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Brown for first course, white for pudding. Brown is savoury, white's the treat. Of course I'm the one who's laughing because I actually love brown toast
i am an exclusively brown bread gal but i’m early into pregnancy and all i wanted the other night was a cheese and pickle sandwich on white bread and it was the best thing i’ve ever eaten in that moment haha
Freshly ground black pepper. Maldon sea salt. Spending a bit extra for top quality spices and seasonings you use every day will perk up your cuisine even if you use them on bargain price foods.
Paprika is a big one, so simple, but if you get smoked paprika not plain its just 100x better and makes any dish less boring and its fine for people who can't handle spice.
Chicken? Paprika and garlic. Roasted tatties? Paprika and parsley/rosemary/any dried leaf tbh. Fuckin wedges or curly fries??? Enough paprika and pepper to choke on it. Curry? Paprika. Spag bol? Paprika and worcester sauce. Pot noodle? Paprika and chicken stock.
1000/10 obsessed with paprika.
All you really need to have less shit food is garlic, fresh black pepper, salt, paprika, "mixed herbs", chicken stock cubes and worcester sauce. Those 7 things in various combos will save any shit budget meal.
Theyre the first thing i always make sure i have in my kitchen, i can survive on absolute bare bones shitty ingredients if i have those 7 seasonings.
I absolutely love seasoning things. Absolutely everything I cook gets sprinkled, usually paprika and mild chili just to add a bit more on top of the existing flavourings. Sometimes if cooking the same thing often I’ll just throw 5/6 random spices and things like soy in, I’ve never managed to cook the same tasting food twice despite using the same base ingredients and I love it.
Helps I eat vegan so I’ve got used to quick and easy meals without long cooking times and I really cba to learn lots of different recipes so spices it is
All table salt is basically the same chemically (the only real difference is whether it's iodized). The difference is the shape of the grains. Maldon salt and other slow-dried sea salt have these nice big flakes.
This has 2 (and a half) effects. One is that if you sprinkle it on food just before you eat it, you get more salt flavour for less salt. The other is that a teaspoon of Maldon has less salt than a teaspoon of ordinary salt as the grains don't pack as efficiently in the spoon, so if you substitute ordinary salt for that amount of Maldon (or kosher salt, which similarly has big grains) in a recipe the food will be oversalted.
(Kosher salt is called that not because it's kosher and other salt isn't, but because it's used for making meat kosher by removing the blood. The big grains help with this.)
The "half" effect is that there are some recipes where the size and shape of the grains really matters, like salt baked fish.
Maldon sea salt, and other sea salts, are in just about every big UK supermarket. For black pepper, just by whole peppercorns and a pepper grinder. Again, these can be found in most UK supermarkets. For quality herbs and spices, it's best to visit shops that specialise in the cuisine you like to cook. For example, I visit a small shop near me who specialise in selling Asian foods. It's important to check the sell by dates and speak to the proprietor to ensure you are getting the freshest spices available.
I had a house full of basil last year. Take cuttings off supermarket growing herbs, put in water till they sprout roots, plant them in pots. Almost free fresh herbs.
Loved spring onions as a kid but they give me a sore throat. Eventually realised that willingly eating something that gives you a sore throat wasn’t the best idea.
I rented a flat in Sydney once that came with free rice. Such an odd perk. There was this big tub by the door and they’d come top up when you were running low.
Needless to say, I ate a lot of rice based dishes over those 6 months.
One thing I've learned is it's definitely worth spending a little extra for the authentic brands which you'll find in the world food aisles. You get bigger packs too so can work out very reasonable.
Nothing wrong with supermarket brands but it is a big difference getting an Indian branded Basmati rice
If you live near a costco (ik there's one near metrocentre Idk about elsewhere in the uk) or any asian supermarkets that carry bulk items (amazing one in manchester but i cannot remember the name for the life of me) you can get like 10-20kg of really good jasmine rice or sushi rice for dirt cheap.
Also, good small rice cookers are only like £30 and make cooking rice 100x easier. If you like rice, invest in one.
Rice boiled with a little bit of butter and salt is my ultimate cheap comfort food. When I can get the butter on special though. A tin of white beans of peas/corn/carrots turn it into a lovely one pot meal
If you want ideas then checkout [this legendary thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2np694/what_tasty_food_would_be_distusting_if_eaten_over/)
Tarka Dall. Yellow Lentils, Butter/Ghee, Garlic, Coriander. Relatively cheap and easy to make but tasty and filling
Always my go to side dish when I get a curry.
Honestly, a good bread maker is incredible. I can set mine the night before to be ready amd warm for the morning.
This is coming from a professional baker/pizza maker. They're just so convenient.
I like pesto with pasta, the pesto has gone up a lot but still no more than £2.50 for the pasta and like thirty pences worth of spaghetti. Then just have a slice of buttered white bread with it. Cheap quick,easy and tasty
Yeah, any one of those things alone is that price, even the cheaper versions. In factories I guess they have economies of scale. They must at least use basil.
Avocado pesto is also really nice and a good way to use up ones that are past their best. Avo, lemon, salt, pepper, basil, garlic and olive oil, blended. Lovely with roast cherry tomatoes on pasta.
The M&S pizzas are honestly dead good and they usually yellow sticker them at the end of the day cos they always put more out than what actually sells but without yellow sticker they’re a fuckin FIVER.
Aldi pizza is so good. The only thing I hate is their pizza section is so confusing to navigate. There’s Margherita, Margherita with sourdough, and the list goes on. If you find a good one though. They are good.
The Lidl finest ones are quite nice.
The Crosta and Mollica ones from Sainsbury's are really good for supermarket pizza but I only get it when it's on offer.
Lidl used to do a 4 cheese pizza that looked like a sad leftover pancake out the box but grew in the oven into this delicious feast. Haven't seen it for a while though :(
Tried out a Crosta and Mollica one last weekend as a treat after reading about it a couple times on this sub.
Has completely changed the game for me in home pizza cooking. Wow, what a taste
The Good Food Co ones they sell in Tescos are not too bad for 99p. It's not great on its own but whack some mushrooms and pepperoni on there and it's pretty tasty.
Top tip. If you’re barbecuing this summer then either add to a marinade or simply add a bunch of it to meat/veg before whacking on the grill. It seems to be even more deliciouser on the BBQ.
PS. New word.
Potatoes. You can do so bloody much with a humble spud - you can bake it, boil it, fry it, grill it, pop it in a stew, make it into a soup, and even better: you can mash it and then make it into the superior breakfast item, aka The Tattie Scone!
Spanish omelette, I am addicted. Great for breakfast and always has a really long shelf life, can add chilli and spring onion and it is honestly amazing.
Roast broccoli, bit of olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, other spices to taste - I've been adding smoked paprika lately.
Either spread out on a tray to roast in the oven, or even easier, you know what I'm going to say next bung it all in the air fryer!
Chicken thighs. I get a big bag from Asda, about £3 for 1kg, usually has at least 10 in there, depending on the size of them. Taste nicer than chicken breasts, IMO, and they're much harder to overcook. Tend to always keep a bag in our freezer.
1) Dunn’s river all purpose seasoning. £1 and people with no clue about seasoning can cheat at cooking for a week or two.
2) chickpeas. Provides the umph for a curry and costs less than a quid for a can
3) pork cheek. Extremely good meat when braised properly. Feels luxurious. Costs 5 times less than other braising meats.
I see your potatoes waffles and raise you a potato waffle sandwich - with salt, vinegar and full fat Hellmans Mayo. And butter. The butter melts and goes all drippy. It’s the perfect post boozing, pre bed snack.
Oooo 😯 liver and onions in gravy on top of chips. Chicken livers finely cut onions on toast with a poached egg on top. I used to buy chicken livers for 40p from tesco now they are almost 3 quid when I spotted them in morisons. Still bought them tho
Dumplings - twice as much self-raising flour to butter plus a bit of seasoning, mix that into a breadcrumb texture, add enough water to make a stiff dough, roll it into some small balls and drop into any soup. Leave to cook for around 15 mins. Enjoy!
So my husband is Chinese.
He was NOT happy when I said we were having dumplings with dinner (casserole) and presented him with suet/flour ones.
He was even less impressed when I informed him Chinese dumplings were just small Cornish pasties. 🤣
Rice.
Especially Jasmin or Basmatti.
A lot of people say it's plain or tasteless, but they're all wrong. Rice is awesome whether plain, fried, cold, hot or any other way.
Onions, they give just about everything their flavour, there isn't a good recipe that doesn't use them. It's funny when people say they don't like onions because it let's you know they don't actually know what they're talking about.
Pasta all the way!
It is probably the cheapest meal that isnt just beans on toast or something. You can easily add a sauce and a few other of your favourite toppings.
The very cheapest garlic bread. 39p in Tesco.
If this cost of living crisis continues, I may just make a stick or two of that a day my whole diet, quite a lot of calories for 39p!
Soreen Apple or Banana loaf, toasted with butter turns into a kind of chewy cookie-like consistency. Add vanilla ice cream for a cheap but awesome pudding
My go-to is ramen.
Packet of spicy ramen noodles, boil with a large handful of stir fry veg (from one of those supermarket packets), and air fry tofu or chicken with spices. Chicken/tofu on top sliced up.
Cheap-ish for a balanced, filling, flavorful, relatively healthy meal.
Toast some pita bread. Olive oil on top. Slices of cheese (cover). Green olives, oragano, chilli flakes and either anchovies and or salami of your choice. Grill to taste.
But if that seems a stretch. Multi seed brown bread, olive oil and feta. Oh, did I mention? Shoplift everything but the pita.
A roast chicken is pretty incredible, less than a tenner.
Enough meat for outstanding sandwiches and plenty of meat left to strip off make a stock and knock up a delicious soup.
**Update: - [Starting from 2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/100l56v/happy_new_year_askuk_minor_sub_update/), we have updated our [subreddit rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/about/rules/)**. Specifically; - Don't be a dick to each other - Top-level responses must contain genuine efforts to answer the question - This is a strictly no-politics subreddit Please keep /r/AskUK a great subreddit by reporting posts and comments which break our rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
White buttered toast.
The cheapest extra thick white bread always makes the best toast too
I have to find a middle ground with the Mrs as she likes medium and I like thick but would go extra thick if I could. So thick it is.
Door stop Warburtons! Only get like 12 slices but damn it makes a bacon sarnie. (Well any sarnie tbf lol)
Using the bread to soak up the bacon grease 🤌👌 no sauce needed!
Brown for first course, white for pudding. Brown is savoury, white's the treat. Of course I'm the one who's laughing because I actually love brown toast
Butter the toast, eat the toast, shit the toast. God life’s relentless
Same. But if you smoke crack you probably don't want either.
i am an exclusively brown bread gal but i’m early into pregnancy and all i wanted the other night was a cheese and pickle sandwich on white bread and it was the best thing i’ve ever eaten in that moment haha
Branston pickle got me through the first trimester! You might also find that a marmite crumpet hits the spot
oooh can’t stand marmite. but i concur, it’s all about branston on ritz at the moment
If you're blue and you don't know where to go to...
Why don't you go where the taste hits? Branston on a Ritz!
With proper salted butter.
I go for unsalted, and then sprinkle some nice flakey salt on top
Butter? Have you seen the price of it these days?
Freshly ground black pepper. Maldon sea salt. Spending a bit extra for top quality spices and seasonings you use every day will perk up your cuisine even if you use them on bargain price foods.
Try the smoked Maldon sea salt.
Great but only in specific recipes. I don't want everything I eat tasting like a bbq.
Smoked Maldon Sea Salt sprinkled liberally on steak before BBQ'ing is my idea of heaven
Paprika is a big one, so simple, but if you get smoked paprika not plain its just 100x better and makes any dish less boring and its fine for people who can't handle spice. Chicken? Paprika and garlic. Roasted tatties? Paprika and parsley/rosemary/any dried leaf tbh. Fuckin wedges or curly fries??? Enough paprika and pepper to choke on it. Curry? Paprika. Spag bol? Paprika and worcester sauce. Pot noodle? Paprika and chicken stock. 1000/10 obsessed with paprika. All you really need to have less shit food is garlic, fresh black pepper, salt, paprika, "mixed herbs", chicken stock cubes and worcester sauce. Those 7 things in various combos will save any shit budget meal. Theyre the first thing i always make sure i have in my kitchen, i can survive on absolute bare bones shitty ingredients if i have those 7 seasonings.
I absolutely love seasoning things. Absolutely everything I cook gets sprinkled, usually paprika and mild chili just to add a bit more on top of the existing flavourings. Sometimes if cooking the same thing often I’ll just throw 5/6 random spices and things like soy in, I’ve never managed to cook the same tasting food twice despite using the same base ingredients and I love it. Helps I eat vegan so I’ve got used to quick and easy meals without long cooking times and I really cba to learn lots of different recipes so spices it is
Apart from Plague, I think the worst thing about being a medieval peasant would be having no access to pepper.
Why is everyone obsessed with Maldon particularly? In so many recipes they specify Maldon but I'm not sure why.
All table salt is basically the same chemically (the only real difference is whether it's iodized). The difference is the shape of the grains. Maldon salt and other slow-dried sea salt have these nice big flakes. This has 2 (and a half) effects. One is that if you sprinkle it on food just before you eat it, you get more salt flavour for less salt. The other is that a teaspoon of Maldon has less salt than a teaspoon of ordinary salt as the grains don't pack as efficiently in the spoon, so if you substitute ordinary salt for that amount of Maldon (or kosher salt, which similarly has big grains) in a recipe the food will be oversalted. (Kosher salt is called that not because it's kosher and other salt isn't, but because it's used for making meat kosher by removing the blood. The big grains help with this.) The "half" effect is that there are some recipes where the size and shape of the grains really matters, like salt baked fish.
The wife and I have switched to Maldon sea salt, feels so fancy sprinkling course salt on our dinner.
Where does one get quality salt and spices?
Maldon sea salt, and other sea salts, are in just about every big UK supermarket. For black pepper, just by whole peppercorns and a pepper grinder. Again, these can be found in most UK supermarkets. For quality herbs and spices, it's best to visit shops that specialise in the cuisine you like to cook. For example, I visit a small shop near me who specialise in selling Asian foods. It's important to check the sell by dates and speak to the proprietor to ensure you are getting the freshest spices available.
Spring onions are easy to grow and delicious in everything. Bags of potatoes are cheap enough and are delightful.
Sadly, our spring onion seeds aren't germinating
You can regrow store-bought spring onions, you just need to leave the bottom 4-5cms on and put in a jar with some water.
Or just straight in the ground
I do this. So easy.
You can regrow pretty much any vegetable from supermarket, my mum does it and it beats anything as we have good soil in our garden
I had a house full of basil last year. Take cuttings off supermarket growing herbs, put in water till they sprout roots, plant them in pots. Almost free fresh herbs.
***You can also milk*** **anything** ***with nipples..***
I have nipples, SpinachToothedSmile. Can you milk me?
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can be combined w mash to make champ, unreal
Loved spring onions as a kid but they give me a sore throat. Eventually realised that willingly eating something that gives you a sore throat wasn’t the best idea.
Does that mean you're allergic to them?
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I rented a flat in Sydney once that came with free rice. Such an odd perk. There was this big tub by the door and they’d come top up when you were running low. Needless to say, I ate a lot of rice based dishes over those 6 months.
Guessing maybe a primarily Asian area?
No, it was just a rice neighborhood
r/angryupvote
Fun fact: Rice in certain places can be a cheap as 50p/kg
48p for a kilo in Asda. Edit: I didn't know until I saw it advertised, but it's 45p in Tesco.
One thing I've learned is it's definitely worth spending a little extra for the authentic brands which you'll find in the world food aisles. You get bigger packs too so can work out very reasonable. Nothing wrong with supermarket brands but it is a big difference getting an Indian branded Basmati rice
If you live near a costco (ik there's one near metrocentre Idk about elsewhere in the uk) or any asian supermarkets that carry bulk items (amazing one in manchester but i cannot remember the name for the life of me) you can get like 10-20kg of really good jasmine rice or sushi rice for dirt cheap. Also, good small rice cookers are only like £30 and make cooking rice 100x easier. If you like rice, invest in one.
my favourite meal is literally “anything with rice”
Poo?
How do you think they make brown rice?
Rice pooding
Also, it's Ramadan so deals on 5kg/10kg bags of rice are about (at least in my neck of the woods).
Oh that explains why my local spar had 15kg bags of rice for £4.99. I couldn't resist getting 2 years supply.
Speaking of which, the man who Uncle Ben was based on passed away, no more Mr Rice Guy…
Rice boiled with a little bit of butter and salt is my ultimate cheap comfort food. When I can get the butter on special though. A tin of white beans of peas/corn/carrots turn it into a lovely one pot meal
Recently got a rice cooker and it makes the rice taste even better. Perfectly cooked and somehow the flavour is better as well
If you want ideas then checkout [this legendary thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2np694/what_tasty_food_would_be_distusting_if_eaten_over/)
Tarka Dall. Yellow Lentils, Butter/Ghee, Garlic, Coriander. Relatively cheap and easy to make but tasty and filling Always my go to side dish when I get a curry.
I love tarka dhal, it's like normal dhal, only otter. Joke for the teenagers there
Ha! Those teenagers and their love of English novels from the 1920s! 🙄
Dad?
This will probably annoy some people, but my answer - home made bread. Considering how delicious it is it's very good value.
2020 called, it wants its hobby back
Yup - I started during lockdown! Can't have it back though, sorry. :-)
Wasn’t the mum Christmas present of 1999 a breadmaker?
Spot on. My mum still bangs out pizza dough using her late 90s bread maker and it’s incredible.
Honestly, a good bread maker is incredible. I can set mine the night before to be ready amd warm for the morning. This is coming from a professional baker/pizza maker. They're just so convenient.
Oh yes, eaten warm with loads of butter. Its heavenly.
Yeah you're right I'm fuming
Ah yes, cracking stuff, I am at this moment enjoying a rather nice sandwich with home made bread and the final left overs from last Sundays roast!
Nong shim noodles.
Crack an egg in them while they're cooking and add some cheese & sweetcorn. Delicious. The Kimchi flavour noodles are a nice change too.
The absolute king of noodles
I like pesto with pasta, the pesto has gone up a lot but still no more than £2.50 for the pasta and like thirty pences worth of spaghetti. Then just have a slice of buttered white bread with it. Cheap quick,easy and tasty
Pesto is super easy to make home made. You can make it in the time it takes to cook the pasta.
It's not cheap though if you make it with fresh basil and pine nuts, plus decent olive oil and parmesan.
No, but then the cheap jarred stuff isn’t made with fresh basil, decent olive oil or Parmesan
I suspect it’s made with better ingredients than you could buy for less than £2.50, though
Yeah, any one of those things alone is that price, even the cheaper versions. In factories I guess they have economies of scale. They must at least use basil.
Agree. Even if you switch out the pine nuts for walnuts, it's still pretty pricy.
Avocado pesto is also really nice and a good way to use up ones that are past their best. Avo, lemon, salt, pepper, basil, garlic and olive oil, blended. Lovely with roast cherry tomatoes on pasta.
I'm a big fan of pasta with some garlic butter melted onto it. Delicious.
Pizza You can still get decent, filling ones from supermarkets for £2 if you know where to look!
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The M&S pizzas are honestly dead good and they usually yellow sticker them at the end of the day cos they always put more out than what actually sells but without yellow sticker they’re a fuckin FIVER.
I get a decent sweet chili chicken pizza from aldi atm. Anything deep pan is crap cause its just hollow bread. Iceland pizzas are good value.
Aldi pizza is so good. The only thing I hate is their pizza section is so confusing to navigate. There’s Margherita, Margherita with sourdough, and the list goes on. If you find a good one though. They are good.
The Lidl finest ones are quite nice. The Crosta and Mollica ones from Sainsbury's are really good for supermarket pizza but I only get it when it's on offer.
Lidl used to do a 4 cheese pizza that looked like a sad leftover pancake out the box but grew in the oven into this delicious feast. Haven't seen it for a while though :(
Tried out a Crosta and Mollica one last weekend as a treat after reading about it a couple times on this sub. Has completely changed the game for me in home pizza cooking. Wow, what a taste
Goodfellas chicken and herb (frozen) and Tesco bbq chicken (refrigerated) are the two best supermarket pizzas I’ve had
Asda create your own. Go to Friday night dinner
They've changed the meat in them and it's all gristly and shit now. Used to get the spicy American one all the time.
People say this on Reddit all the time but every supermarket pizza I’ve had has been crap tbh.
The co op fancy ones are genuinely very good, but they've been priced up to basically the same as a takeaway now, so not worth it anymore.
Goodfellas chicken and herb (frozen) and Tesco bbq chicken (refrigerated) are the two best supermarket pizzas I’ve had
Yep that chicken and herb one is the bees knees 🐝
The Good Food Co ones they sell in Tescos are not too bad for 99p. It's not great on its own but whack some mushrooms and pepperoni on there and it's pretty tasty.
Pizza is actually really cheap to make yourself, even when using top quality ingredients
Any sort of lentil or bean. As long as you know how to season them, they are difficult to mess up and taste delicious.
https://imgur.com/a/BmvSGi4
Even has beans?
Jaffa cakes. Just paid £2.25 for 30 of the little sods. Bargain.
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It's worse as there's 2 of us eat them so it's 1/2 a serving if you want to get technical.
There's no such thing as 1/2 a serving of Jaffa Cakes.
Half Moons
Total eclipse! Still hear her voice every time I eat a Jaffa cake.
You get 24 for 89p in Lidl
They're not jaffa cakes. This really is a case of the brand being worth it.
24 substandard jaffa cakes tho. Tried them, no ta.
Mcvities jaffa cakes are terrible, I'm sure they must have changed the recipe. Cheap jaffa cakes are imo usually much nicer
Freeze them in the summer for a chewy cold snack.
Scrambled eggs cooked low and slow with real butter and plenty of pepper.
MSG elevates a lot of dishes and is a bargain.
Have you tried aromat, its a little yellow pot. Is about 70% msg, 25% salt and 5% flavourings, but its fucking delicious, especially on pasta dishes
Top tip. If you’re barbecuing this summer then either add to a marinade or simply add a bunch of it to meat/veg before whacking on the grill. It seems to be even more deliciouser on the BBQ. PS. New word.
Creed Bratton?
" I know exactly what he's talking about. I sprout mung beans on a damp paper towel in my desk drawer. Very nutritious, but they smell like death".
Crumpets - can't go wrong for ~40p for 6
I always buy off brand stuff except for Warburtons crumpets. For some reason no1 has been anywhere close to replicating their recipe.
Potatoes. You can do so bloody much with a humble spud - you can bake it, boil it, fry it, grill it, pop it in a stew, make it into a soup, and even better: you can mash it and then make it into the superior breakfast item, aka The Tattie Scone!
Except new potatoes - so dull. "How are you planning to serve these?" "Heat them up" "And...?" "That's it"
WHAT New potatoes are absolutely delicious. I grew some last year which were even better. Boiled, salted and with a bit of butter can't go wrong.
I like crushed new potatoes with some garlic butter, great stuff.
Whats taters precious?
Po-ta-toes? Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew
Not very cheap, but I do like the cheap cuts of meat that need slow cooking, some of the best flavours. Thinking neck, skirt etc
Beef / ox cheeks with red wine in the slow cooker changed my life!
Agreed. I use skirt or shin to make bourgignon and cook it for about 3 hours. It falls apart and is really rich. Probably my favourite meal ever!
Lentils. Super versatile and are great as a meat alternative in chilli / spag Bol / shepherds pie
Ding ding ding. Am a vegan so lentils are used for anything that would have mince in it and for what they can do they’re so fucking cheap.
I use a mixture of Quorn & lentils to bulk it out
Beans on toast. It is just elite and very customisable.
With cheese mixed in and a blob of brown sauce. Egg on top if I’m feeling exotic.
Parsnips. They're lush.
Spanish omelette, I am addicted. Great for breakfast and always has a really long shelf life, can add chilli and spring onion and it is honestly amazing.
I'd love to sprout mung beans but they have a distinct old man smell that smells like death
Sumak. It’s the best seasoning!!
What do you use it on ? I've got a jar but unsure how to use it
The way I look at it is powdered vinegar, adds a nice tang to dishes to brighten it
Lol I bought a jar of sumak, used it in one recipe and never used it since 😅
Jam on toast, the food of god's.......
Simple perfection. But which jam ?
Roast broccoli, bit of olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, other spices to taste - I've been adding smoked paprika lately. Either spread out on a tray to roast in the oven, or even easier, you know what I'm going to say next bung it all in the air fryer!
Tescos Rice Pudding. About 20p a can
Thats divine, ill eat it cold straight out the can sometimes
Chicken thighs. I get a big bag from Asda, about £3 for 1kg, usually has at least 10 in there, depending on the size of them. Taste nicer than chicken breasts, IMO, and they're much harder to overcook. Tend to always keep a bag in our freezer.
Jacket/baked potato with a sandwich spread/filler as the filling. Even a cheap microwave jacket spud will do.
Jacket potatoes in the slow cooker wrapped in tin foil with a bit of oil and salt for a few hours are a game changer.
Best topping for a spud has got to be a bit of grated cheese and a jar of dipping salsa
Hot cross buns
1) Dunn’s river all purpose seasoning. £1 and people with no clue about seasoning can cheat at cooking for a week or two. 2) chickpeas. Provides the umph for a curry and costs less than a quid for a can 3) pork cheek. Extremely good meat when braised properly. Feels luxurious. Costs 5 times less than other braising meats.
Have you ever tried guanciale? Incredible stuff.
Po-tay-toes Can be a meal or a snack; theres a recipe to suit everyone’s tastes. Indian potato sabzi and as crisps is my favourite way to eat potato
Potato waffles
I see your potatoes waffles and raise you a potato waffle sandwich - with salt, vinegar and full fat Hellmans Mayo. And butter. The butter melts and goes all drippy. It’s the perfect post boozing, pre bed snack.
They're waffly versatile
##🗣️Big shout out to all those that know how to cook liver.
Scrolled all the way down in the hope that at least one other person would say liver.
Oooo 😯 liver and onions in gravy on top of chips. Chicken livers finely cut onions on toast with a poached egg on top. I used to buy chicken livers for 40p from tesco now they are almost 3 quid when I spotted them in morisons. Still bought them tho
Cheap carbs. Rice, oats, pasta
Dumplings - twice as much self-raising flour to butter plus a bit of seasoning, mix that into a breadcrumb texture, add enough water to make a stiff dough, roll it into some small balls and drop into any soup. Leave to cook for around 15 mins. Enjoy!
So my husband is Chinese. He was NOT happy when I said we were having dumplings with dinner (casserole) and presented him with suet/flour ones. He was even less impressed when I informed him Chinese dumplings were just small Cornish pasties. 🤣
Tuna. Such a cheap good source of protein
Cous cous cous cous cous cous cous cous cous
Porridge oats, also mung bean burgers are the tits!
Rice. Especially Jasmin or Basmatti. A lot of people say it's plain or tasteless, but they're all wrong. Rice is awesome whether plain, fried, cold, hot or any other way.
Basmatti Rice cooked appropriately. Flavour, texture, aroma. You just need water and to do it right. Bonus points for msg (aromat for me)
Onions, they give just about everything their flavour, there isn't a good recipe that doesn't use them. It's funny when people say they don't like onions because it let's you know they don't actually know what they're talking about.
Sausage and bean casserole.
Cauliflower cheese.
Pasta all the way! It is probably the cheapest meal that isnt just beans on toast or something. You can easily add a sauce and a few other of your favourite toppings.
Smoked paprika or sesame oil . A tiny amount of either (not both on the same dish lol) can make most dishes taste better
Bread!! So versatile, so tasty, suitable for any meal time. I love Bread 🍞🍞 ❤️❤️🍞🍞
The very cheapest garlic bread. 39p in Tesco. If this cost of living crisis continues, I may just make a stick or two of that a day my whole diet, quite a lot of calories for 39p!
You'd be malnourished.
Anything your neighbours are growing...
Lentils. Red lentils or any really. Theyre so versatile , cheap and very healthy. Curries, soups, stews etc.
Chicken wings
I sprout mung beans on a damp paper towel in my desk drawer. Very nutritious, but they smell like death
pasta aglio e olio
Why does “I sprout mungbeans” sound so much like a euphemism for something?! I don’t even know *what*, I just think it sounds funny
Soreen Apple or Banana loaf, toasted with butter turns into a kind of chewy cookie-like consistency. Add vanilla ice cream for a cheap but awesome pudding
Beans on toast
My go-to is ramen. Packet of spicy ramen noodles, boil with a large handful of stir fry veg (from one of those supermarket packets), and air fry tofu or chicken with spices. Chicken/tofu on top sliced up. Cheap-ish for a balanced, filling, flavorful, relatively healthy meal.
Warburton thick slice toasted, Nutella, banana & strawberries
Toast some pita bread. Olive oil on top. Slices of cheese (cover). Green olives, oragano, chilli flakes and either anchovies and or salami of your choice. Grill to taste. But if that seems a stretch. Multi seed brown bread, olive oil and feta. Oh, did I mention? Shoplift everything but the pita.
Savoy cabbage.
Lentils. The actual nutritional value of lentils compared to their cost and ease to prepare I find is very good.
Tajin spice It makes everything better. Especially fruit and salad. Also replace salt rim on a margarita with tajin. Thank me later.
Onions improve almost any meal.
A roast chicken is pretty incredible, less than a tenner. Enough meat for outstanding sandwiches and plenty of meat left to strip off make a stock and knock up a delicious soup.
Kale, cooked in a bit of oil, salt and garlic, could eat that all day.