This is for Meal Plan 10 and is a version of the Cheesy Bean Lasagna. I can’t use the same ingredients as they aren’t all available on this plan. So it’s a tweak of a tweaked recipe.

The bean sauce layer
2 onions, chopped, Asda 2kg/£1.07, 10p
2 garlic cloves, Asda 25p/bulb, 10p
400g carrots, Asda 1kg/59p, 24p
Tin value tomatoes, 31p
2 tsp sugar, 1p
2 tsp mixed dried herbs, Asda value herbs, 25p pot, 3p
2 tins value baked beans, 48p

pasta layer
100g value flour, 45p/1.5kg, 3p

sauce layer
400ml skimmed milk, 3.4 litres/£1.30, 15p
50g flour, 45p/1.5kg, 1p
50g veg oil, Asda £1.10/litre, 6p

100g Bowland cheese, Asda 40p/200g, 20p

Total cost £1.72, serves 4, 43p a serving

serve with (serves 4)
200g carrots cut into ribbons as salad, Asda 1kg/59p, 12p

Per serving: 610 cals, 24g protein, 24g fat, 75g carb

Optional (serves 4)
400g Asda frozen chips Asda 75p/1.5kg,  20p

Per serving with chips: 760 cals, 26g protein, 27g fat, 102g carbs

If you are following Meal Plan 10, serve half for dinner on Day 1 and half on Day 3.

 

Bean mixture
Sauté the onions until transparent. Add the garlic, sauté for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes, sugar and the dried herbs.

Grate the carrots, no need to peel unless they are manky. Add the carrots to the other vegetables.

Open the beans and drain off the sauce, retaining the sauce to use in shepherds pie or soup. Rinse the beans and drain well. Add the beans to the vegetable mix. Season with salt and pepper.

Sauce
Put the oil in a saucepan and warm it.  If you have any butter available, it would be worth a swap here. Add 50g of the flour and cook for a minute or two. Add a little of the milk and stir until amalgamated. Add the rest of the milk bit by bit and whisk well to incorporate. Now heat the milk mixture either in a saucepan or in the microwave until it thickens. Season. Set aside.

Pasta
Put the remaining 100g flour in a bowl and add enough cold water to make a pastry like dough. Knead a little.
Divide into 3. Roll out one third to the thickness of a credit card and approximately the shape of your dish.
In an ovenproof dish, the one I use is 9″/23cm x 7.5″/18cm, place one third of the beany mix, top with one quarter of the white sauce and sprinkle with a quarter of the grated cheese.

Cover with the rolled out pasta.

Repeat, beany mix, white sauce, cheese, pasta
Repeat, beany mix, white sauce, cheese, pasta
Now top the final layer of pasta with the last quarter of the white sauce and the final quarter of cheese. Everything else is cooked, we just need to cook the pasta through.
Bake in a medium oven for 30-35 minutes until the top is browned.

The beans can be any type, black eye beans, green or brown lentils, chick peas. You could even use red lentils, the cheapest of all, although they will melt into the mix, which is fine if you don’t mind that.

Experiment with the herbs. Use a bit of fine chopped rosemary, or thyme, marjoram or sage. A mix of any combination of them that you like. You could infuse the bean mix with bay while it cooks.

You may like a bit of mustard in the bean mix or the white sauce, or maybe a splash of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato or brown ketchup. Try things and see what you like

The vegetable mix can also be varied depending on what you have. So long as it is tasty, it will work.