by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 6, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Sides
This is a very simple dish, cooked on the hob, in a single pan. Just aubergine (eggplant), tomatoes and olive oil, simmered slowly to an unctuous silkiness. Absolutely gorgeous just on its own, hot or room temperature. Stir through pasta, top a jacket potato or use as...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 26, 2023 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Sides
Did you like the look of the avocado, tomato and orange salad yesterday? It’s one of my absolute favourites, and when we have it, it is often with this delicious no-knead focaccia. The focaccia is at its very best, straight from the oven, as many things are. It will...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 20, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Other
Wild garlic pesto This recipe is for pesto made from wild garlic, or ransoms, which is in season in the early Spring in the UK. The pesto is pungent, delicious and made from wild garlic foraged from the woods, or Allium triquetrum which is what I have growing in my...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 22, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
Vegan Couscous Salad How to make vegan couscous salad This is pretty simple and doesn’t take long. Put couscous in a bowl with oil and water. Add grated carrot. Cook some green peas (1 min in the microwave from frozen will do it) and add to the couscous If you have...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 25, 2020 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Other
Greek Cuisine This easy pitta bread recipe are the ones I made on a Greek Cuisine course I went on with my husband at Claverham College. One of the things we made were these home made pitta bread. I think you will be able to see from the picture that they are pillowy,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 10, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
Another entry for the library of lasagne – a tomato one. This is one I made a while ago and posted on Facebook, but didn’t write a proper post Tomato Lasagna Serves 4. Priced at Asda March 2019 Ragu layer 1 large onion, finely chopped, 75p/kg, 8p 200g carrot,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 22, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
I recently made a really good lentil ragu. The flavour was strong enough that I thought it may well make a good lasagna. This is the result and it was very good indeed! It will freeze well, so is something you can batch make. Lentil Ragu Lasagna The prolonged cooking...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 7, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Valentines Day Ideas
Vegan Valentine Meal I’ve been thinking about a celebration meal for this years Valentines Day and decided to do a vegan one this year. Two courses are from the archives, one, the starter, is a new, although very simple, invention. So we have a black olive and tomato...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 19, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
Lentil ragu with spaghetti Made something really good this evening inspired by a recipe from this book. I’ve tweaked it a bit, as you do, so this is my version of it. First printed in 1994 and still in print and extremely cheap from Amazon. Loads of great recipes,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 10, 2018 | Dinners, Lunches
Having recently been on holiday, and enjoying the local food, I was keen to explore some traditional Greek food recipes when I got back. A reader, Vera George, who is Greek, offered some of her recipes, and this is one of hers. Kounoupithi Yiahni by the way is...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 10, 2018 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
This recipe is the 2nd one from Vera George. I was on holiday in Greece in September and Vera, who is of Greek heritage, has kindly offered some of her Greek food recipes. I love exploring recipes from other places. Kounoupidi means cauliflower and is pronounced...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 18, 2018 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
A long lasting Tzatziki. Make a sandwich with it for lunch, with lettuce, for 14p Well phew, what a busy weekend. And you should see my diary for the next fortnight! I have one of those diaries that show 2 weeks at a time and there are scribblings of appointments all...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 7, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners
Savory vegetarian pie recipes are always popular and this version is one we made in my cookery group. This is not only a vegetarian recipe but just happens to be a vegan vegetable pie too. I found the recipe in Delicious, but have changed it a bit. Very flexible and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2017 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Other
If you grow runner beans, you may well have times, like me, when you are a bit overwhelmed with them and don’t know what else to do with them. Personally, I think home frozen runners are vile. I’ve tried numerous different ways of preserving them and haven’t liked...