Food costs have soared in recent years, but cutting back on more expensive ingredients when cooking doesn’t have to mean missing out on flavour.
So, if you’re looking for tasty meal ideas that won’t cost the earth, why not give these recipes a go?
Budget breakfast
While a quick bowl of cereal might stave off your early morning hunger for a little while, there are plenty of other nutritious and affordable options.
Apple and cinnamon porridge
This recipe only takes minutes to whip up and costs less than 40p per portion. Porridge makes a great breakfast; it’ll hopefully keep you full until lunch and counts as two of your five a day. Inspired by a BBC Good Food recipe, here’s what you’ll need for one portion…
Ingredients
- 40g oats
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of cinnamon
- 30g raisins
- 100ml semi-skimmed milk
- 100ml water
- 1 small apple, grated
Utensils
- Small saucepan
- Grater
- Wooden spoon or spatula
Method
Start by mixing the oats, salt, cinnamon, and raisins together in a small saucepan, until the cinnamon is well distributed throughout. Mixing them together without the milk and water helps the cinnamon to combine more easily when you add the wet ingredients.
Once that’s mixed, add the milk and water, stirring well to combine.
Take your pan over to the hob and set it to a high heat, making sure to stir the porridge frequently to keep it from sticking.
The porridge should start to bubble and thicken. Once you’re happy with the consistency, turn off the heat and add half of your grated apple. Adding it at this stage gives your porridge a natural sweetness, so there’s no need for honey or sugar.
Once everything is warmed through, tip your porridge into a bowl, top with the rest of the grated apple, and enjoy!
Budget dinners
Kitchen cupboard pasta alla vodka
This is a recipe for when you can’t be bothered to spend ages cooking or feel like there’s nothing much in the fridge you can do anything with. Before you reach for a takeaway menu, take a look in your cupboards, because you’ve probably got most of the ingredients for this quick pasta dish.
Pasta alla vodka is a popular Italian-American recipe, and while plenty of recipes will tell you theirs is the ‘right way’ to make it, it’s actually a pretty flexible dish. So if you don’t have certain ingredients, it’s easy enough to substitute in others.
Here’s what you’ll need for two portions…
Ingredients
1 tsp oil – preferably olive
½ red onion – diced
3 cloves garlic – minced
Pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp tomato purée
40ml vodka
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
100ml double cream
20g parmesan finely grated
200g penne
A few basil leaves chopped into ribbons
Utensils
Large frying pan
Large saucepan
Fine grater
Sharp knife
Method
Set a large frying pan on a low heat and drizzle in a little oil. Add the onion and gently cook for about 10 minutes until it’s softened. Don’t worry if they get a little bit of colour – it will add flavour.
Once the onions have cooked down, put your pasta on to boil, following the instructions on the packet.
Whilst the pasta cooks, add the garlic, chilli flakes, and tomato purée to the pan with your onions, and cook for a minute or two, allowing the purée to slightly darken.
Turn up the heat and pour in your vodka – it’ll sizzle loudly. Cook this for a couple of minutes until the strong alcohol smell has cooked off.
You can then add the chopped tomatoes, keeping the heat high to reduce the sauce. This will take around five minutes, but make sure to stir frequently to stop it from burning. Once it’s reduced, turn the heat off and add your cream, stirring to combine.
Now drain your pasta, reserving a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water.
Add two-thirds of the cheese and the cooked pasta to the frying pan with your sauce, turn the heat down, and mix well. Add as much pasta water as you need to loosen the sauce. You want to coat the pasta but don’t want it swimming in the sauce.
Once you’ve reached a consistency you’re happy with, you can serve your pasta. Divide between two bowls and top with the rest of the cheese and your basil.
A note on substitutions
If you don’t have some of the ingredients we’ve listed here, it’s really easy to swap them out for others. Here are some substitutions that work well…
| Original ingredient | Substitution |
| Red onion | Any type of onion, including white, spring, or shallot. |
| Fresh Garlic | Granulated garlic – swap 1 clove for ¼ tsp. |
| Tomato purée and chopped tomatoes | If you don’t have one or the other of these, using just one of them will do. If you have neither, you can use fresh tomatoes instead. |
| Vodka | Other neutral spirits like unflavoured schnapps, white rum, or gin will work, but if you don’t have any spirits, white or red wine also make good substitutes. |
| Parmesan | Best alternatives would be grana padano or pecorino, but any hard cheese would work. |
| Cream | Crème fraîche, cream cheese, or greek yoghurt can also be used. |
Veggie burgers
These burgers are a cheap and delicious option for dinner, and at around 49p per portion, you can feed four people for less than £2.
This recipe is based on Jack Monroe’s carrot, cumin, and kidney bean burger, but we’ve added a few tweaks and extras.
Here’s what you’ll need for four portions…
Ingredients
For the burger patties
1 x 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, grated
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 heaped teaspoon of plain flour
Salt
Pepper
To assemble
4 x burger buns
50g cheese, sliced or grated
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 salad tomatoes, thinly sliced
4 Romaine lettuce leaves, washed and torn in half widthways
Utensils
Medium-sized saucepan
Grater
Sharp knife
Frying pan
Method
Start by cooking the kidney beans. Tip the rinsed beans into a medium-sized saucepan and cover with cold water. Set the saucepan on the hob on a high heat and, once it’s boiling, boil the beans for 10 minutes until they’ve softened slightly.
While the beans cook, drizzle one tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan and set it on a low heat. Add the onion and carrot and cook down for about 10 minutes until they’re softened and are lightly golden. Make sure to stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from catching.
While the carrot and onion cooks, your beans should be ready, so drain them well then tip them back into the saucepan. Grab a fork and mash the beans against the side of the pan until you have a paste-like texture.
When the carrot and onion mixture has cooked down, tip the mashed beans into the frying pan and mix well. Then add the cumin, coriander, flour, salt, and pepper, again mixing well and heating for a couple of minutes to cook out any raw flavours in the flour and spices.
Once that’s all combined, turn off the heat and set the burger mixture aside to cool.
While the burger mixture cools, you can prep your burger toppings. We like to toast the burger buns in a dry hot pan for a couple of minutes as this helps give some extra structure to the burgers.
With the toppings prepped, take the cooled burger mixture and separate it into four parts to shape into patties.
Put a drizzle of oil in a frying pan and set it on a medium heat. Place the burger patties into the pan, pressing them down gently as you do so they spread a little. Let them cook for two or three minutes before flipping them over and cooking for another couple of minutes. Be careful when flipping the patties as they can be fragile, but don’t worry if they break, just push them back together. You’re looking for a nice golden colour on each side.
When the patties are cooked, you can assemble the burgers. They’re great either by themselves or with a side of home-cooked chips or salad.
Odds and ends pesto
This pesto recipe is a great option for using up any odds and ends you might have in the kitchen, but particularly for any fresh herbs or greens that need eating.
While traditional pesto is made with basil, switching it out for other greens and herbs and changing the nuts you use can make completely different, but equally delicious, kinds of pesto.
You can use the following recipe as a guide, but feel free to replace ingredients with things you already have in your cupboards and change the ratios to your taste preferences. For example, if you don’t have the nuts we’ve listed, you can use any other nuts or seeds you have instead.
Here’s the recipe for the pesto we made. It makes about six to eight portions…
Ingredients
1 garlic clove roughly sliced
85ml olive oil
85g nuts (half smoked almonds, half walnuts)
4 large handfuls of chopped curly kale – raw or cooked and cooled
Juice of 1 lemon
40g Grana Padano finely grated
Pinch of salt
Utensils
Grater
Sharp knife
Small blender or food processor
Method
Put the garlic, olive oil, nuts, kale, and half the lemon juice in a blender or food processor and blend to a paste.
Add the cheese and blend again for 10 – 20 seconds, or until combined.
Taste your pesto and season with salt. You can also add the rest of the lemon juice if needed.
If your pesto is too thick, you can add more olive oil or a splash of water to loosen it.
You can then enjoy it with pasta, spread on toast and topped with an egg, or any other way you fancy!
A note on using other ingredients
As we’ve said, you can switch out the nuts and greens for other combinations. Some ideas include…
- Watercress and walnut
- Rocket and pine nut
- Cavolo nero and pistachio
- Pea, mint, and pine nut
You can also experiment with other hard cheeses, like parmesan or pecorino, for a slightly different flavour. If you want your pesto to be a bit hotter, you can add more garlic or chilli, whereas if you want a more mellow flavour, you could add more nuts or cheese. Adding breadcrumbs can make it go further too.
If you’re interested in trying some new recipes, why not check out the upcoming cooking classes on Rest Less Events?
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