Photography by Susan Bell. There are many different recipes entitled Love Soup – I’ve seen some rich chicken soup recipes, some with heady garlic and some deep red tomato ones. By chance, the ingredients for this were what I had kicking around in the fridge last Valentines Day, so this warming carrot, ginger and onion … Read more
Simple Herb Bread, 28p for 4 servings at 7p each. Ingredients:* 250g plain flour, 11p ( 65p/1.5kg) 7g fast action dried yeast, 11p (89p for 8 sachets) Fistful of chopped parley (free, growing on my window ledge) Fistful of chopped thyme (free, growing on my window ledge) Fistful of chopped basil (free, growing on my … Read more
This meat-free Bolognese sauce is perfect over a bowl of pasta and topped with a handful of grated cheese. Allow 70 to 100g of dried pasta per person. I like to eat mine with some garlic bread as well, to mop up any leftover sauce. Serves 2 1 onion 1 clove of garlic 1 carrot … Read more
Spring Piggy, serves 4 for £1.34, or 34p each. This is an adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe for spring chicken, which was adapted in turn from a traditional rabbit recipe. That’s the thing about food, we all fiddle with it and tweak and make it posher or make it cheaper and add our own … Read more
Mushroom, Bacon and Ale Casserole, 56p, serves 2 at 28p per portion. I’ve got three of a four pack of very cheap Bitter under my sink from making this bread, so decided to put one to use with a hearty winter warming dinner. Along with my trusty cheap bacon (£1.09 for 670g of perfectly good … Read more
Oh My God Dinner (or, ‘I Was Going To Make Pasta Alla Genovese And Then I Remembered That Sodding Courgette Rolling Around In My Fridge…’) 55p for 2 portions, or just under 28p each. Ingredients: 70g bacon, 11p (£1.09/670g, Sainsburys Basics) 1 chilli (free, grows on my window ledge) 80g spaghetti, 6p (39p/500g, Sainsburys Basics) … Read more
Del Thomas’s Facebook page, 1527hrs, today. In a hastily-deleted tweet, Conservative candidate Del Thomas compares gay people to Paedophiles. Del Thomas, in his thirties, is a street pastor, Tory campaigner, and primary school teacher. He stood for election in Victoria ward, Southend, in 2012, losing to Labour Councillor Ian Gilbert. It is unknown whether he … Read more
Parsnip, Thyme and ‘Parmesan’ Loaf, 56p per loaf, makes 4 chunky pieces at 14p per portion. I have four sad parsnips kicking about in the bottom of my fridge from two consecutive £1-veg-bags, so this is another ‘well what am I going to do with THAT?’ recipe off the cuff. Bread never stays around for … Read more
Courgette, sultana and lemon bread. 57p – I’m getting extravagant… Works out just over 14p per portion though, so not bad for breakfast! I had to find a use for some sad looking courgettes I bought a week ago, at £1.80 for a kilogram, it seemed like a good idea at the time. The next … Read more
One Woman Dinner: Pasta With Honeyed Savoy, Bacon, Carrot And Chilli. 25p for a generous bowlful. Well this is what I came up with this evening. Every now and again, my body *wants* meat. While a vegetable based diet is low cost and healthy, sometimes a big craving kicks in and won’t go away until … Read more