• Gem_loves_food on February 27, 2025

  Having tried most of the recipes in the cookbook that are vegetarian/could be made veggie there are truthfully only seven I would have again. The seven listed are simple and comforting in taste, good for a mid week meal but I wouldn't recommend these meals for serving guests. I appreciate this cookbook is aimed for tighter money situations so I've worked out & shared the cost of each serving as we found it in 2025 so I hope the maths is helpful for anyone else considering recipes from this book. I find Jack Monroe' original book "A girl called Jack" more abundant in cheaper recipes I'd repeat, but here are the recipes I'd repeat from this book below: 1) Cheeky Corn Fritters - page 29 - - - 2) Creamy Tomato Soup - page 42 - - - 3) "Spicy" rice & two bean soup - page 54 - - - 4) Sweet & sour cannellini beans - page 58 - - -5 ) Chickpeas with bread & spinach - page 61 - - - 6) Black Bean & Peanut Stew - page 70 - - - 7) Rhubarb & Custard Crumble - page 141] - Happy cooking!

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cheeky corn fritters

  • Gem_loves_food on February 27, 2025

    Simple, and pleasant, recipe makes about nine fritters which for us serves 3 and goes nicely with things like avocado, sliced tomato and hot sauce or salsa and guacamole, and also goes well with the creamy tomato soup on page 42 or other tomato soup recipes. The fritters by themselves for us in the year 2025 cost 56p per serving (and this includes using more expensive truly organic, free range eggs from cared for hens) so a good affordable recipe but really you want to add extras like salsa to this recipe for taste which would naturally increase the cost, but even with each serving coming with an eighth of a jar of salsa (18p) and a quarter bag of salad (12p) comes to 86p per serving so still a good under £1 meal. (I appreciate that this cookbook is aimed for tighter money situations so I really hope this maths is helpful for others considering recipes from this book).

• Creamy tomato soup

  • Gem_loves_food on February 27, 2025

    Simple, quick and easy soup, nothing super fancy but goes nice with sweetcorn fritters on page 29, although not frugal for us as written serves 1 and costs of per portion ingredients in 2025 come to £1.33 per serving, whereas a tin of pre made tomato soup or even two can be much cheaper.

• Spicy rice & two bean soup

  • Gem_loves_food on February 27, 2025

    Simple, frugal and comforting, nothing incredible taste wise but helpful for days when you need something exceptionally cheap or that you likely have in the cupboard (but not spicy at all).

• Sweet-sour cannellinis

  • KnitWit on April 30, 2024

    Tried with black beans, black-eyed beans, borlotti and cannellini: personally, I prefer black or black-eyed beans. Also like to add 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chilli flakes and 1/4 teaspoon of smoked paprika. This is always a must-have jar in my fridge.

  • Gem_loves_food on February 28, 2025

    Pleasant jar of beans to have to hand inspired by Sarah Ravens garden cookbook (which incidentally is a great cookbook for growing and eating seasonally). Can be used with a multitude of beans just pick your favourite. If you are growing your own beans, for both beauty in the garden, high yielding crops and good taste I recommend growing either borlotti or climbing bean 'Italian gold'. Both taste nice in this recipe though I personally prefer Italian gold best. Hope that is helpful for anyone wanting to grow their own too!

• Chickpeas with bread & spinach

  • Gem_loves_food on February 28, 2025

    Quick to throw together, filling and surprisingly creamy it almost tasted slightly cheesy without having any cheese in it. If you are really in a frugal pinch (and are open to foraging) nettles can be substituted for spinach, if you've never cooked nettles I assure you boiling them takes all of the sting out of them and they taste exceptionally similar to spinach and are very high in protein too, just obviously make sure you wash them first! The recipe as stated for us served 2 and in the year 2025 the individual cost of ingredients worked out at 95p per serving for us and even less if substituting spinach for nettles so quite affordable especially if you are looking for a meal that comes in at under £1 per serving.

• Black bean daal

  • bradis on February 07, 2026

    Really enjoyed this. I added some fried paneer tossed in garam masala and accompanied it with a nice large naan bread.

• Black bean & peanut stew

  • Gem_loves_food on February 28, 2025

    Pleasant comforting dish, great for a mid week meal. I personally prefer swapping the tinned peas for almost anything else (frozen peas, green beans, lentils, carrots left over veg etc.) just because tinned peas taste especially "tinny" to me and seem to take away from the overall flavour. I also increase the lemon, tomato and water slightly than what is written as I find this stops the dish from tasting "claggy" and balances out the peanut butter. The recipe as stated for us served 2 and in the year 2025 the individual cost of ingredients worked out at £1.30 per serving for us so affordable but not especially frugal.

• Rhubarb & custard crumble

  • Gem_loves_food on February 28, 2025

    Really simple and quick to make and creates a pleasant humble crumble, although the tinned rhubarb is much more expensive than fresh apples or rhubarb (especially home grown ones) so using tinned rhubarb makes this dish more expensive the recipe as stated served 4 for us bringing this to £1.45 per portion so not a frugal dish but replaced with fresh fruit like a traditional crumble this becomes much more economical.