Money is tight, time is poor and we all need some inspiration for those nightly dinners. Here’s my simple primer to midweek feeds that cost less, beat stress and bring more tasty fun.

PASTA & NOODLES

The deal with any bland carb is to bombard it with maximum flavour, whether that’s fish sauce, chilli or soy sauce, pork fat, anchovies or olives. While I love the ease of noodle dishes that rely on pantry staples like a laksa or stir-fry, these can all be improved with seasonal, and therefore cheaper, produce. Or for a budget spaghetti arrabbiata, spike the simplest of tomato sauces (tinned tomato, olive oil, garlic) with dried chilli, and top with golden pangrattato made with leftover breadcrumbs.

RICE 

Whether you’re making Portuguese-inspired wet rice with prawns, a simple risotto or your own “special fried”, the rules are the same as pasta. Bombard it with flavour. Risotto, while sounding cheap, can rack up the dollars with all the butter and cheese you need, so maybe look to old-school pilafs instead. Here again, adding something a little luxe like good parmesan or fancy lap cheong sausage is a way of deflecting from everything else that’s helping balance the budget. Don’t forget the frozen corn and peas if you want to bring cheap pops of freshness.

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VEGETABLES 

The simplest way to make cheaper veg more interesting is generally to roast it, whether as whole roasted cauliflower rubbed with harissa, oil and cumin seeds to serve with hummus, chopped dates, mint and yoghurt; or roasted carrots, beetroot or cauliflower florets in a couscous salad served with slow-roasted lamb shoulder. Potatoes can be baked in their skin, turned into a creamy gratin, roasted to golden perfection or loaded with fried onions, eggs and chorizo. But a rich mash is the greatest, especially when combined with equally rich braises of cheaper cuts of meat. To minimise the mountains of butter and cream that top chefs like to throw at their mash, take clean potato peelings and infuse into milk to make a starchy, creamy addition instead. Remember that mash can be home to fresh herbs, sliced long green shallots or leftover cheese bits for a cheat’s aligot, too.

MEAT 

It’s hard to go past slow-roasted pork belly or chicken thighs. Of course, there are other cheap options like ragu, grilled thinly sliced pork neck in tacos or rosemary and lemon marinated forequarter chops on the barbecue. However, none of these can compete with the lure of mince, whether that’s in bolognese, chilli, burgers or meatballs. But don’t be limited to the familiar; there’s much joy to be had from sweet and sour pork meatballs, or using chicken mince to make my Thai-style green curry meatballs. 

Find the recipe for the green curry chicken meatballs with rice noodles pictured above, here.

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