We’re shockingly well off for reasonably priced fruit in the UK, especially considering we’re a tiny, wet island that needs to import large amounts of its produce.  But it’s important to be careful when buying fruit, anyway.

I recently had the distinct pleasure to find a punnet of around a dozen gorgeous-looking peaches for a mere £1.  Of course, since my income is low enough, and my food budget strict enough, that even cheap fruit is something I have to think about carefully (if it won’t contribute to a main meal - lunch or dinner - I’ll have to work hard to jutify it.  Ask me how long I spent agonizing over the cereal aisle yesterday before leaving empty-handed).  Nevertheless, the low price combined with the beautiful appearance of the fruit convinced me to buy.  I saw myself treating myself to an actual breakfast every day, slicing peaches over yoghurt or blending the two ingredients with a little milk and cinnamon for a smoothie. 

But of course, the next morning all the peaches were rock hard.  And the morning after that.  And the morning after that.  Fast forward a week and while a few of the peaches are softer, most are still hard despite the fact that they are also getting a little wrinkly on the outside.  Fortunately, I know from semi-frequent use of this recipe and this recipe that I can use up any stone fruit or berries even when they are stubbornly hard and sour - cooking always softens them up. 

The peaches will not go to waste.  Still, it would have been nice to have fresh fruit for a change.  I can and will turn cheap fruit into chutney, jam, fruit butter, pies, slab bars, cakes and preserves in syrup.  But there’s a reason I generally stick to apples, oranges and bananas these days.

I don’t know why this is, but I seem to have a lot of problems with buying fruit that goes straight from sour to rotten without passing through ripe.  I know it wasn’t always this way.  I have fond memories of juicy soft plums and peaches.  And I do tend to find nicer fruit on market stalls than in supermarkets.  What on earth have supermarkets done to the fruit they sell to make it do this?

Protip when buying the very cheap minced beef from Tesco, ASDA etc.  The mince is very high in fat compared to more expensive varieties - this makes it excellent for burgers, meatballs and kofte, as it adheres together beautifully, but also makes it greasy. 

If cooking as patties or meatballs, add no oil to the pan and, when the meat is nearly done, pour off the fat that it will by now be swimming in, into a spare bowl or ceramic container.  If cooking as mince for bolognaise or chilli, cook the meat and onions at the same time with, again NO oil added to the pan. 

Once the meat is crisp and brown, pour off fat through a strainer into a container, then return the meat to the pan and add the rest of the ingredients.  You can use the run-off fat when it cools instead of cooking oil to cook onions, mushrooms, the meat substitutes I gave a recipe for earlier.  It adds a rich, meaty flavour to whatever you cook without the need to add actual meat to the dish.

Technically, I think of this as a chickpea casserole.  It goes well with the basic idea of the recipe and allows for tweaking for different things.  This recipe can be made into a Middle-Eastern inspired dish with the addition of preserved lemon and cinnamon, or turned into a rich vegetarian chilli with the addition of some finger chillis and a spoonful or two of cocoa powder.  Using plenty of beans or chickpeas, or a mixture of whatever legumes you have to hand, makes this a very nutritious and filling meal.  It freezes well, and in times of plenty can be used as a base to add to more extravagant dishes, so it’ll never go to waste.

It’s also slow-cooker friendly, so you can just whack the ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning and come home to a hot cooked meal, without using your gas supply.

Ingredients:

Two or Three cups (dry) of whatever legumes you have to hand, although chickpeas work very well.

One large onion.

A few cloves garlic.

Glug of oil, olive pomace oil is particularly good for this.

Half a bag of cheap frozen spinach.

One tin tomatoes

Water

Salt to taste (optional)

Method:

If you have time, soak the legumes in water overnight.  Chop the onion and garlic.  Drizzle oil in the bottom of the slow cooker, add the onion and garlic.  Add the legumes and the water they’re in to the slow cooker.  Add the spinach and tinned tomatoes.

Variations:  If making a Middle-Eastern style and you have the ingredients to hand, add two quarters of a preserved lemon, rinsed and finely chopped (rind and all).  Add the cinnamon towards the end of cooking, when you get home - you don’t need much, it’s a rich spice.  Omit the salt.  If making a chilli, add the finely chopped chillis (as many as you like according to food heat and what you have available) and the cocoa powder (1 tbsp) at the start of cooking.

Simply turn the slow cooker onto a high setting and leave until you get home.  Give it a good stir close to dinner time and taste test.  A spoonful of butter adds richness, if the spinach has made it taste watery.

So you know those big bags of fresh peppers you can get at Tesco?  Do yourself a favour and try and get one that has mostly yellow and orange peppers in.  The different colour peppers actually taste different - red ones are sweet, green ones are tart, and yellow ones are right in between.  Note that you can actually use red or green in this recipe, but yellow ones taste the best.

This is a soup that can also be used as a base for chowder, making it easy to vary if you make a batch of the plain recipe and freeze portions - just thaw a portion, add extra ingredients as desired and you’ve got a whole new soup!  I’ll add a fillet of cheap whitefish and a fillet of smoked haddock (look out for cheap frozen fish in Lidl, or see if you have a local fishmonger!) as well as whatever is going for cheap at my local fishmongers, to a BIG pot of the soup, for a very rich and nutritious chowder, but it’s just as good as-is!

As usual, this is a bulk recipe designed to fill a big cooking pot, so you can portion it out and freeze it.

Ingredients:

3-4 yellow peppers

1 large onion

2-3 decent sized potatoes

2 cups frozen sweetcorn

small knob butter

splash milk

1 vegetable or chicken stock cube

water as needed

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Cut the potatoes into small pieces.  You can peel if you like - I never do, because the skins are extra nutritious, and also because you always lose a load of potato when you peel the skin.  Finely chop the onion.  Drop the knob of butter in the bottom of the pot and, once melted, add the onion and potato, stir well to coat, and leave to sweat and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add just enough water to the pan to cover the potatoes, and add the stock cube.  Chop the yellow peppers into small pieces and add to the pan.  Add the sweetcorn as well.  Cover and cook until potatoes are very soft, adding extra water as needed to prevent sticking.  Towards the end, add a splash of milk and a little more water, and season to taste.

This is a great snack, an easy way to add flavour to simple salads and also a gorgeous ingredient in a pickled carrot and cream cheese sandwich, for those treat days when you can afford cheese.

Carrots are cheap-as-chips.  You can get a 1kg bag of carrots for 92p, right now.  This recipe is an instant pickle - it can be eaten as soon as the vinegar cools, is great after one or two days and should ideally be eaten in a week for maximum crunch (still good to eat after but carrots may get a bit softer).  The good thing is, because it’s a quick pickle, you can just make a small jar up as and when you want some, to use up leftover carrots (I know I struggle to use up a whole bag before they turn).

I have some old coffee jars I use for my pickled carrots, but you can use any size jar you think you’ll need.

Ingredients:

Carrots

Fresh Dill

Clear vinegar

Caster sugar

Method:

Heat the vinegar in a pan.  While the vinegar heats, peel, top-and-tail and then cut the carrots into batons or thick (3mm approx) slices, layering them into a clean jar, alternating layers of carrot and fresh dill, until the jar is stuffed as full as you can.  Feel free to stuff multiple jars.

Add sugar to the vinegar - about half as much sugar as vinegar - and stir until dissolved.  Pour the vinegar/sugar mix over the carrots then gently tap the sides to encourage any air bubbles to escape.  Seal and eat when cool.

There’s been some signs that a global food crisis may be looming.  Significant crop failures in multiple areas of the world, affecting staple grains and other foods.

Some various sources:

1. Here
2. Here
3. Here
4. Here
5. Here
6. Here
7. Here
8. Here
9. Here

There’s a pattern that the food crisis is likely to follow.

Staple grains will increase in price.  This will make not only grains for human consumption more expensive, but grain feed for livestock as well.  Livestock will become more expensive for farms to keep, and more livestock will be slaughtered to reduce costs, temporarily making meat cheaper.  But by next year, the knock-on effect will be increases in the price of meat and dairy, as farmers have less stock to get milks and eggs from, less stock to slaughter for meat etc.  Grains will continue to be expensive, due to the global food bank shortages.

So, for now, keep an eye on food prices from month to month.  Stock up on dried goods that keep, like rice, pasta, flour, dried beans.  If you don’t already own a chest freezer, look out for one on freecycle.  If you live in a flat, maybe see whether you and your neighbours can pool together for a couple of chest freezers that you share.  If you own a garden, think about turning over some of the area for food crops.  See if you have space for a small number of chickens.

DON’T PANIC

Those of us living in the West are going to be far from the hardest hit.  It’s the people living in poorer countries that will really suffer.  But those of us living on the bread line over here will feel the pinch more than others.  It’s wise to be prepared.

Dried Goods:

1kg bag Every Day Value long grain rice     £0.40 x4

500g bag Every Day Value spaghetti         £0.24 x3

500g bag Every Day Value penne pasta     £0.30 x3

250g box Every Day Value lasagna sheets £0.39 x1

1kg bag cous cous                                  £1.39 x1

1kg Wholefoods red split lentils                £1.80 x1

500g chick peas                                      £0.99 x1

500g cannellini beans                              £0.99 x1

Staples:

400g Every Day Value chopped tomatoes £0.31 x5

1.5kg Every Day Value plain flour             £0.52 x2

750g table salt                                       £0.29 x1

100g Every Day Value stock cubes*         £0.10 x3

1 litre Every Day Value cooking oil            £1.29 x1

250g Every Day Value lard                      £0.39 x1

Total:  £13.64

*Tesco do three varieties - I recommend you get 1 of each, or whichever you prefer to use most.

You will also want to invest in your regular £5-or-less herb and spice budget.  I would suggest parsley, mint and cinnamon if you wish to try your hand at some of the Middle-Eastern recipes I suggested recently.  If you want to make curries, then coriander leaf, coriander seed, cumin seed and turmeric are excellent starter spices.

It goes without saying that you’ll still need to add on your usual selection of meats, dairy and vegetables, but since those foods are perishable, the price of them fluctuates more rapidly and it’s better if you pick your own according to what is best value, and best for your dietary preferences, on the day.  That said, please note that the massive 30 egg boxes Tesco do in their value range are excellent - a box can easily last a month, and I’ve never had a bad egg from them, even cracking open the last few at the end.  I do keep the box on the highest shelf in my fridge, which puts it right below the freezer compartment.

The dried goods may well last you well beyond this shop and even the next - they often do for me, I know that much.  But it is worth it to stock up on very cheap dry goods, as they keep and having more than you need can really help when that emergency last-week-of-the-month hits.