The Frugal Recipes Thread... a companion to the Frugality thread....

[Reynard]

I do a similar salmon pasta dish, but in my case I tend to add spinach as opposed to parsley, and Polish soured cream instead of cream cheese.

Something equally similar works well with mushrooms and garlic, or with pesto, spinach and parmesan.

Mushrooms and spinach are regular visitors to the yellow sticker cabinets, so it makes a cheap dish even cheaper. Oh, and don't forget to reserve some of the pasta water to make the sauce.

And den you putta da pasta into da sauce...

 

[newts]

Puttanesca sauce with dried pasta is cheap & quick, very good cold on the odd occasion you don't stuff the lot.

However for us the go to cheap, quick meal is spaghetti carbonara.

• 200-250g of pasta/tagliatelle, initially cook 2 mins short of al dente, drain & save cup of the starchy water.
• 2 thick cut rashers of bacon (please forgive me for not using Guancale), diced into small cubes & fried to just brown, set aside on a plate to cool
• Crack plenty of black pepper into the still warm frying pan, you get a lovely sweet aroma.
• Add about 1/2 a cup of pasta water to the frying pan with toasted pepper, add the drained pasta & toss around on a low heat for a couple of minutes until most of the water has re absorbed.
• Turn the heat off whilst you mix 2 egg yokes (3 if you're wealthy) to about 50g of pecorino/reggiano cheese & a little of the cooled pasta water to make soft paste.
• Add bacon & egg mix to the pasta in the frying pan, gently toss to coat the pasta with the egg/cheese mix.
• letting the pasta cool a bit stops the egg from scrambling.
• If it's too dry add a little splash more of the pasta water until you get a velvety texture.
• Serve immediately, proper sticky comfort food in about 10 minutes.

 

[Reynard]

Puttanesca sauce with dried pasta is cheap & quick, very good cold on the odd occasion you don't stuff the lot.
However for us the go to cheap, quick meal is spaghetti carbonara.

• 200-250g of pasta/tagliatelle, initially cook 2 mins short of al dente, drain & save cup of the starchy water.
• 2 thick cut rashers of bacon (please forgive me for not using Guancale), diced into small cubes & fried to just brown, set aside on a plate to cool
• Crack plenty of black pepper into the still warm frying pan, you get a lovely sweet aroma.
• Add about 1/2 a cup of pasta water to the frying pan with toasted pepper, add the drained pasta & toss around on a low heat for a couple of minutes until most of the water has re absorbed.
• Turn the heat off whilst you mix 2 egg yokes (3 if you're wealthy) to about 50g of pecorino/reggiano cheese & a little of the cooled pasta water to make soft paste.
• Add bacon & egg mix to the pasta in the frying pan, gently toss to coat the pasta with the egg/cheese mix.
• letting the pasta cool a bit stops the egg from scrambling.
• If it's too dry add a little splash more of the pasta water until you get a velvety texture.
• Serve immediately, proper sticky comfort food in about 10 minutes.

That's not a puttanesca... Where are the olives, anchovies and capers?

Sounds much closer to a carbonara, but without the cream.

 

[newts]

That's not a puttanesca... Where are the olives, anchovies and capers?

Sounds much closer to a carbonara, but without the cream.

It is Carbonara, Puttanesca was just a reference another very cheap meal.
Cream (& garlic) have no place in a Carbonara imho!, that's another debate that rages like helmet vs no helmet.

 

[Reynard]

It is Carbonara, Puttanesca was just a reference another very cheap meal.
Cream (& garlic) have no place in a Carbonara imho!, that's another debate that rages like helmet vs no helmet.

Spaghetti Carbonara without garlic?!?!?!?!

 

[tyred]

Toast and Marmite. Food of the gods

 

[newts]

Spaghetti Carbonara without garlic?!?!?!?!

I'm low fodmap, so most of our food is 'sans' garlic nowadays.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm cooking another putanesca right now. I'm afraid that anchovy fillets, capers and black olives put my dish outside the realms of frugal. I'll have to take trip to Lidl to see what it could cost.

 

[gbb]

I always return to basics, stuff mum did when we were kids...
Bacon hotpot.
Packet of bacon, £1.60.
Sliced potatoes...pennies
An onion...maybe 30p
Gravy.
Might try some mushrooms in it next time.

A good hearty meal with some veg, feed two people and usually some leftovers for the next day...maybe £1.50 each ?

 

[Reynard]

I always return to basics, stuff mum did when we were kids...
Bacon hotpot.
Packet of bacon, £1.60.
Sliced potatoes...pennies
An onion...maybe 30p
Gravy.
Might try some mushrooms in it next time.

A good hearty meal with some veg, feed two people and usually some leftovers for the next day...maybe £1.50 each ?

You can get a 500g pack of cooking bacon from Tesco for 85p. All misshapes and offcuts, but if all you're going to do is chop it up and put it in something...

 

[slowmotion]

I've just bought a 120mm diameter saucepan for boiling my breakfast egg. Save water, save electricity. I'm nominating myself for beatification.

 

[alicat]

I use websites like this one: https://www.supercook.com/#/desktop . There are others but you say what ingredients you have and it will give you recipes.

I do something similar to this. I look in the fridge and identify the two saddest looking ingredients e.g. pak choi (x) and red peppers (y). I then Google 'x and y recipe uk' and choose the most appealing recipe. That search yielded a nice recipe for a stirfry that I will make another time.

I've had some lovely meals using things that I wouldn't have thought to put together.

 

[presta]

anything that uses beef or lamb mince e.g. spag bol, pasta bakes cottage or shepherd's pie tends to get done with half meat and half cooked green lentils.

I used to use dried soya mince until they stopped selling it.

Pasta with salmon (or virtually anything!!) :
Ingredients

• spaghetti 60g of dry pasta per serving (any pasta will do but spaghetti works best)
• salmon filet 40g per serving (that's half a pre-packed supermarket filet)
• soft cheese with garlic and herbs couple of tablespoons or to taste
• parsley (optional as it adds 75p cost for a potful)
• parmesan
• black pepper

Method

• cook the pasta as usual but stop just before it's ready, just al dente, as it will continue cooking
• skin the salmon and dice into 0.5cm cubes, important and definitely not more than 1cm
• drain the pasta leaving perhaps a cup of water in the pan
• add the soft cheese and mix thoroughly to coat the pasta (a carving fork works well)
• add the diced salmon and over a very low heat mix (carving fork) till the salmon is cooked
• scatter with parsley
• dress with black pepper and grated parmesan
• serve with green salad if desired

Mine is from Jack Monroe, the queen of frugal:
Ingredients

• 100g pasta
• 150g onion
• 1.25cc chilli flakes
• 10cc parsley
• 15cc oil
• Juice of ¼ lemon
• 4g sugar
• 150ml natural yoghurt
• 75g jar of salmon paste

Method

• Soak parsley and sugar in the lemon juice.
• Fry the onion and chilli in large pan.
• Boil pasta (immediately, whilst frying onions).
• Stir the yoghurt and paste into the onions and warm through.
• Add lemon, sugar and parsley.
• Add sauce to drained pasta and stir.

 

[PaulSB]

I do something similar to this. I look in the fridge and identify the two saddest looking ingredients e.g. pak choi (x) and red peppers (y). I then Google 'x and y recipe uk' and choose the most appealing recipe. That search yielded a nice recipe for a stirfry that I will make another time.

I've had some lovely meals using things that I wouldn't have thought to put together.

I do similar especially when I have a glut from the allotment. On Monday we had Hungarian green pepper and tomato stew. Quick and delicious.

 

[Mo1959]

I use websites like this one: https://www.supercook.com/#/desktop . There are others but you say what ingredients you have and it will give you recipes. Its very useful if I buy a mixed veg bargain box or other reduced price stuff and can be told what I can do with them. I always find if I try to follow a set recipe I end up missing something and having to change it anyway so I prefer to work with what I have.

An example is a slow cooker stew. I'll normally add a meat to it depending on what I have, mixed veg again of what I have, and 2 cans of chopped tomato. I'll add other things randomly like mixed herbs, stock cubes, tobassco sauce etc. One I've made recently is:

Sausage Stew
Large Sausages
Peppers
Large Mushrooms
Onions
Tinned chopped tomato
All veggies were chopped and added to pot, sausages were fried quickly to brown then added, tomato was added and I think I used 2 x veg stock cubes. The amount you cook can vary to your size of pot - mine is quite large so I freeze upto 75% of it to eat later. I've been eating this with either potatos or rice.

As someone who professes not to be able to cook, I think even I would manage that thanks.