Eating well on a budget is supposed to be a matter of sensible planning: batch-cook your lentils, embrace the slightly tired vegetables at the back of the fridge and never enter a supermarket without a list. In practice, when the day has run away with you and dinner needs to be on the table before everyone loses patience, the cheaper option can often feel like the easier one too.
That tension is familiar to plenty of households. New research commissioned by Lidl found that almost seven in 10 Britons believe healthy eating costs more, while nearly half said they had chosen a less healthy option in the past year because it was cheaper. There is no shortage of advice telling us to eat more vegetables, beans, pulses and wholegrains; the more pressing question is how to turn all that good intention into a dinner people actually want to eat, without spending half the evening cooking it or half the weekly food budget buying it.
Enter Miguel Barclay, the chef behind the bestselling One Pound Meals series, who has teamed up with Lidl to create seven so-called £1 Planet Plate recipes. Inspired by the Planetary Health Diet – a framework developed by scientists to encourage eating patterns that support both human and environmental health – the collection is less interested in demanding a total kitchen overhaul than in making a few useful adjustments to familiar meals.
“I’ve always believed that great food doesn’t have to come with a big price tag,” Barclay says. “The key is making the most of simple, affordable ingredients and knowing how to bring them together in a way that’s delicious and balanced. These £1 Planet Plate recipes show how little changes, such as adding more vegetables and beans, can be easy to create at home, without compromising on flavour or affordability.”
Thankfully, that does not mean seven earnest bowls of undressed lentils. Barclay’s recipes borrow from the kind of food people already cook and order: chicken kra pow served with cauliflower rice, a creamy leek, courgette and bean cassoulet, chickpea masala and a mushroom and spinach stroganoff with mashed potato. A pork ramen comes topped with charred sweetcorn, while a beef hotpot stretches a modest amount of mince with green lentils beneath a layer of golden potato.
There is some clever thrift built in, too. Wholemeal wraps are cut into small tacos for roasted cauliflower, red cabbage and kidney beans, while the trimmings become nachos rather than going in the bin. Across the collection, yoghurt supplies creaminess, beans and pulses add substance and vegetables are treated as part of the pleasure rather than a worthy side order.
These are straightforward, forgiving recipes made from supermarket ingredients, designed for weeknights rather than lifestyle manifestos. Because eating a little better becomes far more achievable when dinner still tastes like dinner.
Chicken kra pow and cauliflower rice
open image in galleryServes: 1
Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
½ cauliflowers
20ml sesame oil
160g chicken drum fillets, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 fresh red chilli, sliced
34g green beans, quartered
14g fresh basil
10ml soy sauce
4 pinches salt
2 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Blitz the cauliflower in a food processor by pulsing until it resembles rice. Then pan fry over a medium heat in a splash of sesame oil for about 8 minutes until tender and cooked.
2. Meanwhile, chop the chicken into very small pieces, season with salt and pepper, then pan fry with garlic, chilli and green beans in a splash of sesame oil over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until cooked through.
3. Add a small handful of basil, along with a splash of soy sauce for the last 30 seconds of cooking, then serve with the cauliflower rice.
Creamy leek, courgette and bean cassoulet
open image in galleryServes: 2
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 courgette, sliced into 2mm thick circles
10ml olive oil
1 leek, sliced into 3mm thick circles
1 chicken or veg stock cube
400g cannellini beans
4 tbsp 0% Greek yoghurt
4 pinches salt
4 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Pan fry the courgette circles in a splash of olive oil with a pinch of salt and pepper over a medium heat for about 7 mins until slightly coloured on both sides, then remove from the pan.
2. In the same pan, add the leeks and pan fry in the remaining olive oil along with a another pinch of salt and pepper over a medium heat for about 7 minutes until softened, then add the stock cube and cannellini beans, along with some liquid from the tin. Simmer for 5 minutes (adding a splash of water if it gets too dry), then stir in 2 tablespoons of greek yoghurt and simmer for another 30 seconds.
3. Stir through the cooked courgettes and serve.
Chickpea masala
open image in galleryServes: 2
Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
100g rice
200g water
2 small onion, sliced
10ml sunflower oil
2 tsp curry paste
200g chickpeas
½ aubergine, diced
400g chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp 0% Greek yoghurt
2 pinches salt
Optional:
10g coriander, chopped
1 red onion, sliced
Method:
1. Add the rice to a saucepan, along with the water and simmer over a medium heat with the lid on for about 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked.
2. Meanwhile, pan fry the onion, chickpeas and diced aubergine in a splash of oil over a medium heat along with the curry paste and a pinch of salt for about 7 minutes. Next, add the tinned chopped tomatoes. Simmer for a few minutes before adding a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt.
3. Top with chopped coriander and sliced red onion (optional)
4. Serve with rice.
Mushroom and spinach stroganoff
open image in galleryServes: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
4 potatoes, diced
1 onion, sliced
10ml olive oil
2 large flat cap mushroom, sliced
1 tsp smoked paprika
4 tbsp 0% Greek yoghurt
100g fresh spinach, washed
80g frozen British petit pois
4 pinches salt
2 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Boil the diced potato in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes until cooked through, then drain and mash with a fork.
2. Meanwhile, pan fry the onion over a medium heat for 3 minutes in a splash of olive oil. Then add the garlic and mushroom, along with salt, pepper and paprika. Continue to fry for 5 minutes until cooked, then add the yoghurt, spinach and peas, along with a splash of water. Simmer for a minute or 2 until the peas are cooked, then serve with mashed potato.
Charred sweetcorn and sliced pork ramen
open image in galleryServes: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
½ pork shoulder steak
200g Freshona sweetcorn, drained
2 pinches chilli flakes
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
10ml sesame oil
2 spring onions, sliced
1 chicken or veg stock cube
800ml boiling water
2 portions dried noodles
20ml soy sauce
2 pinches salt
2 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Season and pan fry the pork steak over a medium heat in a splash of sesame oil along with a pinch of salt, pepper and chilli flakes, for about 5 minutes on each side until cooked through and nicely coloured on the outside. Add the sweetcorn into the pan with the pork half way through cooking. Then remove both from the pan and set to one side.
2. In the same pan, using the leftover oil, fry the garlic and spring onion for 2 minutes before adding the stock cube, boiling water and noodles. Simmer for about 4 minutes until the noodles are cooked through.
3. Slice the pork very thinly, then add to the ramen along with the charred sweetcorn and a splash of soy sauce, then serve.
Beef and lentil hotpot
open image in galleryMakes: 1 pie
Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 small onion, diced
10ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
20g grass fed mince beef
200g green lentils, drained
1 carrot, diced
200g tin chopped tomatoes
½ beef or veg stock cube
½ tsp cumin
1 potato, sliced about 5mm thick
2 pinches salt
2 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Pan fry the diced onion in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for about 3 minutes before adding the garlic and minced beef. Season, then continue to fry for a further 8 minutes before adding the lentils, diced carrot, chopped tomatoes, ½ a stock cube and the cumin. Simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the sauce a little.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
3. Transfer everything to an ovenproof dish and top with the potato slices, then brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cook in the oven for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through and the top is golden.
Cauliflower and red cabbage tacos with offcut nachos
open image in galleryMakes: 6 tacos
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 wholemeal tortilla wraps, cut into smaller circles
¼ cauliflower, cut into florets
75g red cabbage, thinly sliced
¼ tin kidney beans, drained
5ml olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
3 tsp Hellmann’s Chilli Charger Mayo (you can also make this by mixing mayo with tomato ketchup and paprika)
5 g coriander, chopped
1 pinches salt
1 pinches black pepper
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 200C.
2. Using a circular template (for example a large mug), cut out 3 mini tortillas from each large tortilla and set to one side, then cut the offcuts into triangles to make nachos.
3. Lightly coat the cauliflower, cabbage, kidney beans and tortilla offcuts in olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin and paprika. Then roast everything on a baking tray in the oven, with the nachos on a separate tray, for about 15 minutes, or until cooked and slightly coloured.
4. Warm the mini tortillas for the last 1 minute in the oven.
5. Add the cabbage, cauliflower and beans to the heated mini tortillas, along with a drizzle of Chilli Charger Mayo sauce.
6. Finish with some chopped coriander and serve.
These recipes were created by Miguel Barclay as part of Lidl GB’s £1 Planet Plate collection, designed to make balanced, budget-friendly meals easier to cook at home. Find out more here.