Hi all,
As a grad student, my pitiful stipend and high rent are powerful motivators to try to make my food budget as small as possible, while still enjoying food every day. I've always been very keen on recipes that tick all the boxes of healthy, cheap, and delicious, so I've compiled a list of 15 of my favorites dishes that check all of these boxes, and I decided to spreadsheet all of the ingredients for these meals to see how much they cost per serving. Interestingly, they all came down to under $2 per serving, and several were under $1 per serving.
Ingredient and per-serving breakdown: Here is the album of ingredient spreadsheets. They are also listed individually below. I didn't include the cost of salt and pepper. Note that the "Unit Conversion Factor" is the ratio of dish units to purchase units (e.g., if I need to convert a tablespoon to an oz). "Cost per recipe" is found by multiplying amount used by purchase price, multiplying that by the conversion factor, and dividing by the amount purchased. This assumes 100% efficiency of the ingredients, which is not completely possible. One thing that really helps is to make homemade veggie stock by saving all peelings, scraps, skins, etc., and saving them in the freezer. It cuts down on food waste and also provides a practically free ingredient. I just empty the bag of accumulated veggies into the instant pot and cook on high for 30 minutes along with a bay leaf and some peppercorns.
Healthy: Of course, "healthy" is difficult to define, but almost all of these recipes contain a lot of vegetables and a decent amount of protein.
Cheap: Eating dinner for under $2 or under $1 is pretty great. My partner and I usually choose 3-4 of these meals to eat per week, we try 1-2 new recipes, and do 1-2 "wing it" recipes. We budget approximately $65 per week on groceries, and are often under budget. Breakfast we have homemade bread, and we meal prep lunches (may elaborate in a future post.)
Delicious: Honestly, all of these recipes are very tasty in my books. We like to eat a variety of food, and tend to really like big flavors and a lot of spices, and these all check the boxes. Lentil soup is probably the blandest thing on here, but it still hits home for me every time.
Vegetarian: None of these dishes contain meat. Lots of these are vegan, but some of them contain eggs, dairy, or honey. I should also note that I make both the Phat Phrik Khing and Vegetarian Chili with fish sauce, which is not vegetarian, but that can be worked around.
Caveats: I am very fortunate in that I am less than 15 minutes away from an Aldi which has very cheap produce and staples, a Korean market that has good priced tofu, and a bulk Indian+Persian grocery store that has a large variety of produce, spices, and staples. I understand that the prices will vary depending on your own grocery store prices, and may be much more expensive if you are outside of the US or don't have a local Aldi.
The Dishes: I don't want to write out each recipe right now, but I will either link recipes or provide some guidance below. Most of the linked recipes are Serious Eats, I find them to be a very reliable recipe source.
Aloo Gobi - link. The 10lb bag of potatoes at my local Aldi fluctuates between $0.99 and $1.99, making it one of the best calorie-per-dollar sources available to me.
Bibimbap - this one doesn't need a "recipe." Make rice, stir fry veg individually (or all together if you don't need it to be as pretty), top with a fried egg. The soy, sesame, and gochujang are stirred into a sauce and drizzled on top.
Black Bean Burger w/ Spinach Salad - Cook soaked beans, mush everything together, form patties, and fry. We go bunless and serve with a side salad, but that's just because hamburger buns are annoying to buy. This recipe is in the America's Test Kitchen "The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook."
Chana Masala - link. One of my favorites on here. Instead of rice, flatbreads are great with this.
Chickpea Feta Farro Bowls - cook chickpeas and sautee them to get a bit crisp. Add kale and toss with za'atar. Serve over farro, add raw tomatoes, and drizzle with tahini-honey mixture.
Dan Dan Noodles w/ Egg - link. Sub mushrooms for meat. The egg on top really adds to the dish and makes it more of a meal.
Gong Bao Tofu (Kung Pao Tofu) - link. Instead of chicken, I just stir fry the tofu in some oil to crisp it up and continue the rest of the recipe.
Lentil Soup - link. I'm not a fan of parsley so I omit it, but rosemary is nice in its place.
Mapo Tofu w/ Mushrooms - link. Sub mushrooms in for the meat. Seriously delicious.
Mujaddara - link. I like the technique of frying the onions with flour to get them crisper. I didn't include every single spice here, but they'd only add a few more cents.
Phat Phrik Khing - No recipe needed. Just stir fry tofu and beans, add curry paste and soy sauce but keep it pretty dry, and serve with rice. Dinner in 15 minutes. If you want this to be truly vegetarian (no fish sauce), make sure your curry paste is vegetarian.
Shakshouka - link. Best served with bread.
Tempeh Taco Bowl - Cook black beans after soaking. Stir fry up the onion, tempeh, jalapenos, corn, and garlic. Serve over rice, garnish with avocado and cilantro. Might need a dash of Mexican hot sauce.
Vegetarian Bolognese w/ Spaghetti - link but instead of meat, we add mushrooms and more carrots. Even without the meat, the long slow roasting makes for a delicious sauce. We always freeze some in quart-size freezer bags for a quick and easy pasta dish.
Vegetarian Chili - link but instead of meat and red kidney beans, we do a mixture of pinto beans, black beans, and lentils. I use a different blend of chiles each time I do this. This is a great batch recipe that freezes well.
Concluding thoughts: I learned these recipes by either browsing Serious Eats or watching videos from channels like Bon Appetit, Binging with Babish, Adam Ragusea, and others. I will note that lots of these recipes do take a bit of time or planning ahead (e.g., soaking beans overnight), and they are not all easy. I have found that organizing weekly meal plans and preparing ahead are huge factors in cutting down on a grocery budget. Please let me know if you notice any mistakes in my ingredient lists, and feel free to ask any questions. I hope that this post has convinced some of you to try some of these out! I have played around with the idea of making a YouTube guide for some of these recipes, but dunno if it's worth the time and effort.
Edit: Here is a public link for the spreadsheet on Google Drive. Feel free to copy it to your drive, make new recipes, adjust for your own prices, etc.
