Budget friendly recipes & tips to get the most from your precious time in the kitchen

To see us through a long cold winter

Hello hello, are you wintering well? Are you managing to get outside for a walk? As we are still a week until payday (and because food prices, utility bills & general life costs continue to soar), this week’s newsletter is split into:

*budget friendly kitchen TIPS + budget friendly RECIPES*

Before we get to the those….Thanks for your warm messages about my return to school. I am inspired by the number of you who have aged 40, 50, 60+ years young have changed career or picked up a new skill or got out of your comfort zone in some way. Thank you for sharing how you navigated scary seeming adventures & came out the other side. If you are feeling a call to try something new education wise whether it be a weekend course, diploma or degree, you might like to have a read here & speaking of budgets, don’t forget to take advantage of the £250 student discount.

Here’s a few highlights that made me smile as I was scrolling through my phone. I’m wearing colour & patterns whenever I can to lift my spirits. The cool kids call this ‘dopamine dressing’. I know my rainbow socks do it for me on a dreary morning.

Dinner with Dr Rangan Chatterjee & the joyful surprise of popping into a shop to keep warm when a few minutes early for a meeting & spotting my cookbooks on the shelves

Onto budget friendly cooking, I hope this is helpful all year long

At the moment I’m cherishing my tins of beans & tomatoes more than ever. And I’m grateful for the dwindling stash of freezer meals from when I batch cooked a few faves pre Christmas. I think there’s a portion of bolognese left and a portion of dahl, I always forget to label and date. Don’t be like me!

Lots of us adopt a budget friendly mindset all year long as life costs more & more & we have less & less time to spend in the kitchen. Which are just a few of the reasons that ultra processed foods (UPFs) are now ubiquitous - they tend to be cheaper, more widely available and oh so convenient compared to home-cooking. And of course we now know that UPFs are designed in such a way to keep us coming back for more and eating a diet heavy in them is associated with poor health outcomes.

Those of you with my (ahem, Sunday Times Bestselling!) cookbook Real Healthy (just checked it’s currently 30% off) know it IS possible to make home-cooking easier & to eat well every day & this doesn’t have to involve cooking every day thanks to meal prepping & batch cooking. But if you’ve got out of the habit of regular home-cooking, it does require a little extra organisation output to get back into the rhythm of it & to feel confident in the kitchen again. As it’s January & lots of us have got new diaries now is a great time to get meal planning.

Budget friendly tips - how to get more bang for your buck & more delicious food from your precious time spent in the kitchen.

1. Ends of jars - this is my Mum’s favourite resourceful tip - got the end of a mustard or honey jar? Use it to make salad dressings, shake it all up and you’ve got a homemade dressing & got every last bit out the jar. End of a peanut butter or nut butter jar? Add a little hot water, stir in yoghurt and oats and top with banana or your favourite fruit and you’ve got tomorrow’s breakfast on the go.

2. Make your own sweet or savoury granola - The best way to use up odds and ends of packets of seeds and nuts. Sprinkle over cinnamon and a little ginger or nutmeg for that winter feel. Or make savoury granola by adding cumin, paprika and sea salt - perfect for sprinkling over soups & upping your plant points too.

3. Clear the fridge drawer with a ‘fridge raid frittata’. Grate up raw veg eg half an onion and a carrot or some cheese or chop up leftover cooked veg and don’t forget any leftover pasta in a tomato sauce, that will be fantastic in a frittata.

4. Look for seasonal produce which tend to be most affordable and most tasty too. Go for cruciferous veg (Brussels, cauliflower, kale, cabbage) and root veg (parsnips, celeriac, carrots) and squash. What’s not currently in season is tomatoes and berries so try tinned tomatoes, frozen berries and apples and pears instead.

5. Batch cook - cook once, eat twice or thrice. If you don’t have a huge amount of freezer space, don’t worry as remember that covered well & stored in the fridge means you can keep food for 3-5 days. If you think you might not get through your food before then, do freeze it.

6. When the oven is on already, roast an extra tray of veggies - Not only a good way of saving any veg that is beginning to look a bit sad, it’s also a great foundation for future meals. Toss through cooked grains for a speedy lunch, use as a topping on a stew or blitz with broth to make a soup.

7. Roast a tin or two of beans - Again, perfect for tossing through a salad or topping a soup. Make sure you rinse & pat the beans dry with a clean tea towel. This is an essential step for achieving crispiness! Here’s a little how-to.

8. Make jacket potatoes for the week - You really can’t go wrong with a trusty baked potato or sweet potato. Throw a bag’s worth in the oven & reap the rewards for days to come. Load them up with hummus or fill with a bean chilli. Scoop out the flesh for fishcakes or bubble & squeak, then crisp up the skins in a hot pan and sprinkle with sea salt - a great whole food snack.

9. Make croutons - If you’ve got any stale bread, pitta or wraps, roughly tear or chop, drizzle with olive oil and salt and bake into croutons for topping silky smooth soups like this one.

10. Try a veg (+ dairy, meat & eggs) box straight from a farm delivered to your door. I’ve been a Riverford customer for 15 years & buy a weekly box but you can set it up to be fortnightly or monthly. Especially good when you don’t have time to get to the shops. New customers can use my ‘refer a friend’ link which gets you £15 off your first box here if you want to give it a go!

Scroll on down for the recipes

10 x Budget Friendly Recipes

As this newsletter can only have so many words & food pics in it, I’ve shared 4 full recipes below & for the other 6 recipes, please click on the purple text which will take you to them.

1. Golden Leek & Potato soup, below

2. Cabbage Bean Tomato Soup, below

3. Big Batch Bean Chilli, below

4. Raid the veg drawer soup, below

5. Any Veg Any Bean Soup -a great one to take to work in a flask

6. Quinoa Red Lentil & Kale - ideal midweek dinner

7. Rice Soup with crispy garlic & mushrooms or chicken

8. Spiced potato & chickpeas 3 ways to enjoy

9. Bean puttanesca - love this on toast or toss through pasta

10. Squash coconut curry - also delicious with potatoes & parsnips too

Golden Leek & Potato Soup
Feeds 4, takes 25 mins. Lovely blended up too. Be sure to give your lovely leeks a good wash as they can be deceivingly muddy.

2 tbsp ghee or oil
2 big leeks, sliced and rinsed
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 big carrots, chopped
Pinch of chilli flakes
2 big potatoes, chopped
1 big garlic clove, finely chopped
3/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp dried or 2 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
1 litre veg or chicken stock
Squeeze of lemon
Sea salt & pepper, to taste

Heat the oil or ghee in a big pan over a medium heat & add the leeks. Fry for 5 mins, stirring every so often, until softened. Add celery, carrots, chilli flakes & a pinch of salt & fry for 3 mins. Add potatoes, garlic, herbs & turmeric. Stir to coat then add the stock. Simmer with the lid on for 15 mins until the veg is tender. Taste for seasoning then top each bowl with extra chilli flakes & herbs & a squeeze of lemon to serve.

If you think you don’t like cabbage soup, make this one!

Cabbage bean tomato soup - this is excellent with garlic bread

Feeds 4, takes 45 mins

4 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp fennel seeds

Pinch of chilli flakes

2 tbsp tomato puree

2x 400g tins of chopped tomato

500ml veg stock

2x 400g tins of beans, drained and rinsed

½ head of savoy cabbage, shredded Sea salt and pepper

Your fave hard cheese (plus the rind for the soup if possible)

Drizzle of olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and once warm add the onions, a pinch of salt and pepper. Fry for 12 mins until soft, stirring every so often and turning down the heat if they are getting too much colour. Add the garlic, herbs, fennel seeds and chilli flakes, fry for 1 min, stirring fairly continuously. Add the tomato puree and fry for a couple of mins until brick red then add the tinned tomato (swill out the tins with water to get every last bit out) and cheese rind if you have one. Bring up to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 20 mins. Add the stock and beans, simmer for a further 10 mins then add the cabbage for another 5 minutes or so until wilted & tender. Taste for seasoning then ladle into bowls, topping with cheese, chilli flakes and a drizzle of olive oil.

Big batch bean chilli

Bean Chilli - for jacket potatoes, sweet potato wedges, rice, flat breads, quesadillas or on toast with a fried egg

Absolutely loaded with veg (I used a mountain of 6 different veggies but you could add in even more if you like, the more the merrier!) and is very flexible in terms of what beans you use. Freezefor a rainy day or for those evenings when you simply can’t be bothered to do anymore than reheat. Serve with as many of the trimmings as you like: rice, sweet potato wedges, tortillas, sour cream/yoghurt, avocado, cheddar cheese, pickled jalapenos, lime wedges etc.

Makes 12 portions, takes 50 minutes

6 tbsp olive oil

4 big onions, finely chopped

4 celery stalks, finely chopped

4 peppers, finely chopped

2 courgettes, finely chopped or sweet potato

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp coriander seeds + 2 tbsp cumin seeds + 2 tbsp smoked paprika

Big pinch of chilli flakes

4x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

3x 660g jars of beans or 6x 400g tins of beans* *Don’t drain the beans. You want all their lovely liquid, unless there are additional ingredients other than the beans, water and salt. If there are additional ingredients, drain the beans and add a good splash of stock or water to make up for the liquid lost.

Serving options: Cooked rice or quinoa. Tortillas. Baked potatoes or sweet potatoes wedges. Avocado. Yoghurt or sour cream. Cheddar cheddar. Pickled jalapenos, Lime

Get two big pans on a medium-high heat and add 3 tbsp olive oil to each pan. Once shimmering, divide all the veg between the two pans. Season well with salt and pepper and cook for 15-20 mins, stirring every so often, until completely soft. Add the garlic and spices, fry for a couple of mins until fragrant then add the tomato puree and cook out for a few mins until it turns a darker shade of red. Add the chopped tomatoes and beans (plus their liquid, see note above). Simmer for 25 mins until reduced & thickened. Taste for seasoning before serving & let everyone DIY their toppings.

A “souper” flexible veg drawer soup to top however you like

A flexible recipe which can be tweaked to use whatever veg and spices you’ve got to hand. I like to make a big batch of the soup base then mix up the toppings throughout the week to keep things interesting. Top with whatever takes your fancy including herb swirls, crumbled cheese, toasted seeds and nuts, croutons or crispy chickpeas.

Feeds 8, takes 30 mins

6 tbsp olive oil, coconut oil or butter

1kg of carrots, finely chopped

4 sticks of celery, finely chopped

3 onions or leeks, halved, washed and finely sliced

3 tsp ground cumin + 3 tsp ground coriander + 2 tbsp sweet paprika + chilli flakes

300g red lentils, rinse well

2.5 litres veg stock

Sea salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium-high heat then fry the carrots, celery, leeks and a good pinch of salt and pepper for 10 mins until softened. Add the spices and lentils, fry for another minute, stirring continuously so that the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the stock, stir and bring up to a strong simmer. Cook with the lid on for 15 mins, stirring every so often, until the lentils and veg are tender. Taste for seasoning & then either keep your soup chunky or blitz part or all of the soup.

THANK YOU for subscribing. Hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter & please share with a loved one if you think they’d like some recipes & tips too.

See you next week when I’ll have comforting recipes from Professor Tim Spector and chef Uyen Luu. Hope you have a nourishing week & get some time outside, Melissa x