Cheap recipes involving mostly unprocessed foods

[Stumpedasatree]

Would anyone like to contribute to a thread for recipes? Don't need to be fancy recipes, just looking for ideas based on mostly whole foods. Vegetarian or non-vegetarian but anything to keep the food budget down.

Tonight I did a chicken (thigh fillet) and broccoli stir fry with rice noodles using this recipe. Yesterday we had tinned sardine and fresh tomato spaghetti with olives.

Tomorrow I think sweet potato and bean enchiladas.

We also have a lot of curry, dahl and homemade soups. I have 2 DD and a husband who like their meat but aim to have 2 or 3 vegetarian meals a week.

It’s hard to know where to draw the line between processed and unprocessed, because I’d classify both rice noodles and the soy sauce in your stir fry as processed. And unless you make the tortillas for your enchiladas by hand, they will be too.

I made a huge vat of Lentil Ragu and freeze it to as a base for lasagne, cottage pie, chilli etc. There is a very good recipe on BBC Good food.

@Fivemoreminutes1 I know. I'll make the tortillas myself but yes the rice noodles, soy sauce and oyster sauce were definitely processed. I guess that's why I put mostly unprocessed.

I made steak, homemade chips, creamed greens and peppercorn sauce last night. Most meat & 2 veg dinners are unprocessed, and as cheap as the quality of the meat you buy. Things on my meal plan for the next few weeks:

Traybake of Chicken thighs, potatoes, Brussels sprouts with honey mustard

Traybake of salmon portions, green beans and breadcrumbs

Traybake of tofu and squash with a garlic-ginger-soy glaze

Chicken ham & leek pie and make the pastry yourself

Cottage/shepherds pie

Smoked haddock chowder

Is this the kind of thing you're after...?

PS I get salmon frozen from ikea to keep the food budget down, it's pricey if you buy fresh. Chicken thighs only once a week as well.

I know shes a bit marmite but an awful lot of Jack Monroe's first book falls into the category you are talking about

We’ve been eating this amazing veggie/orzo soup; kind of like anAurumn minestrone

oil & garlic, fry onions/carrots/celery
add in courgette, cubed squash, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/8 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp rosemary, 3 cups stock, tin toms, 1/2 to 3/4 orzo. Add preferred beans (cannelloni or borlotti work well, but I use kidney beans at the mo as they’re much cheaper) towards the end, season well halfway through (keep checking the orzo isn’t sticking to the bottom)

so simple and so tasty and feels like it’s doing you good.

I never had any luck with the Jack Monroe book - I was going to suggest Nigel Slater's appetite, real fast food or his Greenfeast books. Most of his food is pretty simple and unprocessed and he does seasonal British stuff for the most part so no pots of harissa or amba or 100g bunches of expensive herbs like Ottolenghi (though I love his food dearly...it is dear, at least in this country!)

I was going to recommend Jack Monroe too. I LOVE her recipes and they're always based around basic, unprocessed, ingredients. Your spaghetti with sardines and olives sounds like something she'd do.

What are creamed greens?

PS I get recipes off Jack's website. I've never tried her books.

Veggie tomato sauce

fry chopped onion, add chopped pepper, add tinned / fresh tomatoes / passata and some tomato paste, Add garlic. Add can of borlotti/haricot/ cannelini beans (drained and rinsed).

stir in smoked paprika, some soy sauce, bit of thyme, leave to simmer for about 20 mins. You have home made baked beans.

serve piled onto baked spud and cheese and yoghurt. Can mostly cook spuds in microwave and put in oven fir last 20 mins to crisp up.

leave out the paprika and thyme. add basil and serve with pasta

or leave out the beans and add tuna and serve with pasta

A lot of the recipes in Jamie olive's new book/TV show would hit the mark and only one pot

Daal, chickpea stew, that sort of thing.

There’s a difference between processed and ultra-processed which I think is what the Op is really talking about. Soy sauce and noodles are both “traditional” foods in the sense that although they are processed they have been made for centuries and very recognisable to the body as food. You could make them yourselves. Ultra processed foods are what we need to be avoiding.

Curried bubble and squeak.

www.rivercottage.net/recipes/curried-bubble-and-squeak

I don't bother with a poached egg though. I prefer to boil a few eggs and slice them then stir through it at the end. If using curry powder I throw in some cumin too.

Someone shared this the other day. I made it last night and it was so easy and tasty -
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/groundnut-stew-sweet-potato-in-a-peanut-and-tomato-sauce/

I'm making this tonight which I think sounds pretty tasty and will have it with warm bread rolls -
www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/creamy-chickpea-bake/

And I also make this a lot -
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/mexican-bean-soup-with-crunchy-tortillas.html
I cook it down a bit and serve with some rice and also add a couple of cubed sweet potato which I've roasted.

I'm following with interest as we're going to make a real effort to cut back on what we spend on food and processed food as well. For me I wouldn't class noodles etc as processed, I'm more meaning quorn chicken nuggets!

Basically we just go to a fruit and veg market that still does £1 a bowl ! We buy heaps of veg and roast it and throw in a load of tins of tomatoes and make a massive batch of pasta sauce keep portions in freezer (cubes for my baby so we have some small portions for her)

we do ratatouille as well

daal is a staple in our house - again batch cook massive portions and sometimes we just cook a boiled egg to mix into it

we did a cauliflower korma the other night - www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/roast-cauliflower-korma/amp/

for the Indian stuff we batch cook a load of tarka and freeze it in cubes so when we want to make a curry we have the base ready to go in the freezer to save time

we aren’t vegetarian but we mostly go veggie to keep price down as meat beings the price up massively

We enjoy shakshuka and huevos rancheros. One of my DC isn't keen on whole eggs so I use a ball of mozzarella instead for her.
A midweek roast dinner with chicken thighs , carrots and onions in the tin and then a rack over for crispy roast potatoes and stuffing balls. 45 minutes and not expensive if you can use the oven for something else too.
Pasta with fried off tomatoes ( I use up any soft ones), onions, chicken ( if we have any leftovers) and either loads of garlic or a tablespoon of pesto.

I’m a fan of the cook book, Just One Pan by Jane Lovett. She does use some cuts of meats and fish in certain recipes, but I’ve found that all the recipes have easy substitution suggestions and are fun to play around with. The “bases” of vegetables and grains etc are great.

A friend served the following as part of a salad but I recreated it as a hot dish, either way it's delicious: the usual pesto penne with pieces of chicken (approx the size of the penne) mixed in and topped with a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts. Pine nuts are expensive but I had half a bag lurking in the cupboard. It freezes well, I'm having some today for lunch.

Ocado currently have 5% beef mince at £3.20 for 500g - I make moussaka, with a topping of yoghurt beaten with 2 eggs and a bit grated cheese.

I make frittatas in the frying pan not oven, this BBC recipe is great

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/leftover_roast_vegetable_97963

Following to have a read through later

These are great and just what I'm interested in, thank you!

@dalisdrippingclock I love that lentil ragu if it is the BBC good food one, it stretches so far and is delicious! Thanks for the reminder. @Xiaoxiong I do a lot of chicken thigh tray bakes, the Nigella Spanish chicken with chorizo, potato and orange zest is great (here if anyone wants the recipe), although chorizo is something we keep quite infrequent.

I love shakshuka, also https://www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegan-recipes/10-min-chickpea-spinach-coconut-curry chickpea curry.

Gosh I wish I had a market nearby with cheap veg! Shall have a look at the other suggestions, thank you!!

Sorry link fail, chickpea curry is here www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegan-recipes/10-min-chickpea-spinach-coconut-curry

Creamed greens are a traditional steakhouse side dish - there are loads of different recipes, but I sauté a couple of shallots and 4 cloves crushed garlic in a little butter, then add 250ml double cream and a good grating of nutmeg, while at the same time wilting down a small mountain of greens - last night I used kale, chard, and a bunch of curly parsley someone bought by mistake (which I don't like the texture of when raw). Once the greens are wilted and drying off, you mix with the cream/garlic/nutmeg and season to taste. You can add a dollop of crème fraiche or even cream cheese to make it really rich at the end.

The current free tesco magazine has some cracking recipes in.