Cheap veggie meals

[Noodleface99]

We have just received our gas/elec bill for last month and I have nearly had a heart attack. I now need to start making cut backs, if anyone has any cheap vegetarian meals they are willing to share I would be very grateful! 🥹

Veggie chilli...fry an onion, any veg you have knocking around, add a can of mixed beans and a can of chopped tomatoes. Add chilli powder, cumin, whatever you have in. Serve with rice and anything else you'd have with chilli...grated cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips etc

Veg curry - any veg, potato, spinach, carrots, peppers, onions, mushrooms etc. tin tomatoes, garlic, curry powder or individual spices, bit of cream/coconut milk / plain yoghurt if available.

Jacket potatoes always good.

Mushroom/veg pasta, I use linguine and basically cook mushrooms onions and peas and mix a little cream in.

What’s cheap will depend partly on how stocked your spice cupboard is, but if you’ve got a decent one, dal is probably one of the cheapest recipes to make. This is my favourite recipe, it’s nourishing, comforting and I’m never not in the mood for it.

Egg fried rice also pretty cheap, just and vegetables you have cut up small, with garlic, rice and eggs, and soy sauce and whatever else you have in to flavour it. This is my go to recipe but if you don’t have everything in, it will almost certain be fine.

Pasta arabiata, chickpea curry and root veg casserole are just about the cheapest meals I make, I do have a good stock of herbs and spices though.

My Chinese friend introduced me to egg and tomato stir fry, I have it with rice and it's so simple but delicious.
Recipe
Chickpea shakshuka
Slow cooker enchiladas
I love noodle soups/Ramen bowls with whatever veg I have in.
Risotto

Mushroom and spinach pasta.
Pasta ' Carbonara ' with broccoli florets instead of meat.
Baked potatoes with spicy mixed beans, topped with cheese.
Roast veg quesadillas
Chickpea curry
Dahl
Roast cauliflower with harissa and roast tomatoes.

This is one of my favourite curries. If you add a tin of chickpeas and cook for a few extra minutes, it will feed 4 very generously. Just make sure you cut the cauliflower up in fairly small pieces

Just about any vegetable soup - see what veg is going cheapest

Add lentils or top with grated cheese for your protein bits or cook with milk instead of stock

What have you got in your cupboards / fridge?

What cooking methods do you use?

Here's an energy guide to different cooking methods https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/your-guide-to-energy-efficient-cooking

Potatoes are cheap to buy but if you are baking them in the oven you are using a lot of fuel, particularly if you are not cooking something else with it.

Do you eat eggs and dairy?

IMHO a cheese sauce can make any veg in to a meal.

Tinned foods are already cooked so you don't need to cook them, just reheat.

Aduki bean burgers, a tin or two (depending on the size of your family) of aduki beans , mash half then mix the mashed and unmashed together, add seasoning and form into patties, fry or bake.

Spaghetti with lemon, zest and juice of a lemon (or bottled juice) black pepper and cooked spaghetti.

Beans on toast, add cheese if you like.

Pancakes / Yorkshire puddings can be filled with veg and savory sauces.

Scrambled eggs, on toast or with sliced tomatoes.

Soups / curries.

Bubble and squeak.

Try to plan for more than one meal, I eat meat so bad example but I will cook a chicken in the slow cooker, the following day I will take the meat of the carcass and do something with that or freeze it, the chicken carcass then goes back in to the slow cooker to make stock.

So if you do baked potatoes, cook extra potatoes, then the following day you can take the left over potatoes out of their skin, mix with flour and make gnocchi. If you have any potatoes left then make bubble and squeak.

Rice and cous cous can be used to fill any stuffed veg, maybe peppers, tomatoes and squash.

If you are cooking rice, cook extra and make fried rice the next day.

My cheap ones I have regularly

west african peanut stew
Leek and potato soup
dahl
Veggie stir fries
Jambala is very cheap if you omit the sausage, and still very tasty
Mujaddara
Frittata/omelette
Pea and potato curry
Lentil shepherds pie
Chickpea masala
Mixed bean chilli
shakshka
himemade bean burgers and wedges
Ratatouille

Red lentil soup:: red lentils (obviously) onion, chilli, tomatoes, peppers, celery carrots.whatever I have to hand gets chucked in. DH was going to bin the celery as it's limp er no!! Veggie casserole in the slo cooker. Both served with crusty bread

A big tip from me is to use "salad cheese" in place of feta. It's basically the same, but I think "feta" is a protected name which can only be used if you fulfil strict criteria. A block of salad cheese is about 85p, and makes a lovely meal roasted with cherry toms and then stirred though pasta. Also very adaptable in many other recipes, and a lot of flavour for 85p.

Oh grate any veg you can if you want to cut cooking times on stews soups curry etc

I have never heard feta style cheese called "salad cheese" in my local supermarkets,it's called "greek style cheese". I use it to make quiche or pies, with onion, tomato, whatever is in the fridge.

@Nannyfannybanny asda do "salad cheese" I love feta but do not enjoy it. It is 85p for 200g though so good for those on a budget.

Not a cheap recipe but for the feta / fake feta lovers this makes a nice snack.

Get a piece of the cheese and a jar of dried mixed herbs and some olive oil. You could use a veg oil at a push.

Sprinkle the herbs on a chopping board and then press the cheese in to it, turn over and do the same. Start to cut the cheese up and then press any non herby sides in.

Once you have done that put the pieces in a jam jar and pour in the oil

I always batch cook as well, because I'm all electric. Today the veg is getting whacked into the slo cooker, for a veggie casserole,meat added to DHs,and veggie dumplings. There's just 2 of us, but I have a disabled DS, some will be frozen, to give to him on my next visit.