Potato and noodle soup

This is a clear soup made from very little - in this case, vegetables left over in the fridge and store-cupboard ingredients. It's incredibly easy and surprisingly satisfying. The vegetables themselves don't add much flavour, so it's important to add spices/flavouring - whatever you like and happen to have, really. Paprika or mushroom ketchup would be good additions.

Potato

Carrot

2 spring onions

Garlic

Spaghetti

Vegetable stock

Black pepper

Fennel seeds

Cumin seeds

Tabasco sauce

Worcestershire sauce

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• Slice spring onions, slice carrots into thin batons and finely chop garlic.
• Fry in a little olive oil to sweat.  Add black pepper, cumin & fennel and heat to release flavours.
• Add stock and potato, sliced thinly.
• Add a little Tabasco sauce and Worcestershire sauce to add a kick.
• When potatoes are nearly cooked, add spaghetti, broken into small pieces.
• The soup is ready when the spaghetti is cooked.

Thriving trade in past shelf-life groceries

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/22/shoppers-out-of-date-groceries

With food prices on the rise and consumers looking for ways to save money, a thriving trade is being done online by websites selling discounted groceries past their official shelf lives.

Following on from the success of the freecycle movement which allows members swap unwanted household goods, sites offering clearance, short-dated and out-of-date food and drink have become the latest way to both cut costs and reduce waste.

One website, approvedfood.co.uk, this week reported a 500% year on year increase in sales in the last week of December, while another, foodbargains.co.uk, is running an apology on its website over backlogged orders due to high demand.

Environmental campaigners have welcomed the trend, saying it can help to reduce Britain's huge mountain of food waste.

Food charities estimate that more than seventeen million tonnes of surplus food, including fresh produce, is dumped by supermarkets in landfill every year, with a sales value of more than £18bn.

Most of the goods sold on discount sites are past their "best-before dates" but not the "use-by" dates, and have been bought at knocked-down prices from wholesalers, suppliers and supermarkets.

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Honey crusted salmon fillets with baked potatoes, simple dressed salad and potato salad

-Served two-

Salmon fillets - £1.24 (reduced by 75%)

Potatoes - 30p (reduced to £1.01 by 25%)

Cherry tomatoes - 15p (reduced to 39p from £1.00)

Roundhead lettuce -16p (reduced by 75%)

Potato salad - 17p (reduced by 75%)

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• Wipe the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake in the oven.
• On a plate, season breadcrumbs with salt and pepper.  Wipe honey and a little whole grain honey mustard onto the salmon fillets, then press salmon into the breadcrumbs until coated.  Cook in foil on a baking tray in the oven.  Open the foil when fish is nearly cooked to let crust crisp and darken.
• Slice lettuce and tomatoes and add olive oil, dash of lemon juice and salt and pepper.  Toss.
• Serve with potato salad on the side.

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Total cost: £2.02

Sausage casserole

Simple, nourishing and warming one-pot casserole

-Served four-

8 pork sausages (reduced to 99p)

Bacon lardons (about 75p, leftover in fridge)

Tinned tomatoes (48p)

4 medium potatoes (about 25p, leftover in fridge)

6 old carrots (about 15p, leftover in fridge)

1 onion (about 25p, leftover in fridge)

Chinese garlic bulb -any garlic is fine- (about 20p, leftover in fridge)

Stock powder or cube

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• Grill sausages to brown, until cooked.
• Fry bacon lardons until they begin to crisp.  Add chopped onion and garlic (finely chopped).  Add sliced carrots.  Stir and sweat.
• Then add tin of chopped tomatoes, and pint of stock (I used vegetable bouillon as it was what I had in the cupboard).  Add chunked peeled potatoes and the sausages.
• To flavour I added a heathy teaspoon of whole-grain honey mustard, generous dash of Worcestershire sauce and plenty of fresh ground black pepper.
• Simmer on the stove until the potatoes are cooked.  Then it is ready to serve!

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Approximate total cost £3.10

Ham sandwiches with caramelised spring onions

-Made four sandwiches-

4 fresh bread rolls, 15p each from bakers

Honey mustard ham, reduced by 75% to 49p (four slices)

Spring onions bunch, reduced to 15p (two used)

Sachet of brown sugar

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I wouldn't call this a recipe, but it was what I made to eat from the 'reduced items' section...
Top and tail the spring onions, then cut on a diagonal into inch long pieces.  Fry on quite high heat in a little oil and little butter.  Sprinkle the brown sugar onto the onions and sprinkle on a little salt too.  Let the spring onions char a little, and put on top of the ham in the sandwich, to give a delicious twist to the flavour.

Total cost: £0.98

Best before dates... Eggs

Eggs should be kept refrigerated, but can be eaten weeks past their stamped 'best before' date.  Perform the float test - gently drop the egg into a bowl of cold water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAUThul1Czo

• If it sinks to the bottom and lies on its side, it is fresh as a daisy!
• If it stays at the bottom, but floats upright at an angle, it is older but still perfectly good to consume.
• If it floats, it is stale and should not be used.

Things to do with...Stale bread

Stale Bread
If you have a loaf or baguette that is past its best, leave it to dry out and become as hard as possible.  Then use a kitchen grater to create breadcrumbs.  Store in an air-tight container, and use them as required - to make a crust for fish or meat, to thicken soups or as a topping for a pasta bake or savoury crumble.

If bread isn't fresh enough to eat as a sandwich, remember it can always be toasted.  Keep some staple preserves - jam, Marmite, olive tapenade, honey, lime pickle and you can have a quick snack for virtually nothing.

A stale baguette or ciabatta is great sliced, toasted and made into bruschetta.  Rub a cut garlic clove onto the toasted bread, and top with chopped tomatoes, finely chopped garlic and drizzle with olive oil and a little lemon juice.  Add fresh chopped basil if you can, or use basil-infused olive oil.  Be generous with salt and pepper.

Salmon fillets with fresh red chilli, baked potatoes & pan fried asparagus tips and watercress

-Served two-

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Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets - £1.24 (50% off)

Chopped fresh red chilli - (3 for 17p, reduced.  One used for this recipe)

Potatoes - (six small potatoes used for this recipe, from reduced bag £1.01)

Asparagus tips (rescued from rotting bunch of asparagus bought before Christmas)

Watercress - 50p (50% off)

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• Clean potatoes and wipe skin with olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  Roast in oven on high temperature until skin crinkled and crisp, and flesh light & fluffy.
• Bake salmon fillets in foil, with sliced rings of fresh red chilli scattered on top.  Season and drizzle slightly with olive oil.
• Pan fry asparagus tips on high heat, in olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Just before cooked, add watercress and heat through.
• Serve the salmon on top of the watercress and asparagus, and serve the baked potatoes with butter and seasoning.

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Total cost: £2.10 - not including salvaged asparagus tips

King Prawn, Pepper & Crouton Salad

-Served two-

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Ingredients:

Mixed salad bag - 22p (75% off)

Stale ciabatta buns - 25p for 4 (one and a half used for this recipe)

2 packs ready cooked king prawns - £1.50 (reduced) & £1.00 (50% off)

Fresh pepper (left over in fridge, originally 4 for 59p at Aldi)

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• Slice stale ciabatta into crouton-sized pieces & gently fry in a non-stick pan, with olive oil, salt & pepper until crisp and slightly browned.
• Slice pepper as desired.
• Mix salad, croutons, prawns & pepper in a large salad bowl, seasoning with salt & pepper, and dressing with olive oil and lemon juice.

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Total cost for raw ingredients: £3.02

Baked cod fillets & oyster mushrooms with pan-fried sugar snap peas & baby sweetcorn

-Served two-

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Ingredients:

2 cod fillets - 94p (50% off)

Oyster mushrooms - 67p (reduced)

Sugar snap peas and baby sweetcorn pack - 42p (reduced)

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• Bake fish in foil with dab of butter and seasoning on top.  (I used fresh ground black pepper and salt, chilli and garlic flakes from a grinder).  Rest on a baking tray or oven-proof dish.
• When fish nearly cooked (depending on size of fillets), open foil and lay oyster mushrooms on top, continuing to bake for around five mins.
• Pan fry the sugar snap peas and sweetcorn with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.  I like to use a high heat to colour, then turn the heat down a little so the vegetables are cooked but still retain a fresh crisp bite.

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Total cost: £2.03