Best cheap yet nutritious recipes?

[CheerfulYank]

I'm going to stay home after the end of the month, and need ways to cut back.

I want all of your favorite super-inexpensive recipes! Lay 'em on me. :)

Oh, and we'll pretty much eat anything.

I made a lovely pasta dish yesterday using a bag of frozen chargrilled Mediterranean veg, a tin of chopped tomatoes, few black olives and couple of cloves of garlic. It was cheap and tasted lovely much to my surprise!
Also I make falafel burger thingies, served with pitta and salad. Literally a can of chick peas and some spices-super cheap!
Can't beat a jacket potato for cheap meal IMO!

Oooh, sounds good!

Can you expand on your falafels? Do you just mash them up into patties and cook them like a burger? I love chickpeas but have never tried to make falafels myself.

Cheerful-If you google BBC good food falafel burgers the recipe will come up, sorry I can't link as I'm on my phone at present!
They are nice, cheap and full of fibre and protein!

Another cost cutting thing I do is to use half the meat in recipes and bulk it out with veg instead-that way you can make two things from one lot of meat! Also I home make things such as chapattis to serve with a curry-they are simple and cost pence! HTH

chickpea stew always goes down well!

Cheese, onion and potato pie: mash, raw onion chopped, grated cheese, into dish, top with more grated cheese.

Homemade fishcakes (make a big vat and freeze for future use): mash, smoked fish of some kind, flaked,(smoked mackerel is cheap if you get the value range, vac-packed), few herbs, finely chopped onion and seasoning. Leave to cool before forming into patties.

Cawl(Welsh soup/stew): leftover roasting joint/carcass (or if you're feeling flush a few bits of chicken or cheap, tough bits of meat that need long slow cooking), put into large pot with couple of chopped leeks, lots of peeled spuds, few chopped carrots, few bits of swede or parsnip, quartered onions and cover with lots of water. Cook for a few hours. We always make this on cold days as it lasts forever and is lush with bread and cheese .

Pesto: use defrosted frozen peas, raw garlic, some parmesan, EV olive oil, seasoning, fresh parsley (or whatever herbs you have in the garden) and blitz. Keeps in the fridge for ages and is LOADS cheaper than real pesto. It's also much less pungent so good for non-hardcore food lovers ;)

Another cheap tip is to buy gammon hocks (Morrissons butchers do them) for a few quid each and use to make terrines/soups, even sandwiches!
xxx

Rihaf that sounds great, thank you!

Except I'm in America and we don't have Morrison's.

I actually fancy some potato pie right now, sounds delish! :) And all the cold weather soups and stews sound great as I live in Minnesota and it can be bitterly cold November-April in an unlucky year.

We also do potato pie but we use a mixture of sauteed onions and leeks to stir into the cheesy potato.

My absolute favourite cheap meal is dahl and rice. This is how I do mine:

fry a finely chopped onion and two cloves garlic gently to soften not colour
add lots of spices - I use cumin seeds, fresh ginger, turmeric and some chopped chilli. Add lentils, water and a whole green chilli that you've split down the sides (easier to control the spicing then!) plus a load of the rootier ends of coriander. Cook until the lentils are almost soft then add a carton of coconut cream and some salt and pepper plus some garam massala. Beat to make the lentils soft.

Meanwhile fry an onion cut into half moons plus some slices of garlic until browned. I like to add cumin and mustard seeds to this too. Stir this into the dalh along with a load of fresh coriander, before serving with rice and a salad made out of red onion, diced cucumber, coriander and a bit of mint sauce.

Gorgeous.

We do Remus's cheese and leek potato pie as well. Love it.

Nutty potato cakes - cook and mash potatoes. Blitz a 200gm bag of natural peanuts, an onion and some fresh parsley. Mix into the potatoes, season well. Shape into patties, dip in breadcrumbs and bake until crisp. Nice with salad in the summer or cabbage in the winter.

pasta with chick peas - soak and cook a bag of chick peas, then divide into 2. Cook a bag of pasta. While pasta is cooking, fry 2 chopped onions and a whole head of garlic, chopped, in oil until soft. Add chick peas and heat through. Stir into drained pasta with plenty salt and pepper.

Use the other half of the chick peas to make chick pea and pasta soup - cook a load of chopped garlic, 2 chopped onions and the chick peas in about 4 pints of veg stock for 15minutes or so. Add a spoonful of dried basil and some pepper. Blitz until thickened but still with some bits of chick pea. Add half a bag of pasta and cook for another 15minutes. This is my family's favourite soup.

tomato potatoes - fry 2 chopped onions and 2 chopped peppers until soft, stir in a pinch of chilli flakes and a tablespoon of smoked paprika. Add between 2-3lbs of potatoes, peeled and diced, a tin of chopped tomatoes and a carton of passata. Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. Mix well, reduce the heat and simmer until potatoes are done.

I like the sound of the nutty potato cakes - bet you could do something like that but spice them up to make them a bit sort of Thai inspired.

Jane Grigson's Troo style cabbage - don't skimp on the seasoning.
Corned beef hash.

Bit short on protein maybe, but DS is a big fan of my pasta/cauliflower/broccoli cheese! Easy as a wink - cook up the pasta in a pan, steam the broccoli and cauliflower florets over it (saves on fuel and washing up ) and then make a cheese sauce - I do a basic roux-base, equal amounts of butter and flour (melt butter first then stir in flour and if nec, use a whisk to remove lumpy bits) then add milk to get a nice smooth sauce. Finally, add as much grated cheese as you like for taste - I tend to use some cheddar and some Grana padano/ parmesan for extra flavour - and whisk it all in until smooth (season if you need to). Then mix it all together - takes ~10-15 minutes tops. Nice, tasty and filling.

Cheese and leek sausages :)

Grate 200g cheddar and mix with 2 beaten eggs, 300g breadcrumbs, a finely chopped leek or onion and a teaspoon of mixed herbs. Season. Shape into sausages and chill for at least an hour. Fry in 2 tablespoons of oil.

Tuna pasta is another cheap, quick and cheerful favourite - again, boil pasta, add frozen sweetcorn/peas/mixed veg before it's finished boiling so everything is done together. Drain, add a large can of tuna and a large spoonful of mayonnaise or tartare sauce. Add seasonings to taste. Mix and serve.