I’m partial to meatless chili and/or goulash myself. Share yours :D
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Cook your choice of something like rice, Quinoa or barely. Maybe dice half an onion and toss it in as well. Bonus points for switching 1/4 of the water for veg stock. When it’s done cooking, through in some canned beans and hot sauce. Mix. Serve in tortillas as a taco. Bonus points for grated cheese, salsa, and/or avocado in the taco as well.
One pan. Lots of protein and fiber. $4 for multiple meals.
Ooh, you know what’s great with that? Homebrew salsa.
Just throw a jalapeno pepper, two small tomatoes, and a small onion into a food processor. Then, put in salt, pepper and garlic powder, and you have salsa that is better than the $5 garbage in the jar. And a lot of it.
Curry curry curry. I’ll make a big batch of lentil or bean curry using lots of onions and whatever tomatoes are about to go (or were bought and found out to be watery, tasteless sad bois). A lil tempered whole spices, some garam masala, onions, tomatoes (and or peppers), cooked well with most any legume in a pressure cooker, makes a huge amount of healthy tasty food cheaply. I’ll thicken it with shredded coconut and toss in fresh herbs or dried methi.
Lunch for 2 weeks, just add fresh rice. I’ll freeze half and thaw for the following week or another if I’m craving more variety.
Edit: if you’re not buying your spices at an Indian grocery and you have access to one, you’re drastically overspending on spices. I buy 250g of whole cumin for under $2. That’ll cost you five fold that from McCormick’s or what have you.
Edit2: of course meat curries are possible, too. They cost a lil more, but still a great way to stretch your dollars while eating healthy and deliciously.
How much does it cost you a batch, give or take?
It’s hard to math out exactly due to all the spices, (I’ll use coriander, cumin, cardamom, mustard, ginger, garlic and garam masala in most curries) but the major cost drivers are the beans, tomatoes and onions. I’ll use 3 medium onions for half a pound of beans and around 6 tomatoes/peppers. This’ll make around ten to fifteen lunches, depending on your portion size (I usually bring rice and a veg with mine, but sometimes I don’t have a roasted veggie ready). I haven’t done the exact math since before the pandemic, but then I estimated it at $0.80 a meal, so it’s probably closer to $1.40 now.
Edit: pricing is for the bean/lentil curry (masoor or chana dal are my typical go tos, but I’ll usually throw in some urad dal and I’ve used fava beans with success). Chicken curries bring up the cost, but not significantly.
I need to get a pressure cooker one of these days. I am BAD at cooking dry beans.
It takes some practice to get the amount of baking soda and cook time down for each bean, as it’s slightly different, but if I over cook the beans, I just make a blended bean dish instead of a whole one.
This trick DOESN’T work for hummus, don’t bother. If you’re making hummus, soak your chickpeas overnight (6-8 hrs, longer is okay as long as they don’t sprout) instead. It’s hard to nail the texture otherwise.
Someone needs to make a thread on how to cook dry beans. I’d do it but I don’t have the knowhow.
This is a little dependant on the definition of
healthy, but I see carbs as a little bit of poison, so my go to meal is always omlette au fromage. I roll it into a sort of wrap while it’s on the pan, but other than that I do nothing special.Beans or Split Pea Soup
- 2lbs of Pinto Beans or Split Peas (~$3)
- 1 Ham Hock/Bone (~$3)
- Water as required
Throw it all into a crock pot on high. Makes 4-6 servings. Cheap, filling, fairly nutritious, and depending on the bone/hock can be really flavorful.
Not a direct answer to your question, but soup makers are a fun and very, very easy way to eat healthily and cheaply. I got mine from a charity store for £5 but they’re available new for under £50. You literally just throw in your ingredients, a bit of water and press go. Thirty minutes later: thick, tasty, piping hot soup. It’s a really good way of using veg that’s reduced at the supermarket.
If you spread it out over several meals, ramen is totally doable and affordable from scratch.
Look up the PDF by ramen lord, I also have a comic like ramen book that’s great
Edit: I tend to make a batch of broths and freeze them. Lasts several meals that way. (For a family).
Second edit: the other book is “Let’s make ramen” and it’s great.
Brocoli pasta or rice salads really hit the spot Anything pasta really
