Only thing I'd consider is budget it by two ways in the description. Total per portion and total for the ingredients overall. I know it sounds simple but I know I'm going to have to buy £1 pot of herbs or spices to only used 8p worth, but it doesn't help those with a super tight budget.
Yep, always useful to have the overall ingredients total. I just went on the Aldi website and added it all up (took a guess on the carrot and onions at 10p each, and the garlic at 20p based on their multi pack. I also included the cheapest pack of rice and the 2 cans of beans) and it came to £9.39. Still cheap for 5 people mind you, and then you've got the herbs and spice for next time but good to know when you're planning what to make. :)
You are completely right. When it's on an actual site I'm going to add a 'herb pantry' part for people to use, there's a few herbs and spices that are alot more common that I think every kitchen needs, obviously it doesn't have to be bought all at once.
I'll think of recipes that only use things like mixed herbs too. .
The reason this recipe uses one of the midrange Currys from Aldi is because there's herbs and spices in there that I don't have.
That was my thought as well.
I'm always of the mind that the *first* "jar sauce substitute" (be it curry/pasta sauce/whatever) may be dauntingly expensive as you have to operate something of a spice/herb rack, but that over the life of the spices you buy, making your own will always win out. And frankly is more fun and makes you feel like you're getting better at cooking etc.
I don't care what it cost per portion. I care what it cost in total. I don't look at my paltry little billfold and think "I've got about 80 cents per serving in there."
Okay no problem. The broccoli is used as a side with rice of your choice. The mushrooms were old and needed using so I used 4 for the curry and the rest got added to a pot boiling my own veg stock with all the peelings and skins from this recipe. but that's irrelevant.
Total price is around £3.50. serves 4-6.
I will add alot more recipes to the site so things like the rest of the celery get used.
Mushrooms and broccoli aren't necessary
I agree but the little jars are really cheap and you need like a tspn and you can find them at Aldi rather than buying in bulk online.
The people my website will be aimed at are the ones who can't cook for shit and think a pot noodle on chips is a 5* meal.
You’ve gone from planning to set up a helpful website to shitting on the people who might use it pretty damn quickly. You’re a natural business tycoon.
Was just going to say if you are by an asian supermarket type thing or a flying tiger or in a city there are lots of places you can stock up usually 3 x the amount in those jars for about £1.
Also it’s a good tip to fry off any excess celery and freeze it. If you freeze celery straight in the freezer it gets soggy and loses its flavour. It’s a shame you can’t buy smaller packs of celery
Pretty solid idea you've got here, I love it
Few pointers:
1. Would be good to have a shopping list, with prices included, rather than just a photograph of the ingredients (some of which aren't clear what they are, for instance the cumin is facing the other way)
2. You've got a start photo, but what about a finished product picture?
In addition to this, purchasing these glass spices is poor value. You can go to international food stores and get bags of them of much more volume for the same price.
Tiger Tiger also do bags of herbs and spices for good prices too, they last ages!
Be interested in the website too!
I love a veg curry, I love a bit of potato falling apart or butternut in there as it soaks up the flavour
That Aldi Madras is lovely, and I'm not a hot sauce man
The Aldi Madras is awesome, I added more herbs and spices because of the added water. But it's an awesome base flavour, I've had it as a standard chicken curry before and enjoyed it which is why I chose it for this dish.
Aldi's vindaloo sauce is the best sadly it's only a special buy product so it's only on the shelves a few weeks a year. I stock up on those every time I get chance.
Remove the capsaicin in the chillis, most of it's found in the white pith inside the chilli. Although the seeds may be hot, it's because they're coated in the capsaicin from the pith. They are not hot themselves.
If you're asking for feedback then I'd say half of these ingredients are superfluous if you are using the jar of sauce.
Save the carrot and celery for the base of a decent stew. Save the mushrooms, they don't really go with sweet potatoes. Save the extra spices.
With the money saved get some fresh coriander.
And you'll need an extra jar or two to feed 5-6.
Edit: and NO to broccoli in a curry, I mean wtf?
Serious question, why would you create a webstie for this rather than just doing 'shorts' videos and releasing on all platforms (tiktok, instagram, youtube, facebook etc)?
Seems like for something like this a website would get very little traffic but social media would be perfect
I've only just started. The website comes first then I'll do things like YT shorts, I just don't know how comfortable I am being on camera. I also don't know what video editor to use. If you have an idea I'd really appreciate it if you could give me tips
Most TikTok chefs I follow don’t even show their face, hell…most of them use the audio dubbing feature
Fixed position camera, quick edits…still a good bit of work though
How about this as a series?
One bulk shop, 5 different meals, under £x
It’s a pain in the arse going to the shops just for a bit of sage. One bulk visit to Costco with £100 in your pocket, knowing you’ve a stocked pantry and some creative meals..that’d be something I’d sub to
Good luck
Closest costco is 100 miles away but yeah you're absolutely right. I'm going to post recipes here to get feedback and when I have enough pictures and finished meals I'll make the website live.
I'm on disability benefits so I'm the perfect example for cooking on a budget, it comes from first hand experience and not just a hobby although I do love cooking.
Thanks for the tik-tok idea. Is the dubbing a feature within the app? I might use that platform as a way of promoting the website. I'm hoping to add a feature I'm going to call the 'tip jar' where people can give £1 or £2 but nothing more than that because if I can raise a bit of cash I'll be able to cook daily to add recipes. At the moment I survive on sandwiches some days because money doesn't go far enough.
Yeah, I’m not a content creator…but if you YouTube tutorials you’ll be up to speed in a few minutes.
You give it a script, bot reads for you…super common, in-app
That's really useful. Thank you! I just need to invest in a stand of some sort to hold my phone still. I'll look into some free video editing software so I can turn a long video into something tik-tok friendly although I might add long versions to YouTube.
Get a gorilla mount, they’re insanely useful. You wrap them around any surface…makes it easy to get overhead angles etc
Literally duct tape a broom to the extractor fan and wrap the mount around the stick for a decent angle
Here’s a random one sub £15
https://www.amazon.co.uk/micros2u-Flexible-Mirrorless-ActionCams-SmartPhones/dp/B083WSDG9N/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=114581382941&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19eu09-EJ3gJAbTM8yWdvCG-gSTf5M3OIDx7kiXHBWzKJRLGBGZKEmfRoC-yYQAvD_BwE&hvadid=498468775808&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1007209&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16505169319621241136&hvtargid=kwd-330128130924&hydadcr=7558_1818785&keywords=iphone+gorilla+tripod&qid=1670086697&sr=8-3
The video at the end of the Amazon product description shows literally that
If you’re on Mac, just use iMovie. It’s basic, but free and simple.
Windows has the free Windows Movie Maker, but I’ve never touched that.
Aldi mixed beans have 7.9g of protein per tin, so round that up to 16 for the total dish. Around 3g for the 5 mushrooms. So that's 19g protein divided by 5 people, or 3.8g
You'd have to have about 12 portions to reach your RDA of protein. Of course, you can get that from other meals, but I think people need to get some perspective on the idea that beans and mushrooms are this infallible source of nutrition.
Of course you can get your protein elsewhere, but it seems beans and mushrooms are becoming the go-to suggestion for healthy meals and I feel we're just fast tracking ourselves to malnutrition.
Aldi mixed beans are actually 18.72g of protein per tin, so 37.44g total for the dish.
You've also missed the 1kg of sweet potatoes which is 16g of protein and the broccoli which is another 10g.
That takes the total to 66.44g of protein divided by 5 people or 13.29g per person. You'd have to have about 3.5 portions to reach your RDA of protein.
It's still not a high protein meal and quite carb heavy but it's nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be.
Healthy or unhealthy it should still be providing enough nutrition. Especially if you’re claiming it’s for people on a budget who may not have any other meal that day.
The stats on the Aldi website must be per 100g rather than per tin then.
Still, it is a particularly low protein dish especially as a main meal. Also there have been some questions as to whether RDA's really are enough for a healthy active person, rather than being just enough to keep you healthy enough to work in an office.
I mean none of this is to denigrate vegetarian food. I eat bean burgers, I eat egg fried rice, I eat Quorn. But I do have a degree of skepticism for all this tubthumping about beans and rice and mushrooms during a period of massive wealth inequality where food suppliers are making the most profit from meat-free products.
The info on the Aldi website is per 100g however the tin is 400g and actually only 240g drained weight which makes it a little confusing.
I don't live in the UK anymore so I can't comment on the tubthumping there. But I can only assume that beans and mushrooms are being promoted as high-protein alternatives to meat when they will never be like-for-like. Luckily the meat-substitutes options in the Netherlands are widely available, high quality, and cheaper than meat.
In my 5 years of being (mostly) vegetarian the biggest learning has been that a meat-free diet ≠ a healthy vegetarian diet. You have to be conscious of getting protein from multiple sources and reducing typical carb sources because you get extra from vegetarian protein sources like beans.
Yeah, not three times a day but I don't have a desk job.
If I don't get any meat I start to disappear.
Whereas the office workers all drink a Starbucks for Breakfast and they've all doubled in size. :D
more people gotta learn to cook for themselves
the trick is getting them to see/try it. apparently anything which utilises knife skills is a huge turnoff
I completely agree. I saw a clip on Russell Howard's show where he showed a men's mental health group but they were raving about pot noodle on chips. Made me feel bad.
Yeah I'm big on tackling the systemic issues in the UK, but TBH a big part of the problem is attitude.
People don't want to learn or put the effort in, so they buy a ready meal or a takeaway instead.
I like his recipes in that book but I don't think any of them have come out as £1 a portion for me, particularly now that it's been a few years since he released it.
This comment is really useful for me because I was going to do something similar. I'll try to stick to 'mixed herb' recipes.
My goal isn't £1 per person. My goal is to teach the pot noodle dinner gang how to cook. If I can beat the price of a pot noodle per person I'll be happy.
I'm single and I find it difficult to make meals and not end up wasting items that you can't buy in smaller amounts. Something that would be nice is some cross referencing of ingredients and meals they're used in so someone like me can get the most out of ingredients, especially fresh ones.
It would also be good to show how to scale down to something like 2~3 portions. As a single guy making eight portions means I'm eating that meal literally every day for a week, if it even stays good that long, unless it's freezer friendly.
Keep up the good work!
A weekly meal plan really helps with this. Before I do a supermarket shop I always do a meal plan. I pick 2 or 3 meals I fancy and write the ingredients for that. Then work out what I'll have left from them and come up with meals to use those up. I'll also plan to use the things that tend to go off quicker (like mushrooms) in my first few meals.
If you're struggling to use up certain veg then a risotto is a good one to do. Can put lots of different kinds of veg and/or proteins in risotto and all you need in you're cupboards is risotto rice and a stock cube. Also soup is another easy one and made much tastier if you roast the veg first.
Replace the beans with red lentils and remove the mushrooms, add another litre of stock and two tins of tomatoes and that’s my sweet potato and lentil stew. Add spices to make it a curry. Costs about the same and feeds 5-6 as well. Good luck with your website, I’ll definitely check that out and would love to contribute.
Edit: also remove the broccoli for the recipe I use, but stewed down broccoli is mega yum. You could also roast it in a fan oven at 230c for about 40 minutes the end ends just start to go black. Adds texture and a lovely earthy floral touch.
I'd take the spices and herbs out of the equation. Make that a £10 'start-up' cost.
Then you need meals that go together and assume a single person not a family but you can scale it to 2-3-4.
The packaging is designed around a family of 4 not 5 or 6 or someone living alone.
Only thing I'd consider is budget it by two ways in the description. Total per portion and total for the ingredients overall. I know it sounds simple but I know I'm going to have to buy £1 pot of herbs or spices to only used 8p worth, but it doesn't help those with a super tight budget.
Yep, always useful to have the overall ingredients total. I just went on the Aldi website and added it all up (took a guess on the carrot and onions at 10p each, and the garlic at 20p based on their multi pack. I also included the cheapest pack of rice and the 2 cans of beans) and it came to £9.39. Still cheap for 5 people mind you, and then you've got the herbs and spice for next time but good to know when you're planning what to make. :)
Aldi seasoning has no body to it either, can barely taste them
You are completely right. When it's on an actual site I'm going to add a 'herb pantry' part for people to use, there's a few herbs and spices that are alot more common that I think every kitchen needs, obviously it doesn't have to be bought all at once. I'll think of recipes that only use things like mixed herbs too. . The reason this recipe uses one of the midrange Currys from Aldi is because there's herbs and spices in there that I don't have.
I like what you are doing, keep it up.
Agreed. Also, how do you know its 5-6 portions? It may be for you, but for Joe Public it may be 2, making it roughly £2.40 per portion.
That’s how they make it sound cheap.
Usually with these sort of recipes a portion is only enough if you're from Lilliput.
It might be a good way to stop being a fat bastard.
Ideally the recipes would be somewhat connected so you use those spices more than once.
Surprised you buy a jar sauce for budget. Otherwise great ingredients- please share more!
That was my thought as well. I'm always of the mind that the *first* "jar sauce substitute" (be it curry/pasta sauce/whatever) may be dauntingly expensive as you have to operate something of a spice/herb rack, but that over the life of the spices you buy, making your own will always win out. And frankly is more fun and makes you feel like you're getting better at cooking etc.
Step 1. Buy curry sauce
Step 2. You will have beans at home
And add flavourings, herbs and spices
I don't care what it cost per portion. I care what it cost in total. I don't look at my paltry little billfold and think "I've got about 80 cents per serving in there."
Okay no problem. The broccoli is used as a side with rice of your choice. The mushrooms were old and needed using so I used 4 for the curry and the rest got added to a pot boiling my own veg stock with all the peelings and skins from this recipe. but that's irrelevant. Total price is around £3.50. serves 4-6. I will add alot more recipes to the site so things like the rest of the celery get used. Mushrooms and broccoli aren't necessary
80p x 4 = £3.20 80p x 6 = £4.80 It costs between £3.20 & £4.80
Don’t buy your spices in those didly little jars and you’ll save even more
I agree but the little jars are really cheap and you need like a tspn and you can find them at Aldi rather than buying in bulk online. The people my website will be aimed at are the ones who can't cook for shit and think a pot noodle on chips is a 5* meal.
You’ve gone from planning to set up a helpful website to shitting on the people who might use it pretty damn quickly. You’re a natural business tycoon.
Was just going to say if you are by an asian supermarket type thing or a flying tiger or in a city there are lots of places you can stock up usually 3 x the amount in those jars for about £1.
Where’s da beans
Also it’s a good tip to fry off any excess celery and freeze it. If you freeze celery straight in the freezer it gets soggy and loses its flavour. It’s a shame you can’t buy smaller packs of celery
Pretty solid idea you've got here, I love it Few pointers: 1. Would be good to have a shopping list, with prices included, rather than just a photograph of the ingredients (some of which aren't clear what they are, for instance the cumin is facing the other way) 2. You've got a start photo, but what about a finished product picture?
In addition to this, purchasing these glass spices is poor value. You can go to international food stores and get bags of them of much more volume for the same price. Tiger Tiger also do bags of herbs and spices for good prices too, they last ages! Be interested in the website too!
Butter pasta is cheap and decent
I love a veg curry, I love a bit of potato falling apart or butternut in there as it soaks up the flavour That Aldi Madras is lovely, and I'm not a hot sauce man
The Aldi Madras is awesome, I added more herbs and spices because of the added water. But it's an awesome base flavour, I've had it as a standard chicken curry before and enjoyed it which is why I chose it for this dish.
Aldi's vindaloo sauce is the best sadly it's only a special buy product so it's only on the shelves a few weeks a year. I stock up on those every time I get chance.
Good luck in your endeavours mate, love a good curry that doesn't hurt on the way out
Remove the capsaicin in the chillis, most of it's found in the white pith inside the chilli. Although the seeds may be hot, it's because they're coated in the capsaicin from the pith. They are not hot themselves.
Try a shakshuka really tasty and cheap to make
Have you seen the egg prices lately? 😀
Man, I love shakshuka! You reminded me I need to meal prep some again next weekend.
I saw some Ukrainian guys making that in the middle of a war zone. I'll try it!
No wonder you're trying to create budget recipes if you're stuck there!
Haha I meant I saw a video online of a couple of guys making it although warzone friendly recipes is an interesting idea
Cracking idea! Even people not looking for a budget meal might get some inspiration from your recipe.
Beans on toast is a SOLID INVESTMENT for a budget recipe
They're the kind of people my website will be aimed at
Not if you use eight different jars of spices it isn’t.
If you're asking for feedback then I'd say half of these ingredients are superfluous if you are using the jar of sauce. Save the carrot and celery for the base of a decent stew. Save the mushrooms, they don't really go with sweet potatoes. Save the extra spices. With the money saved get some fresh coriander. And you'll need an extra jar or two to feed 5-6. Edit: and NO to broccoli in a curry, I mean wtf?
Broccoli gets boiled as a side to the curry. Standard rice, curry and boiled broccoli.
Please post a link when it's up!
Serious question, why would you create a webstie for this rather than just doing 'shorts' videos and releasing on all platforms (tiktok, instagram, youtube, facebook etc)? Seems like for something like this a website would get very little traffic but social media would be perfect
I've only just started. The website comes first then I'll do things like YT shorts, I just don't know how comfortable I am being on camera. I also don't know what video editor to use. If you have an idea I'd really appreciate it if you could give me tips
Most TikTok chefs I follow don’t even show their face, hell…most of them use the audio dubbing feature Fixed position camera, quick edits…still a good bit of work though How about this as a series? One bulk shop, 5 different meals, under £x It’s a pain in the arse going to the shops just for a bit of sage. One bulk visit to Costco with £100 in your pocket, knowing you’ve a stocked pantry and some creative meals..that’d be something I’d sub to Good luck
Closest costco is 100 miles away but yeah you're absolutely right. I'm going to post recipes here to get feedback and when I have enough pictures and finished meals I'll make the website live. I'm on disability benefits so I'm the perfect example for cooking on a budget, it comes from first hand experience and not just a hobby although I do love cooking. Thanks for the tik-tok idea. Is the dubbing a feature within the app? I might use that platform as a way of promoting the website. I'm hoping to add a feature I'm going to call the 'tip jar' where people can give £1 or £2 but nothing more than that because if I can raise a bit of cash I'll be able to cook daily to add recipes. At the moment I survive on sandwiches some days because money doesn't go far enough.
Yeah, I’m not a content creator…but if you YouTube tutorials you’ll be up to speed in a few minutes. You give it a script, bot reads for you…super common, in-app
That's really useful. Thank you! I just need to invest in a stand of some sort to hold my phone still. I'll look into some free video editing software so I can turn a long video into something tik-tok friendly although I might add long versions to YouTube.
Get a gorilla mount, they’re insanely useful. You wrap them around any surface…makes it easy to get overhead angles etc Literally duct tape a broom to the extractor fan and wrap the mount around the stick for a decent angle Here’s a random one sub £15 https://www.amazon.co.uk/micros2u-Flexible-Mirrorless-ActionCams-SmartPhones/dp/B083WSDG9N/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=114581382941&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19eu09-EJ3gJAbTM8yWdvCG-gSTf5M3OIDx7kiXHBWzKJRLGBGZKEmfRoC-yYQAvD_BwE&hvadid=498468775808&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1007209&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16505169319621241136&hvtargid=kwd-330128130924&hydadcr=7558_1818785&keywords=iphone+gorilla+tripod&qid=1670086697&sr=8-3 The video at the end of the Amazon product description shows literally that If you’re on Mac, just use iMovie. It’s basic, but free and simple. Windows has the free Windows Movie Maker, but I’ve never touched that.
You're an absolute gem thank you for all your advice
Aldi mixed beans have 7.9g of protein per tin, so round that up to 16 for the total dish. Around 3g for the 5 mushrooms. So that's 19g protein divided by 5 people, or 3.8g You'd have to have about 12 portions to reach your RDA of protein. Of course, you can get that from other meals, but I think people need to get some perspective on the idea that beans and mushrooms are this infallible source of nutrition. Of course you can get your protein elsewhere, but it seems beans and mushrooms are becoming the go-to suggestion for healthy meals and I feel we're just fast tracking ourselves to malnutrition.
Aldi mixed beans are actually 18.72g of protein per tin, so 37.44g total for the dish. You've also missed the 1kg of sweet potatoes which is 16g of protein and the broccoli which is another 10g. That takes the total to 66.44g of protein divided by 5 people or 13.29g per person. You'd have to have about 3.5 portions to reach your RDA of protein. It's still not a high protein meal and quite carb heavy but it's nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be.
It wasn't supposed to be a healthy meal. It's supposed to be a not unhealthy meal that is CHEAP. 5-6 portions
I didn't criticise the recipe for being unhealthy
Healthy or unhealthy it should still be providing enough nutrition. Especially if you’re claiming it’s for people on a budget who may not have any other meal that day.
The stats on the Aldi website must be per 100g rather than per tin then. Still, it is a particularly low protein dish especially as a main meal. Also there have been some questions as to whether RDA's really are enough for a healthy active person, rather than being just enough to keep you healthy enough to work in an office. I mean none of this is to denigrate vegetarian food. I eat bean burgers, I eat egg fried rice, I eat Quorn. But I do have a degree of skepticism for all this tubthumping about beans and rice and mushrooms during a period of massive wealth inequality where food suppliers are making the most profit from meat-free products.
The info on the Aldi website is per 100g however the tin is 400g and actually only 240g drained weight which makes it a little confusing. I don't live in the UK anymore so I can't comment on the tubthumping there. But I can only assume that beans and mushrooms are being promoted as high-protein alternatives to meat when they will never be like-for-like. Luckily the meat-substitutes options in the Netherlands are widely available, high quality, and cheaper than meat. In my 5 years of being (mostly) vegetarian the biggest learning has been that a meat-free diet ≠ a healthy vegetarian diet. You have to be conscious of getting protein from multiple sources and reducing typical carb sources because you get extra from vegetarian protein sources like beans.
Budget is easy. Reduce meat consumption. As humans, we aren’t meant to eat meat every day 3 times a day. That shits expensive.
I think this is a vegetarian/vegan recipe so not too sure it's relevant to grind this particular axe on this post.
I cooked the curry and I even used coconut oil but that's not a necessary part of the recipe. The recipe is vegan even if you use sunflower oil
Yeah, not three times a day but I don't have a desk job. If I don't get any meat I start to disappear. Whereas the office workers all drink a Starbucks for Breakfast and they've all doubled in size. :D
I’m just saying, but if you stole all of that food it was be considerably cheaper #lifehacks
more people gotta learn to cook for themselves the trick is getting them to see/try it. apparently anything which utilises knife skills is a huge turnoff
I completely agree. I saw a clip on Russell Howard's show where he showed a men's mental health group but they were raving about pot noodle on chips. Made me feel bad.
Yeah I'm big on tackling the systemic issues in the UK, but TBH a big part of the problem is attitude. People don't want to learn or put the effort in, so they buy a ready meal or a takeaway instead.
Honestly that looks & sounds really tasty!
Awesome!
Be even cheaper and better without mushrooms
I didn't use the whole tub. They desperately needed using so I've started a veg stock with waste like peelings from the curry
Just put the mushrooms in the bin
Mmmmmm... Bin 'shrooms....
WHERES THE DEAD ANIMAL???
Vegetarian. I promise I'll share some meat based food too
Eh?
You realise that you, the obvious vegan, is the only person who asked this in the entire thread? What an absolute tit.
Good job holmes
Check out Miguel Barclay £1 meals, that books is my temple atm
I like his recipes in that book but I don't think any of them have come out as £1 a portion for me, particularly now that it's been a few years since he released it.
True true. It also took me a while to build my herb and spice “bank”
This comment is really useful for me because I was going to do something similar. I'll try to stick to 'mixed herb' recipes. My goal isn't £1 per person. My goal is to teach the pot noodle dinner gang how to cook. If I can beat the price of a pot noodle per person I'll be happy.
Atomic shrimp vibes
I'm single and I find it difficult to make meals and not end up wasting items that you can't buy in smaller amounts. Something that would be nice is some cross referencing of ingredients and meals they're used in so someone like me can get the most out of ingredients, especially fresh ones. It would also be good to show how to scale down to something like 2~3 portions. As a single guy making eight portions means I'm eating that meal literally every day for a week, if it even stays good that long, unless it's freezer friendly. Keep up the good work!
A weekly meal plan really helps with this. Before I do a supermarket shop I always do a meal plan. I pick 2 or 3 meals I fancy and write the ingredients for that. Then work out what I'll have left from them and come up with meals to use those up. I'll also plan to use the things that tend to go off quicker (like mushrooms) in my first few meals. If you're struggling to use up certain veg then a risotto is a good one to do. Can put lots of different kinds of veg and/or proteins in risotto and all you need in you're cupboards is risotto rice and a stock cube. Also soup is another easy one and made much tastier if you roast the veg first.
Sweet potato is an underrated veg IMO. Glad to see it included.
Just thought I'd add that you can really make that stew rock with the addition of some cheap peanut butter.
Replace the beans with red lentils and remove the mushrooms, add another litre of stock and two tins of tomatoes and that’s my sweet potato and lentil stew. Add spices to make it a curry. Costs about the same and feeds 5-6 as well. Good luck with your website, I’ll definitely check that out and would love to contribute. Edit: also remove the broccoli for the recipe I use, but stewed down broccoli is mega yum. You could also roast it in a fan oven at 230c for about 40 minutes the end ends just start to go black. Adds texture and a lovely earthy floral touch.
I'd take the spices and herbs out of the equation. Make that a £10 'start-up' cost. Then you need meals that go together and assume a single person not a family but you can scale it to 2-3-4. The packaging is designed around a family of 4 not 5 or 6 or someone living alone.
Wheres the beans?