.

They often have some fresh veg there but it’s not the same things and not every week . We’ve had courgette and carrots once and the other times potatoes and onions

Chilli flakes pep up tomato pasta

I think the original recipe (the frankfurter one) is from Grub on a Grant and it’s been modified by us over the last 30 years. You can pare it right back based on what you’ve got available.
My mum used to make risotto when I was young using long grain rice (which you’re more likely to get I’m guessing); she’d just have a basic recipe (onion, rice, stock) then add a small amount of protein - eg a couple of rashers of bacon and whatever veg she had available.
If you ever get sardines, you can make them into a really nice pasta sauce (though it’s tomatoey), by chopping them small and adding to some softened onion, chilli flakes and a tin of tomatoes.

I help out at a foodbank and make up meal packs.
One we do is white pasta sauces. Add tuna/mackerel, peas, tube of cheese/ shelf stable parmesan and a couple packs of crisps to sprinkle over the top.
A Mac n cheese sauce ... Add fish, hot dogs, ham, chicken
Rice cooked in any soup to make "risotto". Mushroom soup works best.
Tuna, lime juice, capers, olives, oil, parmesan mixed through cooked pasta.

Also if you get the chance ask if they have an oddities shelf that has all the things people donate because they got them in a hamper and have no idea what to do with them. We have things like capers, chutneys, clams, stuffed vine leaves on ours ATM.

I make pasta bakes with 300g pasta and 1 pint of white sauce. Serves 3-4. Add flavour by mixing ingredients (eg softened leek, tinned corn, tuna) into white sauce before mixing with pasta. Usually reserve some pasta water to mix in to increase sauce and keeps it moist. Put grated cheese on top and grill.

Rice porridge is tasty and a small amount of rice goes a long way. Basic recipe here. https://whattocooktoday.com/how-to-make-rice-porridge.html Use stock, whatever veg you have, even throw in tinned beans.

if you freeze the washed but uncooked rice first, it will break down very quickly - meaning you can cook it for 20 mins rather than 60-90.

My family love sausage pasta. Cut up the Sausages into chunks and fry them up. Add onions and some garlic (or garlic powder if no fresh) cook that for about 10 mins. Then add tin of tomatoes and some chilli powder (to taste my kids don't like it strong so I just do a teeny bit for them and then add more for us after there's has been served up). Simmer that for 10 mins while cooking the pasta. Then add the drained pasta and stir it all through so it's all covered.

Rice and beans is good too. Chuck in any extra veg you have - use the water in the beans can as (part of the) cooking water. Throw in tinned tomato if you have some. Add any extra veg you might have.

Add a can of chickpeas to tomato sauce. The liquid and the chickpeas. It is an actual Italian dish. Works with most seasoning, so don’t worry if you don’t have all the herbs. Fine with tinned or fresh tomatoes. Fine with baked potatoes, rice, bread or pasta. https://www.seriouseats.com/pasta-e-ceci-pasta-with-chickpeas

Fried rice is also great. It’s a good way to use up any leftover rice too. Chuck almost anything in with it.

Chickpea rice is also good. If you can stretch to some cheap curry powder, you can use that to make it feel like a decent Indian dish. Or you can make a simple chickpea curry to serve on top of the rice.

One of my kid’s favourites is pasta with some peas (Frozen), I stir in some cream cheese (Lidl or Morrisons savers are good) with a little of the pasta water, squeeze of lemon juice or the concentrated stuff if you can and mix it through. I add a little crispy bacon or leftover chicken/ham if you have any.

I put some broccoli on the side for extra veg.

Smoked paprika gives a lovely flavour.

Try googling "Spanish style rice" "greek style rice" etc, just by adding different herbs and spices will make a difference (the actual veg you add doesn't really matter!)

www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/greek-style-baked-rice/

www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a25416825/spanish-rice-recipe/

Sausage pasta, we had a lovely one from taming twins that was tinned tomatoes with cream cheese last night. I think I paid 85p for the cream cheese from aldi, it was 200gr instead of 250gr but couldn't tell the difference. It has peppers too but most veg would work. Risottos with onion as a base mixed with whatever veg you have. Pancetta can add flavour but if you had smoked paprika/Italian herbs it would make a totally different dish even if you used the same other ingredients.

I think my dc will love this ! I think I’ve been doing so much tomato based stuff that this will be a nice change

Potato, onion, a stock cube and some veg makes a soup. Can add cream or milk, for a sauce that also works with chicken or rice.

Have you tried mixing a tin of baked beans through pasta? It’s great!! Add some grated cheese on top. Can also add chopped hot dogs

Get some spices!!! Cumin, Rosemary and Coriander are great staples. A splash of Cayenne on every dish brightens it up.

Canned chickpeas "fried" (just enough oil to keep them from sticking) with all the above spices is fantastic. Then add that to pasta as a sauce with a little olive oil just to make it all slide around.

Pasta with canned tuna, olive oil and rosemary is fabulous.

Sautee onions as a base with some or all of the above spices and add to any of the above recipes.

Remember that Pasta doesn't have to be drenched in sauce. It is actually nicer with just a bit of sauce. Use olive oil to make it not stick.

All the above works with rice too.