Lamb meatballs in chickpea stew

I bought a hard-copy Guardian this week, as I generally do on a Saturday, and of course I always read the food pages at the back of the Weekend magazine.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall writes the recipe column, and when I saw the photo at the top of this article spread across a glossy page I wanted to make it immediately.

I won't make this a full post in the usual style as it seems a bit of a waste to just copy out Hugh's work less than a week after it was published.

I pretty much followed the instructions to the letter, although I used frozen spinach rather than fresh (because I happened to have some) and forgot to get coriander and parsley to garnish.  I never seem to have much luck with coriander plans.  I adjusted the quantities a bit, too.

It was blooming delicious - and the stew would have been perfectly nice as a veggie option if you just leave the meatballs out.

Financial verdict

Meatballs

250g lamb - £4

An onion - 15p

An egg - 30p

One slice of bread, whizzed into crumbs, cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper, garlic - pennies, from store

Stew

An onion - 15p

Tin of tomatoes - 40p

Tin of chickpeas - 45p (I wasn't organised enough to put dried ones in to soak last night)

Stock, spinach, chilli pepper, garlic, herbs and spices - pennies, from store

We divided it into three generous servings (it would have served four quite happily) so £1.82 per portion.

WeightWatchers ProPoints
9 per portion