Assemble it all, put the oven on to preheat (180C, Gas mark 4):

Warm the oil in a non-stick pan. Chop the onion (medium/fine) and add it to the oil. Chop the chilli, or get a teaspoon of chilli powder/flakes (you know how spicy you like it), and add to the onion and oil. Warm on a medium-low heat for 5 – 10 minutes:

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the kidney beans, and then roughly mash them in a bowl with a fork or potato masher:

Add them to the onion and chilli, stir to combine. Heat for another 5 minutes:

Grate the cheese. On this occasion I used a combination of cheddar and mozzarella:

The refried beans will become a bit gooier (sp?):

Split the french stick lengthways, and cut into appropriate sized sections. The original recipe suggests tearing some of the bread out of the middle if your french stick is too fat, but on this occasion that didn’t seem necessary. Spread the refried beans evenly over the bread:

Add the cheese:

add more cheese…

Put them in the oven until the cheese is golden brown:

Serve with salad, guacamole, soured cream, salsa:

These go particularly well with a Portuguese red wine, preferably an Alentejo.

Aaaaaah, it’s been bloody AGES since my last recipe. Apologies. First I was finishing a PhD, then I was doing a residency where I was travelling to Yorkshire most weeks and cooking on the go, then I was POOR, and I couldn’t afford to experiment with food. And now I live in London. And am even poorer really, except the difference is I have less time because 2 hours of my day is commuting. But determined to get back on the food blog wagon. (WAGON). So expect a series of CHEAP EATS, for making in bulk and reheating for lunch or dinner. This week I have lentil chilli and this fine recipe; butternut squash and chickpea curry based pretty faithfully on a Good Food recipe. Served with rice in the evenings, or with a pitta for lunch.

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 35 mins | Serves: 4

Nutritional Info: 393 kcalories, protein 14g, carbohydrate 71g, fat 8 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 9g, sugar 16g, salt 0.94 g

NB I got this info off the recipe and I’m too tired to work out if it includes the rice or not, so when I record it, I just add on 50g of basmati rice, which brings the meal to: 571g kcalories, 110g carbs, 9g fat, 18g protein, 376mg sodium, 16g sugar.

Chop up the butternut squash. This is the worst bit of the recipe. From here on in it’s plain sailing. I chop squash the lazy way: slice off sections horizontally, so you have a load of cross section disks, then chop the skin off the sides with it laying flat, you end up with octagon-ish bits of just flesh, which then I section into chunks. Top Squash Tip.

Add the oil to the pan, heat, then add the squash and sautee until browning, about 10 mins

Then add the onion and the garlic, stir, and soften for 5-10 mins more

Add the curry paste, pop it on a high heat, and get it all lovely and covered and fragrant

Then add the stock, stir well, and simmer until squash is almost perfectly soft. Pop your rice on just as it’s getting soft-ish. About 5 minutes for basmati, and 10-15 for brown, before you think the squash is at almost.

Add the chickpeas and tomatoes (I used tinned), stir well, and simmer for a last 5 mins.

Just before serving, stir through chopped coriander. Serve with rice and soya yoghurt. Or pitta. Or naan. Or chapati. You get it.

Serves: 6 | Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 30 mins
Nutritional info: 227 kcal, 35g carbs, 7g fat, 8g protein

Ingredienty:

Prep: get the stock boiling. Chop the onion, cube the tomatoes, crush and chop the garlic, break up the spaghetti, drain the chick peas, chop up the beans into 1-2cm pieces.

Get a big pan, put the oil and onion in it. Soften the onion. I have illustrated this in case you are uncertain.

Add garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes more.

Add everything that isn’t the rocket.

Bring to the boil, simmer for 15-20 minutes, until pasta is done.

When the spaghetti is cooked, stir through the rocket. Season to taste. Serve.

How easy?

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 35 mins | Serves: 4
Nutritional Info: 350 kcals, protein 16.4g, carbohydrate 68.5g, fat 3.1 g, saturated fat 0.3g, fibre 8.3g, salt 2.66 g

Ingredients pic: missing garlic and lemon, 1 too many potatoes, 1 too few tomatoes, and 2 two few chillies, because I made those changes as I went along:

First off (I’ve spared you the picture) pop 1 tsp of sunflower oil in a pan over a med-low heat and soften the onion, garlic, and chillies together for 5 minutes or so. Then add the chopped tomatoes, garam masala and tumeric, and fry over a medium high heat for a couple of minutes, to get it fragrant and stuff.

Then add the stock and lentils, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Then add the sweet potato chunks, simmer for 15 minutes or until tender (but not completely mushy)

I decided to blend mine a bit, but only a bit, and I think this was a really good choice, leave some chunks, but just give it a whizz. A bit of mashing would work too, if you don’t have a hand blender.

Then add the spinach, stir through until wilted.

Season to fuck. Seriously. LOADS of salt. Taste it as you go, but that brings out the flavour. Then add the squeeze of half of or a whole lemon to taste.

And serve. Mmmm…

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 30 mins | Serves: 4-6
Nutritional info: Per 1/4 335kcal 51g carbs 10g fat 12g protein

Ingredients:

Soften the onions and garlic for 5-10 minutes

add 3/4 of the oregano and the paprika, stir for a minute

Add the bay leaf, drained tinned beans, squash, stock, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the squash is just getting tender

Then add the french beans and sweetcorn and simmer for 5 minutes more

Just as the green beans are ready, season very well (I used one and half tsp of salt and loads of pepper), add the last bit of oregano, and serve!

Very filling. Good stuff.

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 15 mins | Serves: 4-6
Nutritional Info: (per 1/4 with 1 tbsp yoghurt): 211 kcal 27g carbs 8g fat 8g protein

Ingredients:

First off, gently soften the onion for 5 minutes or so

Then add the garlic, chillis, and cumin, stir for a minute or two

Then add the chopped tomatoes, oregano, beans (I used black eyed ones), passata, sugar, and season well. Simmer for 10 minutes

Just before serving, chuck in most of the chopped coriander, squeeze in the juice of 1 lime. Check seasoning.

And then serve with a dollop of yoghurt, and the last bits of coriander:

Close up!

Serves: 4 | Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins
Nutritional Info: (I think this includes chapatis) 452kcal, 45g carbs, 4g fat, 8g protein

Ingredients:

First off, use the oil to soften the onion and garlic

Add 1/2 a tbsp of the curry powder to some salted boiling water, and then boil the diced potatoes until tender

meanwhile, add the remaining curry powder to the onion/garlic, stir for a minute or so, then add the tomato, season, and simmer.

meanwhile 2: add the tsp of mint sauce to the yoghurt and stir in, another cheaty thing, but tastes well nice, actually. You might want to grate in some cucumber too, that would be nice.

Once the potatoes are tender, add to the tomatoes with 2 tbsp of mango chutney, stir and heat through

heat the chapati as per instructions, then serve the potatoes (2 wraps per person, about 350g of potato mix for 2 wraps) on a bed of shredded lettuce, or maybe some spinach, or just on their own. Scatter with chopped coriander, drizzle with minty relish and a bit more chutney if you want, fold and eat!

Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 20-40 mins (depending on patience) | Servings: 4
Nutritional Info: per serving: 178 kcal, 10g carbs, 35g fat, 7g protein

Ingredients:

First up, cover the porcini in boiling water and leave to hydrate. Then put the olive oil in a large pan, heat, then chuck in all the sliced mushrooms, fry quickly for a minute or so…

Then add the onion, butter, garlic, and thyme, season, stir together, cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms start to sweat

Then chop and add the rehydrated porcini, and add the soaking liquid (strained if you’re fussy about grit)

Cook down until most of the liquid has evaporated, then add the stock, simmering for 10-20 minutes more.

Nearly there! Roughly blend the soup with a hand blender. Season to taste.

Add most of the the parsley and all the cream, and blend a bit more. Then add the last bit of the roughly chopped parsley, stir through.

Serve! Eat. Die of TASTY.

Look how simple:

Put water on to boil for the pasta, and melt the butter in a pan:

For this particular version, I added some dried chilli flakes to the butter at this stage.

Add the cream to the butter, then bring to the boil, and turn down to simmer for 4 minutes.

Put the pasta to cook as per the instructions on the packet.

Add the grated parmesan to the butter and cream, plus a good few twists of black pepper:

Stir the parmesan in, and it will disappear, as if by magic (or by melting, one of the two).

Drain the pasta, then chuck it into the cream sauce and stir in until covered.

For this version I then stirred in the rocket:

Serve with extra grated parmesan and a side salad. ‘Cos, you know, this meal needs some more vegetables, really.

A wine recommendation for this? A smooth, medium-bodied Portuguese red, like an Alentejo.

Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves: 4
Nutritional Info per serving: 188kcal 18g carbs 9g fat 9g protein

Ingredients pic: (vegan if you substitute the butter, obvs)

Melt the oil and butter together, and then soften the onions with the chopped thyme.

When softened, add the peas, stock, and parsley I doubled the parsley amount because, well, I like it.

Cook for 10 minutes or so until the peas are cooked. Blend to a fine puree.

Season to taste, and serve!

Nomnom.