Original subtitles

We're in a time where food prices and energy costs are going up and up,

so I really wanted to be as useful to you at home as possible

by developing delicious recipes that you can

get on the plate for under a pound a portion.

COr!

To do that I've had to study hundreds and hundreds

of ingredients across four big supermarkets,

really go back to basics, principles, hacks, tips.

Come on!

We might be cooking on a budget but this is delicious food.

Every single ingredient used has been costed up

and each recipe comes in at £1 a portion or less.

Clever cooking to keep costs down.

Have a look at that.

Maximum flavour, minimum cost.

This time I've got some clever ways to make your meat stretch

further across not just one, but two delicious dishes.

Take care of it, love it,

and you'll have something really nice to be proud of.

I'm transforming an everyday veg into a magnificent centrepiece.

We've used puff pastry to elevate the most taken for granted

vegetable that we have.

I'm making big savings by cooking a meal for one

with trusty tins.

And letting the freezer help to create a super humble crumble.

HE CHUCKLES

And I've called on my mate Karan Gokani to share some

hot tips on Sri Lankan cooking

to keep costs down and flavour up.

I want to show you some really cool principles in this recipe

that are going to teach you how to stretch meat

and make it go a lot further.

To do that my mouthwatering meatball kebabs

use bread for lip-smacking taste and incredible texture.

Served on a fluffy rice, lentil and spinach base,

this delicious crowd pleaser is a genius way to elevate

cheap cuts without scrimping on flavour.

I've got 500g of minced pork that I'm going to use

and I'm going to take half of it for this recipe

and I'm going to use half of it for another recipe

that I'm going to show you later.

But this is a really good principle, guys,

where I can share a few little tips about stretching meat,

making it go a lot further, but still getting maximum flavour,

and I think it's a really important thing to learn.

And of course you could say, "Well, why not just buy a 250g

pack of minced pork, it's cheaper to buy the bigger pack."

So I'm thinking about cost all the time.

One of the ways to stretch it is actually using breadcrumbs,

stale bread.

So, first up, one of the biggest wasted items in this country is bread.

So if you have any left over bits and pieces, dry it.

You've used the oven, when you've turned it off,

just pop some bread in there and it will last for ages and ages.

But, look, I've got fresh stuff here

because you might not have dried bread.

Give it a little bathe in water like this,

gently squeeze it,

so the excess water comes out.

Can you see? About two thirds of the volume of the meat

we now have in bread.

And you can lower or increase that depending on

what your budget is, OK.

So we are then going to scrunch this

almost like we're mincing the bread

and really it's the little edges,

the kind of crust,

that you want to work on, so it's nice and fine.

You don't want big chunks around.

But also a lot of the flavour is in the crust as well

so that's why we don't cut it off.

Now, there's some benefits here.

By adding the bread

That's going to absorb the fat

and flavour from the pork,

it's also going to give a lightness,

which is really nice when you eat it.

Just season it,

sea salt, plenty of pepper.

So I'm going to wash my hands and actually while I'm doing that,

water is quite handy

and you might be thinking why?

Because having wet hands helps you make a nice smooth meatball.

We need to make 16 meatballs

because we're making this for four people.

I'm just guessing it roughly

and hoping that my guesstimate is about right.

And we're going to make little kebabs.

I'm a very passionate meat lover and I love all that sort of stuff

but the idea of reducing meat is definitely something

I've been working on for the last five years.

So, look, this idea of stretching meat is good for your pocket,

also good for the planet.

Best wash my hands.

We've got these lovely balls here.

Let's talk veg.

So- Peppers,

just take the pepper off the side like that.

You don't want to waste any of this stuff.

Just take every last bit off

and...

I'm going to remove the seeds

and the inner part, we don't really want that.

So you can compost that.

Slice this pepper up

into nice little chunks,

which are roughly the same kind of size

as those lovely meatballs.

I've got two onions here.

All I'm going to do is cut it into quarters, because these are small.

Getting a bag of small onions is often much cheaper.

What I'm going to do now

is take it apart into little petals

and I've got a little pile here

of "kebabable" onion and peppers

and then this sort of tatty part here can go over here

because I'm going to use that later.

Let's get going-

A green pepper, a red pepper.

I'm going to then go in with a little cup

facing in because the angle of the cup is going to

cuddle our little meatball,

so we're just going to put that on there like that.

OK? So this is where we're going.

You can put bits of herb in between there,

you can change up your veg,

You can do whatever you want, but this is fun.

Bosh.

Once you get going you start speeding up.

Just don't skewer your finger.

So when I was thinking about cooking this

I was going to do it in a really hot oven, just roast it up,

but actually the oven is more expensive to run than a gas hob

or an electric hob, so I'm going to do it all in the pan today

so you get golden, crispy, little kebabs.

The last one, look, the amounts are pretty good.

Sometimes I get excited and I load the first couple

and then I get stingy on the last one.

A little olive oil on your kebabs.

And dust them with pepper

and seasoning of salt.

Just roll them in the olive oil,

salt and pepper,

and then they are going to cook lovely.

I'm going to do a little dish to go with this.

Chop this up so it's nice and fine.

This will be the base for a lovely rice, lentil spinach dish,

which is really nice underneath these cooked kebabs.

So put some olive oil in a pan.

Take those veggies here.

A little bit of salt and pepper

to get the seasoning going.

Look at the colours, come on!

So, lentils.

Some of you might be going, "Oh, lentils, yeah.

Budget cooking, lentils."

Lentils are fantastic, they carry flavours, really nutritious,

great source of protein, good for iron, delicious.

You could use dried lentils, which take about 25 minutes to cook.

These are already cooked, right,

So I'm going to put them into the pan,

juice and all.

But also I'm going to pour some rice into the can

and half fill it.

And then I'm going to put this into the lentils.

This rice takes about 10 to 12 minutes to cook,

so it's a quick meal.

Then I'm going to use this tin as a measuring cup

and I'll fill it with cold water

to the top.

So, half rice, full water,

two to one.

It gives you perfect rice every single time.

So that goes in, happy days.

I've got it on quite a high heat.

Put the lid on and that will also save you energy,

so much more efficiency there.

Now, I want to get even more veggies into this

and I'm going to use a best friend,

frozen spinach.

Brilliant, brilliant for curries,

going into stews at the last minute.

Once that's kind of boiled for a couple of minutes

I'll just plop a couple of these in

and they'll cook together and this will be a lovely dish.

Let's get the kebabs going now.

I'll turn this pan on,

sort of medium high.

Just turn them quite regularly

so it gets gold and crisp and gnarly.

Take care of it, love it...

...and you'll have something really nice to be proud of.

And actually in the sort of, like, 10 to 12 minutes

it'll be perfect for the kebabs and the rice dish.

So, let's just have a little wash up.

Now this has had about five minutes,

let's go in with the spinach,

just four of these is about 200g.

The rice is just fluffing up.

We've got our kebabs going.

So what I love about what we did with the bread,

stretching the mincemeat,

you don't just get kind of a lighter meatball,

you don't just sort of save money,

you also create the sort of meatball

that if you overcook it slightly, it doesn't go dry as quickly.

So it's nearly there.

I have budgeted for

A teaspoon of smoked paprika.

But you could use any spice.

That will give you the most amazing colour,

and a little bit of heat, not a lot, a little bit on the outside.

So we're done.

It's time to serve up.

Fluffy, perfectly cooked rice.

The lentils are just like a best friend.

Look at that.

Sizzling, golden, gorgeous.

Flourish at the end with some yoghurt,

a little pinch of paprika.

It's a lovely plate of food.

What I like to do is get my fork in there

and break it off.

Oh, yeah.

It looks cool, it smells amazing.

Mmm.

Delicious flavour.

The meatball, it's so light and sweet on the inside

and then when it's got caramelised on the outside

with that little hit of smoked paprika...

The rice and the lentils is gorgeous and exactly what you want with it.

Mm-mm.

This dish is delicious,

but it has all the key principles

about being thrifty and clever and celebrating food,

but most importantly keeping those costs down.

I think you're going to love it

and I think your family, your friends, they will too.

I've taken the average cost of each ingredient

and quantity used across four major supermarkets.

The only things I've assumed that you have

are salt, pepper and oil.

And the cost comes in at 90p a portion.

And, don't forget, we've still got half that pack of pork

Saved for later.

Getting food quick can often come at a price - until now.

This is quick and comes in at under £1 a portion.

Why not make your own Friday night takeout at a fraction of the cost?

Crispy pork and home-made noodles with sticky ginger and garlic.

Using the rest of the pack of that mince,

you get a completely different dish -

great value for money without compromising on flavour.

I'm really excited to share this recipe with you

because I'm going to use the other half of that pork mincemeat -

that vibe of stretching what you've got, being really resourceful.

And I'm going to show you how to make noodles from scratch.

Absolutely you can use shop-bought ones, and I'm sure many will,

but come with me on this journey cos this is fun, it's really quick.

In 20 minutes, you can bang this out.

So, first up, put 4 tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan

and we're going to get it hot. Really hot.

Until you can see a little shimmer.

I've got here ten cloves of garlic

and a little chunk of ginger here, 4cm.

So scratch the skin off.

Slice up the ginger and slice up the garlic so it's nice and fine.

Literally, just keep chopping.

Ginger is aromatic, fresh, fragrant and a little bit peppery.

Garlic is just perfumed and gorgeous.

Right, I'm going to take half of it and just push it to one side,

and then the other half we are going to make a sensational

flavoured oil that has multiple layers of flavour.

Pop it into a little heatproof dish.

Also going to add some dried chilli, about 1 tsp.

Spicy, but it's not going to blow your head off, right?

And then, as soon as you get a shimmer from your oil, pour that...

...onto the garlic and the ginger. just be careful.

It's like a really kind of hot shocking infusion.

As that bubbling subsides,

we're going to go in here with 2 tbsp of soy sauce - salty, deep

umami flavours - and then 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar - nice and tangy.

When we toss that over our noodles, it will be transformative.

We're going to make noodles, right?

And I know you might think, well, I can't do that,

I'll never be able to do that - it's really quick.

In fact, in the time that it takes for this mincemeat to get

golden and crispy, I'll have them done.

So pan on a medium-low heat.

We'll let the natural fats come out of this pork.

So let me just clear the way, and let's make noodles.

This is really good fun. So plain flour - 500g goes into a bowl.

We're then going to get 300ml of water, add it slowly and mix it up.

You want to make a pliable dough.

Remember Play-Doh from when we were a kid?

That's what we want - that texture, that consistency.

And as soon as that comes together...

...then you can put your weight into it.

So just give it a knead on a clean surface.

And, look, in two minutes, we've got a nice dough. Happy days!

Just going to wash my hands.

Because it's a plain flour, it's not going to be too tight,

so it means we can roll this out really quickly.

You can see it's nice and easy, doesn't matter if this goes wonky.

What we do want to do is get it about the thickness of

a beer mat, right?

So about 2mm.

Please don't stress about little tears, like I just tore that there.

What you can do is just put it back on itself. And we roll it out again.

You'll never know.

So there you go. Rolled out, no stress.

Take a little last bit of flour for dusting, right,

and just rub it over, like this.

We're just going to roll it up.

Any old how, roll it up.

Make sure you've got that flour so it doesn't stick.

And we are going to make fat noodles. So I want to go about 2cm.

Get your hands and just pull them apart.

Look at that! Look at that! Come on! Ha-ha-ha! So, there you go.

You wait till you try that. You're going to absolutely love it.

So, if you look in the pan,

can you see how the bit of leftover pork mince has gone golden?

I'm going to turn that up a little bit now. Let's get it sizzling.

And we'll go in with the last bit of the ginger and the garlic.

So, we've got this pot on full whack. I've salted this water.

Broccoli is our chosen veggie.

I'm just going to take the tip of the knife

and just chunk off the florets.

And with the stalk, there's nothing wrong with this, right?

It is delicious. So little thin slices.

And then, last but not least, we're going to take a red onion,

halve it, finely chop it, and I'm going to use the chopped onion

in two ways - in with the pork now as the garlic and ginger gets going.

That will give sweetness.

And then this little pile here -

all it needs for a little transformation

is a little salt and vinegar.

It's like the quickest little pickle,

the little kind of sprinkle at the end for some colour and some crunch.

So we'll put the broccoli in now.

Lid goes on - saves energy as well.

Good little tip. So let the water just come back to a boil.

I don't want to overcook the broccoli - I want them

to be full of life.

Here is our special flavoured oil,

all those wonderful pungent perfumed flavours.

And then going to grab the beautiful broccoli.

Drain it a bit.

Look at the colours!

And these noodles will cook in about three minutes. Lid back on top.

Can you see how lovely and golden the pork is?

Add just 1 tbsp of honey.

So that goes in always at the last minute - you don't want it to burn.

The honey is going to give you that sweetness.

Look at the shine you've got. So, one last flourish of fun, right?

I've got 30g of dry roasted peanuts - just bash them up.

You don't have to do it, but it's in budget.

Let's do this. Way! Come on! Ha-ha-ha! So, look at that.

It was worth it!

In with the noodles.

There's a rogue one! And then...

...just toss it up.

So good! Come on. Let's plate up.

Noodles galore! Really silky.

Then, with your crispy bits, just scatter them,

and what's brilliant is, by stretching that meat to go

further, you've stretched that pound further.

Peanuts.

And last but not least, onion.

That is a little celebration right there on a plate. Right!

Let's get in there.

Mm!

Oh, yeah!

Silky soft noodles.

Little crunchy bits of the pork.

Mm!

That, my friends, is delicious.

Promised you - maximum flavour, minimum cost.

My crispy pork noodles serve four people, and what's not to love

when the ingredients for this dish come in at 82p per portion?

One of the main reasons food prices have risen is

because the cost of energy has gone up, which affects how food is

farmed, processed and transported - everything.

So we need to get a bit creative when cooking.

Basics, such as milk, cheese and eggs,

have seen some of the largest increases,

so why not try adding a few dairy-free meals to

your repertoire which are healthy, delicious and great value right now?

Pasta, a staple for so many of us, has risen by around 30%, so why not

try making some of your own from scratch with just flour and water?

Super cheap, simple and fun to do.

Look for ways you can make meals go further

and shop for price matches and offers when doing your shop.

My promise to you was to create delicious

recipes for under £1 a portion, and that's been really challenging.

I've had to really get my head around the prices,

which have been going up and down,

and use all of my cooking skills to take humble ingredients,

like these beautiful carrots, and do really exciting things with them.

My giant veggie puff roll is a brilliant way to turn a super

humble veg into a proper centrepiece.

Wrapped in golden ready-made puff pastry,

we can make lunchtimes feel a bit fancy without busting the budget.

Right now, it's hacks like these that can really make a difference.

For me, when I was developing this,

I was kind of looking at the lovely beef Wellington, I was

looking at sausage rolls, but I wanted to do a veggie version

because, also, great for your budget, right?

So carrots, I think, are a fantastic veg.

I've got 600g, and I'm going to take one back for the salad later

that I'm going to make to go with this dish.

I'm just going to get three onions, peeled.

I'll halve these and then slice them up.

Frankly, any old how. It doesn't matter.

Now, when you're doing any kind of stuffed pastry dish like this,

you know, it's all about the fillings -

getting really nice concentrated flavours.

I'm just going to take a little bit of this onion

and pop it to the side for later.

Put a pan on the hob on a medium-high heat,

go in with a couple of tablespoons of our oil and get these frying.

You get two cloves of garlic, sliced up,

so we want sweetness and we want to concentrate flavour.

Carrots love spice, so we're going to work with that,

and I'm going to use mixed spice, and in there is, like,

cinnamon, cloves, you've got ginger, nutmeg, coriander seeds.

Now, this is about £1 a jar at the moment.

I think investing in different flavour bombs like spices

and pastes and all those lovely things - you can

do it bit by bit over the year.

But, of course, I'm only using a heaped teaspoon here,

but you could use that lovely mixed spice for all kinds of things -

marinades, dressings, beautiful broths.

Now, when it comes to the carrot...

...a couple of little things for flavour.

I'm not actually going to peel it.

There's a lot of flavour in the skin.

Also, when buying the carrots, if you go for the out-of-size ones -

you can see these are all different sizes - they are really good value.

Now, I could use some knife skills here,

but I actually like the flavour that you get from box grating.

But don't grate your fingers.

So, it will cook quicker, you'll get more concentration of flavour,

it's kind of cutting but also bruising the carrot,

so you're getting some of the juice, and the juice is natural sugars,

natural sugars is caramelisation,

caramelisation is really deep flavour.

And it's not just about the flavour, you know.

When you can cook the carrots or ingredients quicker,

it's going to save you money on the energy.

So we like all of that.

Nice bit of seasoning.

So, as they cook, I'm thinking about the next ingredient.

I need to get some protein in this dish,

so things like beans are really good. Butter beans I'm using here.

It could be cannellini beans, borlotti beans, kidney beans.

You can basically sprinkle these into the dish.

Let me just clear the way.

So you can see now, after, like, five or ten minutes,

the caramelised bits there - that's flavour.

If you look at the beans as well,

can you see how these have just popped and exploded?

That's really going to improve the texture. Off with the heat.

And I want to show you a little tip.

To cool down things very quickly, sprinkle this onto a tray.

Instead of taking half an hour to cool down, that will be

a matter of minutes. Super easy.

I have got two ingredients now - puff pastry and feta cheese.

I want to make this really delicious,

and feta cheese, I think, is amazing. I'm going to use 100g.

I want some nice bigger chunks.

It's going to be so tangy and salty and delicious.

And then really break it up so it's delicate and small.

Let's have a little play with this puff pastry.

When I've been doing these recipes, it's always a balance of,

you know, cost versus convenience and, for me,

this is convenient and people love puff pastry. It's delicious.

And, basically, this becomes the filling.

Put a bit of milk here, just to stick it.

I'm going to fold it over and pull this part very simply to the corner

to make essentially your giant sausage roll.

And just ease this onto a tray. Beautiful!

And then I'm going to milk wash it.

We can make it a little bit more fancy.

Just use a fork to push in and pullout. Push in and pullout.

The other thing I quite like to do is use the wrong

side of the knife and just put very gentle little divots.

And then we're going to go into the oven for 25 minutes.

I like to put it on the bottom shelf so you get a nice crispy base.

The oven's set at 200 Celsius, which is 400 Fahrenheit.

Beautiful things will happen in there - golden, crispy, gorgeous.

So I've got enough time to have a little clear down

and then make a beautiful salad.

Look at that! Ha-ha! Yep, it's puffed up! That is a vegetable puff.

Come on!

Get that onto the board,

and then we've got to do that little trick, you know,

with the tablecloth when you pull it out and try and keep everything on.

Look at that. Bang on point.

This salad - crunchy and tangy vibes going on. Let's get in there.

Let's have a little go.

Mm!

Oh, my God! Massive flavour.

Like, it's deep, it's caramelised, it's spicy,

it's fantastically savoury.

We've used puff pastry to elevate probably, you know,

the most taken for granted vegetable that we have - the carrot. Right?

And we might be cooking on a budget, but this is delicious food,

so what are you waiting for?

Yum!

Served with a dressed salad,

this giant veggie puff roll will serve four people and all

the good stuff needed to cook this beauty comes in at 99p a portion.

This series, it's not just me in the kitchen.

I've asked some of my mates to share some of their own £1 wonders.

Karan Gokani is a fantastic restaurateur with

a passion for Sri Lankan cuisine. This is not a stripped-back dish.

This is a dish like you'd eat it anywhere across the subcontinent.

Karan's cooking up a gorgeous spiced roasted cauliflower with

golden coconut sauce, a super simple onion roti

and a sprinkle of crispy cauliflower leaves.

He's going to be roasting his cauliflower in an air fryer

and suggesting a few store cupboard spices that are worth

investing in to deliver this dish at 84p a portion.

Growing up in India, we always ate cauliflower.

In Sri Lanka, cauliflower curry's so popular. I love it!

It's a humble low-cost vegetable that's a great substitute for meat.

So just get rid of the leaves. We're going to use them.

It's going to go crunchy, it's going to add colour, so why waste it?

I'm going to get a couple of really nice steaks.

People don't expect a cauliflower curry to look like that.

This is what I was calling a steak. That's about an inch thick.

That on a plate, roasted perfectly with some sauce -

you've got a beautiful meal there.

Because you're roasting it, it doesn't need to be in top shape.

It's a great way of using some of those

leaves at the back of the fridge that are slightly past their prime.

These will go really beautifully crispy.

People think about restaurant food having garnishes on top.

This is your garnish.

Let's make our spiced oil with which we're going to

marinate that cauliflower.

5 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1 tsp of turmeric,

1 tsp of chilli powder and 1 tbsp of simple madras curry powder.

I always buy my spices in big bags.

They're cheaper, they have a good six-month shelf life,

so use them as often as you can.

Finally, salt, so about half a teaspoon in there.

That lovely golden oil is going to go all over the cauliflower.

These are all those amazing flavours you associate with a takeaway

curry, and it's a fraction of the price.

Just get that in there.

That oil is going to help it roast and fry at the same time.

Now, for this recipe, I'm using an air fryer instead of an oven.

You could use an oven at home if you didn't have an air fryer.

It's quick, it's countertop, it's small, it gets the job clone.

It's like a mini tabletop oven that just works at twice the speed.

This has shelves on it.

If you've got one of those baskets, flip your cauliflower steak

and the pieces over halfway through because then they brown evenly.

Or, if you're doing this in the oven,

use a wire rack because, again,

it helps the air flow all the way round.

190.

15 minutes.

Quick is very important

when you've got two kids running around your legs.

Right, so, for the roti, just get 250g plain flour.

It's an unleavened bread, so you're not going to have

any of the puff, you're not going to have any waiting time.

It's just literally ten minutes for the dough to relax,

and we're going to load it up with the red onion.

Ancl you just want to get roughly cut pieces.

Now we're going to go curry leaves.

This is an ingredient, for me, just defines Sri Lankan food,

or South Indian food.

It's an ingredient that whenever I smell,

I'm just taken straight back home. If you do find them, freeze them.

They're great frozen. Even if they change colour,

the flavour really remains. So just chop them up roughly again.

A little bit of salt in there.

Half teaspoon. Liquids.

That one tin of coconut milk is going to be used two ways.

100 mils in here, and the other 300 go into my curry.

Get in with your hands. Give it a little bit of a mix.

What you're looking for is a nice, soft, smooth dough.

That's the kind of consistency of the dough. It's soft, it's lovely.

Let it rest for about ten minutes so it's easier to roll out.

Let's move on to the curry. Get your second onion now.

So, I'm just going to slice these up finely.

Two cloves of garlic - just bash it and then just little slices.

It's all going to break down in the curry.

I've got a tablespoon of oil in there, over a medium heat.

The first thing that always goes in is your hard spices -

in this case, a cinnamon stick. I'm using half.

Ancl your cumin seeds.

What they're doing is just imparting flavour to the oil,

which is then going to go and give every single ingredient

this massive hug.

So, onions...

...and your garlic.

Ancl a great tip I have is,

always get a little bit of salt into your onions when you fry them,

because that helps draw out the moisture and helps them

cook really nice and evenly.

Once your onions have softened, we add the curry leaves in.

This time I'm going to go in with the entire stalk,

because a stalk is going to give you flavour.

So now we're going to go in with those same dried spices

that we used in the marinade. The curry powder...

About a tablespoon.

The ground turmeric. Half a teaspoon.

Ancl half a teaspoon of chilli powder.

Just those ten seconds into the oil, into the pan,

has just woken everything up.

Once the flavours have been released,

add in the remaining coconut milk.

Now, that's going to simmer away on a medium heat

till it just thickens a touch.

And that, for me, has all the flavours I'd expect

from a beautiful Sri Lankan curry.

Ah, look at that. All that caramelisation on top.

Throw it onto a plate. We now turn to the leaves.

So just get some parchment on,

spread them out nicely, because we want these to get crisp.

This time, I'm going to go higher,

at 200 degrees for about five minutes.

The dough's been resting, so I've just balled these up,

but you don't need a rolling pin.

All you're doing is pressing it out for evenness.

Push them down a little bit

and then just leave it on a medium heat,

because you want it to brown up nicely.

Honestly, it's going to be the best

little spoon you have to mop up all that sauce.

It's almost there. I'm going to go in with my peas.

It's a handful, about 100 g, right into your sauce.

A little bit of salt.

A touch of sugar. Stir that through. Ancl that is your curry clone.

Time to check on those leaves.

They've been there about five minutes. Time to plate up.

So get your cauliflower.

Because it's been marinated in that spiced oil,

there's tonnes of flavour just packed in that cauliflower.

The sauce is all extra. Sweet peas, coconut milk, fresh curry leaves.

All that curry powder in the background.

Spoon of those leaves, and just give it a bit of a sprinkle on top.

Then this lovely roti, made with the leftover coconut milk.

I can't wait to try it, and I'm going to do just that now.

Mm!

It's ideal.

A humble vegetable turned into something so different,

just elevated. It's just naturally budget-friendly.

You've got a dish that you can make at home in less than

half an hour, at less than a quid a portion.

Ancl it's better than any takeaway you're going to get at,

you know, a fraction of the price, and you're feeding a whole family.

I cannot wait for you to try this.

If you want to cook up Karan's cauliflower curry,

investing in some spices will help turn everyday ingredients

into show-stopping meals.

Serving four, this beautiful dish comes in at 84p per proportion.

I've got a delicious recipe to share with you

that takes around ten minutes. One pan, one portion, and one pound.

My quick rosti version of a fishcake is crispy, golden and,

because I've flattened it out, cooks at record speed, saving you time,

energy and money.

Served with a fresh and tangy slaw,

this tasty meal for one is a delicious way to celebrate

tinned tuna - on budget, bursting with flavour.

Many of us by tinned tuna every single week, and it's brilliant

because it sits there in your cupboard, it's not going to go off.

Now, I know we all have our set recipes,

but I bet you haven't tried this one.

First up, we're going to start with 250 g of potato there.

Nice, long sweeps.

If you leave the peel on, it's more nutrition, right?

Loads of lovely vitamin C in there.

So, this takes no time at all.

If you ever come home from work and you want something delicious

that you can just knock out, it's perfect.

Now, get yourself a clean tea towel.

We want to get rid of the excess water, so, at the same time,

I'm going to get our tin of tuna, which is preserved in brine.

They either do that or oil.

The brined tuna seems to consistently be the cheapest.

You might as well go for the cheaper one, right?

Now, just squeeze,

and you'll see how much water comes out.

It's quite a lot, right?

Unroll our tuna and potatoes.

I'm going to do some simple seasoning.

And then two heaped tablespoons of flour.

As I was developing these recipes, I was cooking more

kind of traditional fishcakes, and they took longer to cook,

so then I went thin, and that is when magical things happened.

So, take a little olive oil...

...and just sprinkle it into our pan.

Press it down and this kind of compacting of your fishcake,

you're making it hold together.

I really love, by the way, the scruffy edges.

That's what we've got. It's about a centimetre, just under, thick.

Now, put it onto a heat...full whack.

That will take about 4.5 minutes to cook.

Because we've grated it, because we've drained the water,

because we've made it thin, that's going to cook quicker,

which also means less time on the hob,

which means you're not just saving money on the ingredients,

but you're saving money on energy as well.

We're going to make a little slaw.

I'm going to celebrate carrots and white cabbage.

But, if you want to sort of supercharge this slaw,

use stuff that you've got leftover in the fridge.

It could be like broccoli, or it could be cauliflower,

or it could be apples, pears, any root veg,

anything that you can basically speed peel.

This, for me, allows anyone to have the most delicate,

thin, uniformed, beautiful slit hers.

All you need is 80g.

Next up, carrot.

Slice down...a couple of times.

And then basically you start getting these lovely little threads.

Again, 80g.

This is for one portion, don't forget.

Now, if you look in that pan, I can hear that it's sizzling.

Have a look at that, come on.

Crispy, hot, cold, crunchy, so we've got textures going on,

we've got flavours going on, with super, super, humble ingredients.

I've also costed for a little fresh parsley.

Go as fine as we can.

You don't have to do it, but it gives you colour.

Nutritionally, it's like packed with good stuff.

Nice pinch of salt in here.

And I'm going to go in with a teaspoon of red wine vinegar,

sourness, which is going to be really nice,

and then a tablespoon of olive oil.

We'll do one last little shake. Look at that sizzle, come on.

Let's get that on the plate.

Just finish this with our lovely, quick, handmade slaw.

Hot and crisp, crunchy and tangy.

And then the final flourish is just pick your favourite chili sauce

and just give it a nice, little drizzle like that.

97p a portion.

Let's have a little try.

Let's get a nice, little crispy bit. The sound of that crunch.

Oh.

It's insanely good.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Sour. Fresh.

The tuna and the potatoes work so well together like that,

with a nice sort of umami deep flavour,

and it doesn't feel like fishy...

...in a kind of funky way. it just feels like deliciously tasty.

Give that one a go.

Bloomin' lovely.

My quicky tuna rosti for one really

makes the most of humble ingredients,

coming in at 97p per portion.

Last up, I've got a delicious little desert

that's big in flavour and low on cost.

My frozen berry crumble comes in at 72p a portion.

Buying frozen fruit can be revolutionary for your wallet,

costing less than half the price of fresh.

A wonderful treat and saving that we could all do with right now.

Frozen fruit definitely has turned out to be a gamechanger -

so convenient, great value, great quality,

always picked at its best.

So I've got a kilo bag of mixed berries here -

I just put it in the fridge overnight.

What's really nice about that is you get the fruit and a beautiful,

natural juice that defrosts out of it.

My kids love it when I do like natural cordials

and that sounds a little bit sort of pretentious,

but actually all it means is the little hole put in there...

...and Buddy and River go absolutely crazy for that.

Look at the colours.

If I was to buy all this fruit fresh, it would be more

than twice the price.

It's still full of all the same nutrients

and, if you're going to cook them, it will be pretty hard

to tell the difference between fresh or frozen,

so it's a brilliant little hack.

I'm going to add a couple of apples here.

This is an eating apple, so eating apples are naturally sweet,

so you won't be needing as much sugar

as if you were using a cooking apple.

Slice the apple into like centimetre chunks, like that.

I'm going to leave the skin on because it's less work

and more flavour.

I will add some sugar to this, but only 75g of granulated sugar.

Interestingly on sugar, granulated is half the price of caster sugar,

so, even when it comes to buying sugar,

there's little short cuts and hack.

You know, you might as well go for the cheaper one, right?

And that's a beautiful base to your crumble.

Fantastic.

Let's make the crumble topping.

75g of porridge oats.

Porridge oats have a wonderful flavour,

but also lower cholesterol, so super, super healthy.

75g also of granulated sugar goes in.

We're going to go in with 150g of plain flour

and then we want 100g of cold butter.

Dice it up, just to help.

Look at that, very satisfying.

A little pinch there of salt will just help season the flour

and the oats, and give you a more sort of delicious dynamic

flavour of the crumble, even though it's sweet.

So use your thumb and four fingers to really sort of rub

and massage the butter and the porridge oats together.

You're not making a dough.

You're sort of making large, sticky breadcrumbs, you know?

That's kind of the vibe we're going for.

Now, this comes in at 72p a portion.

You have the ability, at this point, to add things like flaked almonds.

Sometimes I've used my favourite biscuits,

but, you know, on a budget, we have to be clever

about where we choose to spend our money.

And I really wanted to give you some vanilla ice cream

with your hot, bubbling crumble.

So, if you look at the texture here, it's quite loose

but there's little chunks

and I like the fact that there's a bit of both going on here.

That smells nice already.

OK, so there we have our beautiful crumble.

That goes into the oven at 200 degree Celsius,

which is 400 Fahrenheit, for 25 minutes,

until golden, crisp and bubbling.

About five minutes before, just get your ice cream out,

pop it in the fridge, and let it start to defrost,

and then you can enjoy.

Right, the crumble is ready.

That is delicious, by the way.

Here we are, memories of my childhood, my mum, my nan.

Look at that. A beautiful, beautiful crumble, on a budget,

72p a portion, blipping away.

Oh, ho, ho!

I've got some vanilla ice cream. Place that on top

and it starts to just melt and marble with all the juices.

An absolutely classic desert, bigging up frozen berries.

Clever cooking to keep costs down.

Come on, let's get in there.

HE LAUGHS

Yum.

That's a classic crumble, as I remember it,

beautiful oats in the topping, crispy top,

so easy to put together,

and a fraction of the price of fresh berries.

Big on flavour and low on costs. Beautiful.

This frozen berry crumble serves eight people

and, to top it all off,

when using those frozen berries,

this winning pud comes in at 72p a portion.

If you want to try any of these great value dishes,

and get inspiration for loads more,

then simply head to the website and get all the recipes for free.

HE LAUGHS

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