Our smart tips for affordable cooking!
Eating well for cheap is a genuine daily challenge which requires some organisation. Here are our best balanced recipes on a budget.
Pasta is always a good idea
When we think of affordable recipes, pasta usually comes to mind right away! Whether they are spaghetti, penne, elbow… plenty of shapes and taste to go around! Vegetable-based sauces match particularly well to fill up on fibers: with mushrooms and chicken, broccoli and peas, or even lemon, parmesan and green beans, ideas abound! And if leftovers don’t go to waste: sprinkle some cheese on top, maybe add a bit of sauce and warm them in the oven for a delicious pasta casserole.
Eggs for proteins
For a more affordable shopping list, we naturally limit animal proteins such as ham, bacon, beef or poultry… But there is an excellent quality protein which is cheaper and which we should favour: eggs! Hard-boiled eggs; plain omelet, or with herbs or onions; soft-boiled eggs; baked; fried… you can do just about anything. To add a bit of softness to stuffed tomatoes or aubergines, help meatballs maintain their shape; make a firmer and more filling vegetable casserole; prepare a chocolate mousse easily… their polyvalent attribute makes them essential in any shopping list.
Legumes and rice
Another essential base for easy and quick recipes which are also affordable: legumes. Red beans, lentils, chickpeas, white beans, coral lentils, split peas… The wide variety available makes for numerous cheap recipes. Coral lentils are delicious to thicken any soup (such as pumpkin or carrots). You can soak them 24 hours before cooking them or save time and purchase them canned and already cooked. Ideal to prepare a delicious chili con or sin carne in 20 minutes (sin carne is cheaper!) stewed with chopped tomatoes and served with tortillas, heavy cream and a bit of coriander. A meal beloved by everyone! Another discovery among delicious legume-based dishes: how incredibly practical canned chickpeas are as they can turn into gnocchis or be part of a curry. Other ingredient for quick and easy to make dishes on a budget: all rice-based recipes. Enjoy it hot: a mushroom risotto pilaf-style with carrots and peas or more exotic with coconut and peas. If you have some left, make arancinis, delicious Italian deep fried rice balls to try urgently! In summer, rice salads are the staple of simplicity and ideal when you are hosting numerous guests but cannot afford something too pricey. Delicious cold with seasonal vegetables, hard-boiled eggs and slightly spiced.
Pizzas, quiches and pies
Finally, our last affordable recipe ideas: pizzas, quiches and savoury pies which allow you to put anything on top of a homemade dough. Hard to do anything simpler or quicker even more so when it’s store-bought dough! On top of any dough (short, flaky or pizza), you can spread tomato sauce, cream, cover with courgette or aubergine slices, add a few pieces of cold cuts or cheese and in the oven it goes. For more original, the mushroom dough pizza or broccoli and peas mash. For a quiche, you simply need to whisk 3 eggs with 20cl of cream and any topping of your choice (ideal to get rid of spinach leftovers, a few bits of bacon…) before pouring on top of dough in a pie mould. The longest part will be: doing the dishes.