Gluten Free for 99p

Well, £1 or less per portion, actually!

That was my challenge to a bunch of gluten free bloggers a few weeks ago, and the reaction was, "let's do it!" Eating gluten free on a budget isn't easy, free from food is far from cheap, so it seemed like an appropriate challenge to come up with some thrifty recipes to share. The task was simple (in theory); come up with a recipe that's gluten free, but costs less than £1 each. In reality, it turned out to be a much trickier thing to do than the initial enthusiasm suggested! Two brave souls finally joined me in creating cheap-but-delicious dishes, and here they are.

Carly: over on Gluten Free B, is annoyed that most budget recipes are a bit insubstantial, dull and take forever to make. To deal with this, she has a brilliant frugal frittata that's perfect for using up any vegetables you've got in the fridge. She rather cunningly uses leftover rice in her frittata, something I had never thought of before! This is the sort of recipe that you can make time and again, varying the ingredients so you'll never get bored.

Alex: has come up with a great leek and tomato quinoa dish that's both filling and nutritious, over on Food Allergy and Intolerance Ink. It's good to know that even those gluten free grains that we perceive to be a bit pricier can actually be used in budget dishes. Let's stop discounting ingredients because we think they're too expensive (or too posh)!

Me: I wanted to come up with a dish that you could serve for Sunday lunch, or as a dinner party meal with friends. Just because cash is tight, it doesn't mean you can't still be sociable. Get your friends to bring the booze, or a dessert and you can entertain with change from a fiver! This dish was inspired by a recipe on Domestic Sluttery last year. The rolled herby lamb breast, by Hazel (my food guru), made me give lamb breast another go after a disastrous first try. It also showed me that tasty stuffing needn't be full of breadcrumbs.

Cheap cuts of meat are often regarded with suspicion, but they're often some of the tastiest cuts, if you know how to cook them. Oxtail makes the most unctuous stews, pork shoulder is perfect for barbecue-style pulled pork and chicken wings make the greatest stock ever! If you can, chat to your butcher, they have so much knowledge to share and will tell you the very best ways to cook your meat, and how to get the most from each cut. (Same goes for your greengrocer, they'll know what seasonal fruit and vegetables are best, cheapest and tastiest.)

Lamb Breast with Boulangerie Potatoes
(Inspired by Hazel Paterson's Rolled Herby Lamb Breast)
You can buy boned lamb breast from most supermarkets, but if you chat to your butcher you'll be able to get him to prepare it and even throw in the ribs for you. Use the bones as a trivet to roast the lamb, then simmer it with some vegetables to make a fantastic stock for soup. This recipe serves four for just under £4.

a large lamb breast (£2.99)
1/2 pack of mint, chopped (35p)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (10p-ish)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vinegar (red wine vinegar if you've got it, otherwise white wine or cider vinegar works too)
400g-ish white potatoes, thinly sliced (the supermarket value/smart price/economy ranges of potatoes are great in this dish) (34p)
1 onion, finely sliced (21p)
salt and pepper

• Preheat your oven to 230°C (or as hot as it'll go).
• Spread your lamb breast on a chopping board and trim any bits of sinew and thick pieces of fat. If you ask your butcher, he'll do that for you.
• Mix the chopped mint, garlic, vegetable oil and vinegar in a bowl. Season well with salt and pepper - it's seaoning the meat too.
• Spread the mint stuffing over one side of the lamb and roll it up. Tie securely with string. If you don't have string, I've used cocktail sticks with some sucsess before!
• Put the lamb in a roasting tin and pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, layer the potatoes and onion slices in an ovenproof dish, seasoning as you go. Pour water over the potatoes until it just reaches the top layer.
• After 30 minutes are up, turn the oven down to 160°C and put the potatoes in too. Cook for a further 2 hours.
• When the 2 hours are up, remove the lamb from the oven and let it rest for about 15 minutes before slicing. If the potaoes need to crisp up a little, leave them in the oven for a bit longer.

You can vary the herbs in the stuffing to suit whatever herbs you happen to have, parsley and rosemary work well too. Likewise, if you'd rather use leeks instead of onions in the boulangerie potatoes, they'd be great!

What are your go-to thrifty foods? Share your hints and tips below.

Gluten Free on a Budget

Cooking on a tight budget is something I've been wanting to write about for a while, ever since I received an email from a reader who was struggling to eat a gluten free diet and feed her children. It's been on my mind, and now that celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver have waded into the debate, I've decided it's time to broach the topic, too.

Falafel (about 89p per person)

In the past, I lived on a very tight budget. I was working, but the cost of rent, bills and travel expenses meant that I was left with under £5 a week for food. I was lucky, my church stepped in to help me out, and I found a second job to pay the bills a bit more easily. I didn't have any hungry mouths to feed, apart from mine. At that stage, I wasn't Coeliac, so could buy cheap bread and pasta to fill me up. Eventually, I moved into cheaper accommodation and things worked themselves out, but it was tough to eat (full stop, let alone eat well) for such a small amount of money.

Squash Stuffed Turkey (about £1.50 per person)

We all know that gluten free food is expensive, so buying bread, pasta and flour isn't cheap when you're Coeliac. Jamie Oliver might know a Sicilian street cleaner who can but mussels, tomatoes and pasta for 60p, but a pack of gluten free spaghetti is closer to £2 before you even add the molluscs and veggies! Mockney Mr Oliver thinks we should use stale bread to give our cheap meat "great texture". It's something that processed food manufacturers do to bulk out products, and as a consequence make them a no-go for us Coeliac folk. On a budget, it makes sense to avoid it (unless you can get it on prescription) and focus instead on naturally gluten free foods like potatoes and rice. If you've got time to shop and cook, you can eat well for not-very-much, but when you're working two jobs it's not so easy.

Eggs in Tomato Sauce (about £1.10 per person)

In my experience, a well stocked store cupboard is the difference between eating the same sad meal every day for a week and eating a varied diet. It has made me a bit of a hoarder as a result, I feel like I'm saving up in case I find myself struggling for money again. Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, spicy lentil daal, eggs in tomato sauce, or poached chicken (if a whole chicken is too costly, try chicken wings - they make a delicious stock, although it takes more effort to strip the meat off the bones later) with rice cooked in the resulting stock, are all possible, if you have a ready supply of spices, dried lentils and rice. None of the dishes pictured in this post were designed to be 'budget' meals, but they give you an idea of how naturally gluten free food can be inexpensive.

No, this doesn't really help if you have a tight budget right now and your cupboards are bare, and I don't have a solution if that's you. It's one of the reasons why this is such a contentious issue, no-one actually has the right answer to the problem of food poverty. If you're in the happy situation of knowing exactly where your next meal is coming from, why not get in touch with The Trussell Trust and donate to your nearest food bank? I've been in contact with my local food bank so that, if someone with gluten intolerance comes to them, I can supply them with GF pasta, cereal and tinned goods when they need it. 

Chicken Rice (about £1.30 per person)

Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less has an RRP of £26, just over two months of my old food budget, and I think that's why the man himself has come under so much criticism for his comments. (Although, let's not be so naive to forget that this publicity will do Jamie's book sales and TV ratings a real favour.) It's hard to take budgeting advice from a man whose name itself is a franchise. I'd rather read A Girl Called Jack's blog, or invest in a copy of her book, due out next year. I also rate the advice given by Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merrit in Economy Gastronomy, and was an avid follower of their 2009 TV series. (I wonder if the BBC would bring it back?) Whilst not really written for people in dire straits, the principles behind River Cottage Every Day will help you make the most of every scrap of food in your kitchen and avoid waste.

So, sorry Jamie. I know you mean well, and I'm sure your new TV series and accompanying book will be full of useful hints and tips for eating on a budget, but until you get your foot out of your mouth we can't hear any wisdom that might be in there.

Free From & Festive - Day 12

Here we are at the final day of this free from and festive extravaganza!  By now I hope we have inspired you and filled you with excited anticipation for the days ahead.  In just 2 days time, the turkey will be in the oven (or maybe on the table!) and soon, it's very probable that you will have leftovers.

It's a time of year when it's so easy to waste food, the abundance can feel quite decadent and we become blasé about the fate of those scraps of meat.  Before you chuck that turkey carcass away, stop!  Those bones will make a delicious stock (I I chuck any leftover roast veg in there, too) and that will make wonderfully warming soups and risottos.

Then, what do you do with that leftover turkey meat?  How do you prevent turkey-boredom by the time Boxing Day closes?  Is there life beyond turkey curry?  (For a different type of curry, why not try Rick Stein's Sri Lankan Turkey Curry?)

Personally, I like to make a pie!  Using my flaky pastry recipe, I line the bottom of a pie dish with pastry, then fill with leftover turkey, roast veg, and gravy, and place stuffing balls on top.  Add a pastry lid, brush with egg and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 50 minutes, until golden brown.

We hope that this Christmas is a wonderful and allergy/intolerance/Coeliac friendly time!

Credit Crunch-Time

There's no escaping it. Food prices, energy prices, fuel prices, the price of everything is rising faster than I can keep up with and it show no sign of stopping soon. With that in mind, and the fact that I only work part-time because of my health (but don't qualify for DLA or working tax credits), I have made some changes to my food shopping.

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has made me look at what we throw out, and it shocked me. If I go shopping with a meal-plan in mind, then am too ill to cook some nights then produce goes off and I chuck it. I do put it in the compost bin, but that doesn't bring back the money I've spent in the first place. So, I now buy smaller quantities of fruit and veg, I'd rather have to go back to the supermarket later in the week than have to throw out another sprouting potato. As of this week I am having an organic veg box delivered once a fortnight. Anything I don't cook with will be prepared and frozen (I do solemnly swear). This should help cut down my trips to the shops and will prevent me from getting stuck in a rut, veg-wise. I worked out what I spend each week on fruit and vegetables and this should also work out cheaper AND all the produce is organic AND as much as possible is UK grown. Win-win, really.

Next, meat. It is the most expensive thing on the shopping list so I am using my local butcher, buying cheaper cuts of meat and seeking his advice on the best way to cook it. Of course, any bones are boiled up for stock which is frozen if necessary and leftovers are used. When I buy meat at the supermarket I head straight for the reduced section to see what bargains are there. I still buy British and, if available, free range, but this way I save money while I do it.

For a while now I've been freezing meals in tubs for the Husband, as he works away and stays at a flat when he's not here. Instead of going out for a kebab or fish and chips or pizza, he can stick something in the microwave and have a healthy, home cooked meal in minutes. It also means that we only have one food bill, except for minimal extras like bread and pasta (the Husband likes to fill up on gluten when I'm not around).

I'm making use of my slow-cooker. It uses the same energy as a light-bulb, apparently (regular, I assume, not energy-saving) and if I set it up and switch it on before I leave for work, then I have a hot meal waiting for me when I get home. Wonderful! One-pot dishes are fast becoming a favourite too. I'm only using one ring on the hob, saving money, and saving on the washing up, which must save water, surely?

Economy brands at supermarkets are on the shopping list now. Things like tinned tomatoes, butter, bacon, salmon, trout, pollack, prawns and natural yogurt are all just the same as the supermarket own brand, except slightly smaller or more irregularly shaped (or with bones and skin still on, in the case of the fish.. In many cases, it's just a plainer packaging that's the difference.

Of course rising prices make it more difficult to balance the books, but I maintain that it shouldn't prevent me from balancing my diet.