Taking up the cheap cooking challenge again. My goal is nutritious food for £2.50 a day or less, including cooking and washing-up costs.

This one is a close copy of a Jack Monroe recipe, although I can’t find the actual web page I copied it from. Simple, tasty, 100% veggie and low salt – about 1g per serving.

Ingredients:

• Tin of beans – kidney beans, any sort of beans really, even baked beans.
• Tin of tomatoes – chopped or plum.
• Herb seasoning.
• Fresh lemon juice – I don’t use processed juices to avoid additives.
• Mug of vegetable stock.
• Two slices of bread, well broken-up.

Really simple to prepare – everything simmered for a good few minutes, then add the bread, mashing everything up a bit with the end of a rolling pin. Three servings. Along with cooking and cleaning up costs, 34p a portion. Freezable.

Another time I might try this with a microwave-baked potato instead of bread and no stock (to remove the added salt and sugar).

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