LOW COST COOKING Daniel Nowland
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egardless of how ‘small’ Christmas may have been, it can still be a time when we spend more money than usual. 2021, although optimistic, has still gotten off to a bumpy start, and is full of uncertainty for most of us. For these reasons, I decided to focus on low cost cooking for this edition of Southsea Lifestyle.
The recipe came from Jamie Oliver’s Veg book, and it featured finely chopped root veg, cooked down with marmite, lentils, and spices. It sounds odd, but it resulted in a deep, meaty, warming and delicious base, which topped with fluffy mashed potato and baked, was incredible, and cost very little to make.
The great news is: low cost doesn’t need to involve any compromise on flavour or enjoyment of food. It is often when presented with a challenge or a brief that we create some of our most delicious meals. Just last week I created the most delicious cottage pie I’ve ever made by omitting the meat, and using up all of the random root veg in the bottom of the fridge left over from Christmas.
Reducing or eliminating meat is a great way of reducing the cost of your meals, and also helps with those ethical and health related targets we like to set ourselves in the new year. My top tips for reducing meat consumption and cost of cooking include:
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Use a small amount of nduja or cured meat in pasta dishes in place of fresh meat. You only need very small amounts to create maximum flavour. P Make your own fresh pasta! I’ve talked 32
