Fish and spicy tomato rice

The reduced fish medley inspired this stew, which was created with store cupboard or existing ingredients apart from the fish.  Simple, nourishing and surprisingly tasty, the potatoes bulked out the portions and created some texture too.  Anything you like or have could be included - sweet potatoes would have been delicious.

Ingredients:

Fish medley (reduced from 2.99 to 49p)

Carton plum tomatoes - 29p

Basmati rice - approx 20p

2 small onions - approx 15p

2 small potatoes - approx 20p

1 large fresh chilli - approx 10p

black pepper

cumin

salt

ginger

garlic

oil

~

Cook the rice and cool.

  

Par boil the potatoes. I cut them into quite small pieces.

Chop onion.  

Dry fry cracked black peppercorns and cumin seeds to release the flavour, then add oil and fry onions.

When the onions have softened and coloured, add ginger puree, garlic puree, salt and fresh chopped chilli.

Stir through and cook a little longer.  Then add tinned plum or chopped tomatoes and the potatoes. 

Add water as needed and simmer til potatoes cooked.

Then add rice and fish.

The fish will literally take a couple of minutes to poach in the liquid, so keep an eye on it so that it doesn't over-cook!

Stir through and serve.

~

Served 4

Total cost approx  £1.45

Meatball Melt Sandwich

Classic American sandwich snack, inspired by some ready made reduced meatballs and some reduced buns.  Really simple, easy and tasty.

Ingredients:

Meatballs (25 meatballs, reduced from £3 to £2.25)

Bread buns (6 bread buns, reduced from £1.49 to 75p)

Tomato passata - 35p

Balsamic vinegar (substitute for Worcestershire Sauce)

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Mozarella (leftover - use any cheese to melt on the sandwich)

Oil

With a tiny bit of oil, fry the meatballs on a high heat, browning them.

Turn down the heat and cook through.

Drain excess fat from the pan.

Add tomato passata (I had a carton of passata in the cupboard.  Substitute could be tinned chopped tomatoes and some tomato paste.)

Season the passata with a tiny slug of balsamic vinegar (this was all I had) and a dash of lemon juice.  Grind in some black pepper.  This is all optional, to flavour the passata.  The one I used was really sweet.

Bring the passata to a bubbling high heat, then simmer for a few minutes.

To serve, put the meatballs with sauce into a bread bun or roll and be generous with a topping of cheese, added quickly so that it melts on the heat of the meatballs.

Chinese pork belly

The idea for this was to make a snack, inspired by Chinese style spare ribs, where the pork belly was flavoured with a marinade and oven cooked.

Ingredients:

3 strips of pork belly (reduced from £1.04 to 45p)

For the marinade:

Soy sauce

Half a red chilli, finely chopped

Clove of garlic, finely chopped

Ginger (I used a tsp from a jar of ready mulched ginger)

Brown sugar (sprinkle a couple of tsps)

Lemon juice

Spoon the marinade over the pork belly and leave for a few hours or overnight.

I cooked the pork belly dry, so took it out of the marinade and put the strips onto a cast iron skillet.

Cook at about 180 for approx 25 minutes.  A delicious spicy 'rib style' snack!

Total cost: 45p (everything else was 'store cupboard')

Chorizo, potato and king prawn casserole

A hearty and delicious stew, which can be eaten by itself or with bread or rice.

Ingredients:

1 chorizo sausage - gift.  (From Lidl 1.49)

1 onion - 25p

King prawns - reduced from 2.99 to 39p

Fresh chilli - leftover in fridge

Lemon - 25p

Red wine - leftover in bottle

2 medium potatoes - 20p

Tin of tomatoes - 35p

Chicken stock cube

 

Peel and slice the potatoes - quite small, perhaps inch cubes, so they'll cook quickly!  Par boil them.

Chop the onion and slice the chorizo (remove its skin!). Fry the onion til softened, and add the chorizo, so the chorizo juices colour and flavour the onion.

 

Put the tinned tomato, chicken stock and some red wine into a pan, and heat til nearly boiling.  Then add the potato.

Add the chorizo and onion, and add a generous squeeze of lemon juice.  Add the finely chopped fresh chilli.

Let simmer gently on the hob until the potato is cooked. 

Just before it is ready, fry the prawns over a gentle heat until cooked and then add them to the stew.

*Keep adding red wine if the stock becomes too low.  Season to taste, and perhaps add more lemon juice.*

Serves 3 or 4.  To make the casserole go further, just add more potatoes.
Total cost - £2.95

Greek style salad

This simple but delicious salad has very definite Greek overtones, but omits tomatoes and uses lettuce instead.  The olives are pitted and from a jar (brine), but still work well.

Ingredients

1/4 cucumber (half reduced to 15p) - 8p

1/2 Round head lettuce (reduced to 29p) - 15p

Small red onion -5p

1/2 block of feta/feta style salad cheese (I use Morrison's Value) 50p - 25p

1/3 jar of black pitted olives (59p) - 20p

Olive Oil

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Tear the lettuce, cut cucumber and slice onion.  Put into a bowl, and add olives and crumble the feta.

Dress with olive oil, lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper.

Total cost: 73p

Savoy cabbage stir fried in garlic with streaky bacon pieces and walnuts

This is incredibly simple and delicious.  Savoy cabbage in season is about 50p. 

Ingredients

Savoy cabbage

Streaky bacon

Small pieces of walnut

Knob of butter

Garlic

Prepare some bacon lardons or streaky bacon and fry or grill until crisp.

Slice the cabbage and gently stir fry in a little butter and garlic.  Season with pepper.

Serve straight away, sprinkling the cabbage with the bacon and walnut pieces, and stirring through.

Makes a great side dish or stand-alone snack.

The 'We Love Knobbly Veg' Campaign

A campaign by delicious magazine and the National Trust to put an end to the supermarkets and the EU conspiring to dump tons of cosmetically 'imperfect' vegetables, when they could be sold to the consumer cheaply.  Get informed, get involved and write to your MEP with delicious magazine's template.


nationaltrust.org/knobblyveg

deliciousmagazine.co.uk/knobbly-veg