Cooking for 20+ people

[uggerboff]

I'm looking for inspiration!
Once a month I cook with friends for around 20 -25 homeless people and I'm running out of ideas for what to cook. I find the pudding easy but I'm looking for suggestions for main courses.
We've done the usual lasagne, chilli, curry etc. Need some new ideas.
Criteria are that it needs to be cheap (don't have a lot of spare cash) and it needs to be transportable. We start the cooking at home and finish off at the church hall. We have an oven at the hall.
No particular dietary requirements, all offerings are greatly appreciated!

Sausage casserole?

Kidney bean burgers with a green salad, grated carrots and taboulé ?

Sausage and bean or chickpea casserole
Cottage pie
Moussaka
Liver and onions

Stuffed marrow, rice and mince or the stuffing.

This time of year, something like quiches and jacket potatoes with some veg or salad? Serve the quiche cold and the jacket potatoes hot?

Roast chicken with mash/veg/gravy. Or how about an easy pie? Minced beef or chicken and mushroom bottom with jus-rol pastry on top? If you brush top with egg it will look lovely and be really tasty.

Pasta with flaked fish (mackerel is cheap), creme fraiche, lemon zest and lots of black pepper, serve with salad.

Google an Australian bacon and egg pie - everything cooked from frozen with ready made pastry. It's yummy! Bacon, eggs and frozen peas.

Frittata with potato, chorizo, spinach (all quite cheap) and eggs - you could make it and then reheat. Serve with salads or cous cous.

Macaroni cheese served with sausages or a slice of baked gammon
Baked or boiled gammon with boiled potatoes and parsley sauce

Brilliant, thank you so much, loads of new ideas!

Thick Lentil soup with jacket spuds and toppings. Beans, cheese, tuna mayo etc

Pasta bake, maybe chicken, broccoli and cheese. Served with garlic bread, or just baguettes and butter.

Cheese and onion pie, mash, carrots.

Chicken and lentil casserole : chicken thighs, onions, mushrooms, garlic, passata, red lentil, spuds, spinach last two mins of cooking. Serve with bread to mop the sauce up.

Just a few more thoughts.

See if a local supermarket or church will adopt you, donate free food, give you first dibs at the yellow stickers, have a collection for you etc.

On the food front,
Pudding rice or red lentils added to any meat in liquid dish will bulk it out.

Add tinned potatoes to any stew/casserole to extend it easily and cheaply.

For mousakka, add a couple of layers of sliced par boiled potatoes to
make it more filling, this still works well even if serving with plain boiled rice.

For casseroles, add dumplings or cobbler topping (plain scone) to make it more filling.

Potato, cheese and leek/onion pie is a good winter meal.

Asian style noodle soup, lots of noodles, plenty of veg, and a little meat in a tasty stock, very warming on a cold day.

What a kind thing you and your friends do.

Big pot of lentil or vege soup, with lots of nice bread and cheese

Sausage casserole with baked potatoes

Cornish pasties - not sure what with though. Baked beans, maybe?

Hot dogs, corn on the cob and coleslaw.

Sausage rolls, baked potatoes, coleslaw, salad or baked beans.

Veggie chilli and rice (cheaper to make than meat chilli!)

What a good soul you are. I salute you 😀

What a lovely thing to do,
I think some veggie recepies could help on cost saving
Dahl and rice/pitta
Byriani
Pasta and veg bake
Lentil chilli
Macaroni cheese
Risottos

Cottage pie?
Do you just have a single oven?
If you have two you could serve a 'proper' dinner: a chicken thigh and a sausage each with a ball of stuffing, roast and mashed potato, greens and carrots (and gravy of course!). It looks more on the plate than a big scoop of a one-pot dish. We do a roast at the local foodbank once a month and it always goes down a storm and doesn't cost significantly more in ingredients than a one-pot, just a bit more prep required.

A type of minestrone is great because you can use literally whatever is about veggie wise and use cheap cooking bacon and pasta to bulk it out.

Lovely person you are

What about a roast chicken, veg and new potato tray bake (thighs to reduce cost) with chorizo for flavour.

Jacket potatoes and fillings

What a lovely thing to do. I used to cook for up to 50 as part of a charity and loved the challeng of working out recipes. Depends a bit on the cooking facilities at the church but:

BBQ ribs (can braise beforehand and finish in situ), coleslaw, jacket potatoes.

Pork chops cooked on bed of onions.

Turkey steaks cut into strips and simmered in passata with garlic and basil added (can do in oven with coley/pollock steaks).

Roast dinners as bombay flame mentions above always webt down well - we used chicken legs / thighs or pork chops.

Depending on how adventurous your invitees are sweet and sour is very easy and cheap to whip up (I am talking old school gloopy red sauce). I can give a sauce recipe if of interest.