Being careful with your weekly shopping budget needn’t take its toll on your eating pleasure – in fact, the watching your purse strings can result in some of your most inspiring cooking

Learn to bake

Start baking. You don’t need a lot of time to make a glorious loaf of bread – in fact it’s just as quick to make two so do that and freeze one. Make flapjacks for snacks, chocolate cornflake cakes for the kids (and some for you), make savoury biscuits and cheese straws; bake fruit cakes – great for afternoon tea and also for a naughty pudding – try frying a slice and topping with ice cream. Baking is dead cheap because for the most part you’re just using flour – which is very inexpensive. And the results will be far tastier than shop-bought

Try using a pressure cooker

The response you hear most often about why people don’t cook much at home (and particularly cook cheaper cuts of meat) is time – and this is why a pressure cooker should become a basic part of your kitchen armoury. They cut cooking time by hours in some cases – you can cook a stew or a curry succulent with fork-tender meat in under half an hour. Pulses, vegetables, pasta sauces – you can do them all here

Consider going vegetarian

Eating veggie a few times a week is an easy way to do two things: 1. To cut down your eating expenditure (meat is very expensive) and 2. To make your insides more healthy. My sister has been a vegetarian since she was very young so I’m used to cooking for both of us – without feeling like something is missing from my dinner! Lentils can be used to make a killer version of a shepherd’s pie – add flavour with plenty of tangy cheese in the topping and some tinned tomatoes in the base. Or instead of your usual chicken pie, try one with layered sliced potato, swede, parsnip and sweet potato mixed with crème fraiche, wholegrain mustard and cheese

Try buying cheaper cuts of meat

Ten years ago every ‘upmarket’ restaurant worth its salt had to have lobster, fillet steak, foie gras and duck breast on its menu. In recent years, however, the trend has veered towards the cheaper cuts (indeed, those in the know have always been ordering onglet or rib eye instead of fillet and asking for chicken legs and thighs instead of boring breast). Next time you’re shopping, instead of buying a ‘prime cut’ like fillet, opt for a lesser one – flank steak, beef brisket, lamb breast or pork hocks. They require longer cooking and a bit of love but will return you in droves in the flavour department

Plan your weekly meals

Planning is key to cooking on a budget. Work out what meals you are cooking each week, have a think about what crossover ingredients you’ll have, try and keep in mind what’s in your storecupboard (how many times have you bought the same ingredient twice thinking you didn’t have it?) and make a shopping list. And stick to it. Be ruthless with your shopping and your planning and you’ll stick happily with in your budget and see far less waste at the end of the week

Cook with seasonal ingredients

Lots of folks think that the only way to eat seasonally is to shop at local or farmers’ markets – and most of the time this can restrict your shopping which can often be a pain given how mad life is these days. Happily supermarkets also stock seasonal ingredients – particularly in the fruit and veg department. At the moment look out for interesting cabbage varieties (spring or pointed are particularly delicious) – it’s plentiful and turns a simple bowl of leftover mash into a super to be jealous of – bubble’n’squeak topped off with a poached egg.  Shop the seasons – the supermarkets nicely shout out about what’s in season and it’s more often than not the cheaper choice

Cook twice the quantity

Whatever you’re cooking – double it. It’s so much cheaper to cook twice the quantity and requires little more effort. Ok, you might need a larger pan but that’s about it! Loads of food actually gets better overnight – curry sauces, pastas, bean stews and braises all mature really well, the flavours deepen and become richer. And if you’re making double the quantity then you can skip straight to the next point

…And make the most of your freezer

If you are making double the quantity, then get freezing. Use your freezer wisely and you can squirrel away little extras – a bit of frozen stew added to a gravy turns it into a restaurant-level dish straight away. If you’ve got enough space in your garage or shed invest in a chest freezer. So many dishes (particularly from those lovely cheaper cuts of meat) freeze incredibly well and make for a decadent dinner in a flash – so no complaining about not having enough time to stew

Add flavour to cheaper ingredients with small amounts of more expensive ones

You might argue that cheaper ingredients often don’t have as much flavour or may need a bit of pepping up – braised lentils, for example, can need a little helping hand to transform them into the basis of a delicious dinner (topped off with a couple of fried bangers and a dollop of mustard - yum). These helping hands can come in a number of formats – add dried mushrooms to braises (just one or two – be sparing and they needn’t cost the earth); a single rasher of bacon to pulses; half a teaspoon of marmite to stews or finely diced liver to give burgers or meatloaf a meaty boost

Stash extra fresh veg in a pickle jar

I’ve always got a jar of pickles in the fridge. The reason? Well, I’m probably just quite bad with what I keep in my fridge! In truth, if I haven’t managed to use up all the celery and it’s about to get past its best, I slice it up and slip it in the pickle jar. And you can add whatever you like to it – an extra half an onion leftover from your recipe? Slice it up and add it. Chillis? Turn the heat up in there. You can add virtually any leftovers to the jar and you’ll have delicious treats to eat with cheese or to top of a sarnie. Seriously, what is it with celery? My fridge is a celery magnet

Aria Institute Weekly Articles

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