Chickpea and bean stew with egg, or posh baked beans

Joy! I have a supply of home grown eggs again, from a colleague who has just started keeping hens. I hadn't planned anything for today and I wanted to use them as I know they're only a day old so I had a dig in the store cupboard and decided to make a spicy bean thingy.

When I was lining up the "before" shot I did wonder if I should feel guilty about constructing a meal almost entirely from tinned ingredients, but I don't think I should.  The debate over whether or not tinned vegetables are good for you has opened up again, but I'm pretty sure it's better to eat a tinned vegetable than no vegetable at all.  You also have to factor in convenience and cost - it's not realistic for busy working people to get to the shops every day for fresh, and tinned beans and pulses are an incredibly cheap way to get some nutrition.

I like to use anchovies as seasoning but if you're a veggie, or you just don't like anchovies, feel free to leave them out. I'm starting by sweating an onion in the oil from a tin of anchovies though.  Once the onion's started getting nice and soft (it'll take at least five or six minutes over a low heat) add some spices - cumin, paprika, some cayenne pepper for heat - and mix it all up so that the onions get nicely coated.

Drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas and add them to the pan.  Again, swirl it all around so that they get nicely coated in spice.

Now chuck in a tin of tomatoes.  Chop up the anchovies into small pieces and they can go in too.

Drain and rinse a tin of cannellini beans and it's time for those to go in too.  Give it all a stir, have a taste and season with salt and pepper and add some more chilli heat if you so desire.  I thought it wanted some green herbs too and it's vaguely Italian so I threw in a little basil.

Everything from the tins is already cooked so you don't want to boil anything, just let it heat through.  Pop a lid on and let the whole lot simmer for about 20 minutes, then have another taste and adjust the seasoning if you want to.  Crack in an beautiful garden egg per person, put the lid back on, and let them poach for four or five minutes.

These quantities divided into three equal portions for us - one each tonight, and we'll have the remainder tomorrow between us with a couple of sausages, or maybe on toast for lunch.

Between three, this comes to seven WeightWatchers ProPoints and (depending where you buy your tins - tomatoes in Sainsbury's range from 37p to over £1 and I'm perfectly happy with the cheap ones) less than £1 per portion.

Chorizo and chickpea thingy

Sometimes I browse for something delicious and inspiring, sometimes I have a craving for a particular thing and go out to get the ingredients for it, and sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.

Money's tight at the moment thanks to some unexpected vehicular expense and we're going away at the weekend so we want to save our funds for that rather than spending money on ingredients.  Plus I'm working nights at the moment so I don't have the get-up-and-go to get to the shops.

If you regularly find yourself in that depressing situation where the wallet's empty but there's still a week to go before payday, my advice is to keep a well-stocked store cupboard and freezer.  I find it very reassuring to know that I could make a week's worth of (perhaps slightly repetitive) meals from what's in stock without spending a penny.

Digging in the freezer, I found some cooking chorizo.  There are always a couple of tins of chickpeas in the cupboard, which seemed like a good combination.

So, over a low heat, gently sweat some chopped shallots (because that's what we had - an onion would be fine instead) and add the chopped chorizo.  I love the way the oil turns red and flavours the onion.

When the chorizo is nicely browned, drain your tin of chickpeas and add them to the pan.  These happen to be brown chickpeas, but normal ones are fine.

Ordinarily I would have used a tin of tomatoes (something else that you should always have in the cupboard), but we had a big bag of fresh ones so I used them.  You really should skin them first but life's too short.

Add some rosemary, a bit of chilli heat if you want, and leave to simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes or so.

Due to a miscommunication where my girlfriend and I each thought we were responsible for buying eggs we've got loads at the moment so I served it with a fried egg on top.

It's quite filling enough as it is but if you really want to add carbs this would be nice with patatas bravas, or maybe some nice bread.

Chorizo and chickpea stew

My night shifts are over so I'm slightly spaced out as I try to fit back into the daylight world, which is why dinner tonight is so simple it barely deserves the title of "recipe."  It is cheap, easy and tasty though, so it fits right in with the remit of the blog!

Chorizo is a wonderful ingredient, adding protein and flavour to recipes for pennies.  Well...  it should be pennies - certain supermarkets seem to have decided it needs repositioning as an exotic luxury though.  I did manage to find a 110g packet for £2.67, but I'm sure I could have found better value elsewhere.  I know it seems petty, but chorizo has its origins in peasant food, using up all the bits of slaughtered pig that can't be used elsewhere - it does annoy me to see it repackaged as a luxury item.  I love peasant food, but it shouldn't get overpriced.

Anyway.

Pour a tin of tomatoes into a pan, fill the empty tin with water and add that too.  Heat gently.

While it's heating, chop up some leaves (we had cavolo nero in the veg box this week, but anything will do - maybe cabbage, spinach or kale) and then add them.

Drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas and add them.

Chop up your chorizo and add that too.

Season with salt and pepper, add some chilli flakes and maybe a splash of Tabasco sauce.

Simmer until cooked.

Serve with crusty bread, if you want to - we didn't.

This made three portions, two tonight and one for the freezer.

Financial Verdict

Chorizo, leaves and tinned veg - should be cheaper than chips!

The skinny

Heat a pan

Empty a tin of tomatoes therein

Add a can of water

Add leaves

Add a tin of chickpeas

Add chopped chorizo

Add chilli flakes, tabasco sauce, salt and pepper

Simmer until done

WeightWatchers ProPoints
8

Broccoli and chickpea burgers

I still haven't quite made my mind up about the weekly veg box.  I really enjoy getting it and cooking with different veggies that I might not otherwise get, but I'm not convinced it's good value for just two people - we do end up throwing a certain amount away.  Less than the oft-quoted third that the average British household does though, and it would be even less if I didn't work shifts (I never cook when I'm on lates).

We had Purple Sprouting Broccoli this week and I decided it needed to star in the week's veggie night.  I had some tins of chickpeas in the cupboard, too, having bought them on a three-for-one a little while back.  Burgers beckoned.

Start by steaming the broccoli until the heads are tender - about 20 minutes for the 150g I had.  Boiling is fine, if you don't have a steamer or a Heath Robinson approximation of one like mine.

 

Now for the flavourings.  Do the necessary with an onion, an (optional) chilli pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic, and fry them very gently.

Once that's done, you need to whiz everything up together - the fried onion, pepper and garlic, the cooked broccoli, a drained 400g tin of chickpeas, an egg, 25g grated parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of basil, salt and pepper.  If you've got a food processor, brilliant - otherwise a stick hand blender will do the job nicely.

You can do all the above preparation up to a day in advance if you need to, then when you're hungry all you need to do is make the mixture into burger shapes and cook them.

Fry them if you like, but this is the first time I've made these and I wasn't confident that they'd stick together so I put each on its own square of greaseproof paper and grilled them.  They're probably healthier grilled too.

Serve in a nice roll with salad.

The skinny

Steam or boil 150g broccoli

Chop and gently fry an onion, a chilli pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic.

Blend together the broccoli, onion, chilli pepper, garlic, a tin of chickpeas, an egg, 25g grated parmesan, salt, pepper and basil

Make into burgers

Fry or grill

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

Chickpea curry

Two posts in a row inspired by the blessed St Hugh!  His latest campaign points out the fact - and I'm afraid I do tend to agree with him that it is a fact - that we cannot carry on eating as much meat as we do without meat farming becoming ever more intensive.  I doubt that I would ever completely give up meat and fish, but I do intend to carry on eating meat as ethically as possible and try to have at least one vegetarian day per week.

The fact that this epiphany comes at the end of the month when I'm trying to make store-cupboard meals rather than go shopping is purely coincidence, of course!  Plus I'm working nights at the moment and I don't have the energy to do anything complicated.

Indian food has a huge variety of vegetarian dishes so I thought I'd start there, with a really simple chickpea curry.  Chickpeas are a handy ingredient to have in store, either dried or in tins.

I had dried ones, so I started out by putting 80g in fresh water to soak overnight. 

They then need 45 minutes to cook, so get them on the boil a while before you want to eat.

When the chickpeas are nearly done, get started on the rest of the curry.  Chop an onion and fry it in a wok until caramelised.

While that's cooking, prepare a spice mix of a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful each of cumin, coriander and turmeric, and chop up a couple of big tomatoes and a chilli pepper.

Add the spice mix to the onion and stir for a minute until it's all coated, then add the tomatoes and chilli pepper and stir.  Add a splash of water, then add the cooked chickpeas, a teaspoonful of preserved ginger and a pinch of garam masala and simmer over a low heat for a few minutes.

We had it with fresh bread, as my girlfriend had bought a nice loaf today, but pitta bread, naan bread or rice would do just as well.  If I had a coriander plant, I'd have served with a couple of coriander leaves on top but I haven't so I didn't.

It would have been nice with some spinach thrown in too, but um...  I forgot.

Taste verdict
I used fresh chilli peppers off the chilli plant which gave it a good kick, and it was the right decision to use fresh tomatoes rather than tinned - they gave it a lovely fresh flavour.  We didn't miss meat at all - it's a complete dish.

I used the instructions on the packet of chickpeas (40g per portion) but it made far too much - these quantities would have fed three or four.

Financial verdict
An onion - 20p
Two tomatoes - about 20p
Cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garam masala, bread - pennies, from store

For information, a 500g packet of chickpeas costs 79p in Waitrose, and I've costed the chickpeas on the basis of the 40g per portion that I used.  In reality, you won't even need that much - this was really filling.

A truly value 23p per portion


The skinny
If using dried chickpeas, prepare them according to the packet instructions.  They will need soaking overnight

Cook the chickpeas

Chop an onion and fry in a wok until caramelised

Add spice mix of coriander, cumin and turmeric and stir

Add two chopped tomatoes and a chopped chilli pepper and stir

Add the cooked chickpeas, a teaspoonful of ginger (or some fresh ginger, if you prefer) and a pinch of garam masala

Stir for a couple more minutes then serve with rice or bread

WeightWatchers ProPoints
4 for the curry, plus whatever carb you choose to serve with it