Money is going to be tight in our family for the next few months, so I'm on the hunt for cheap meal ideas! Do you have any firm favourites, family classics, simple-but-tasty type recipes? I have a go-to cookbook but my family are getting sick of the few veggie recipes in there...
We also like stir fry, pita pizzas, pasta with veggies and sauce (cheesy, enchilada, or marinara), bean/veggie burgers, shakshouka, polenta/grits with some kind of saucy mushroom, loaded baked potatoes with broccoli, cheese, sour cream and chives, tacos made with lentils, stuffed peppers.
If you have a decent library near you, you might want to check out if they have some vegan cookbooks. Vegan on the cheap is a good one. For me, I tend to eat a lot of beans/lentils and rice dishes, which tend to be very inexpensive. Indian recipes are good for that in general.
I know a lot of vegetarian Indian recipes, but the ones I know are in general carb-rich and kinda spicy. If there is interest, I would be happy to provide the links to some of them.
Quinoa + vegetables + spices ---- you can mix up this for all different types of flavors. You can get quinoa in bulk pretty cheap- I was going to suggest stores but then recalled you are in the UK raisin5cookies!
Since I am aware that it might involve purchasing some flavoring agents like 'Garam Masala', some of which might get left behind without much use, especially if you don't like the recipe, makes me think what recipes you can make without needing much of these store-bought flavors...
You can't go wrong with lentils Does your family like tacos? My sister made this recipe for lentil taco 'meat' for a family dinner and everyone loved it. Including the avid carnivores in the family (went back for seconds). http://www.theppk.com/2011/05/ancho-lentil-tacos/
Beans! I don't have much money and mostly vegetarian, and like to buy a pack of dried beans (kidney & black are my favourites - esp black!), soak and boil the whole bagful and then put in the freezer in smaller batches. Can be added to almost any dish, mashed to be used as a bread spread, and then my favourite - season with a bit of malt vinegar, salt and perhaps pepper to be had as a snack on the side of some fresh veggies. I like my homecooked beans so much more than the ones that come in a can, the pre-cooked are not only expensive compared but taste a bit yucky to me, and have too much salt!
I also recommend homemade seitan. I like to make that too in bigger batches and then put into ziplock bags and into the freezer.
Oh, thanks for the ideas, Lunch! I have a lot of tinned chickpeas and since nobody likes them whole in soups/curries/sauces, roasting them would be fun to try. There's only so much hummus I can make!
Easy, cheap meal ideas?
I like my homecooked beans so much more than the ones that come in a can, the pre-cooked are not only expensive compared but taste a bit yucky to me, and have too much salt!
