As requested, my favorite recipes/how to cook (vegan) on a low budget!
In good times I have about 50€ a month for food for both me and my cats (and alcohol), which boils down to about 1€/day. I’ve been vegan for over five years now, and have never had any kind of vitamin deficiency or what have you.
The instructions may be a bit vague because I don’t use measurements when cooking, I just add stuff on instinct. If you’re not very experienced with cooking and are not sure how much to add, feel free to hmu! Also most of these recipes are more or less ground recipes, you can add (or leave out) whatever you like!
All of the recipes are vegan. Very long text under cut, but here is the gist of it:
Basics:
Emergency Bread
Cream Sauce
Hot Pepper Sauce
Recipe for mayonnaise and all kind of dips
And:
Goulash
(Sweet-) Potato Stew
Chili Stew
Tarte flambée / Flammkuchen
Tabbouleh Salad
Noodle Salad
Flädlesuppe (A very German Soup)
Pudding
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Goulash
(It doesn’t really taste like goulash. Still amazing!)
What you need:
Potatoes
1 red paprika
1 onion
1 can of sieved tomatoes (or anything resembling it)
Take 1 potato, 1 onion, 1 red paprika and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a pot with some oil and steam them at a low temperature for about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable broth (water mixed with vegetable broth powder) so the vegetables are just about covered. Add the sieved tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes until it’s boiling, then take it off the stove and blend it with a blender until it is smooth. If it is too thick, add some more water. If it’s too liquid, no worries: Now you cut the potatoes into very small dices – this way they cook faster – and add them into the pot. Cook until the potatoes are done. Now add the spices – and done!
(Sweet-)Potato Stew
This one originates from South Africa, if I remember correctly. It’s usually done with sweetpotatoes, but since they are rather expensive I use normal potatoes.
What you need:
Potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Chili peppers (ideally fresh ones, but canned ones are cheaper)
Cut the onions, garlic and chili peppers and a bit of ginger in very tiny pieces and roast them in your pot with some oil. Add the can of sieved tomatoes with a bit of water and heat it up until its boiling. Add 1 table spoon of peanut butter and cook for about 10 minutes. Cut the potatoes into small dices, add them into the pot and cook until they are done. Add the spices. It’s even better with a bunch of fresh mint leaves as topping.
Cut the onions into small pieces and roast them in your pot with some oil. Add the can of sieved tomatoes with some water and vegetable broth. Add the spices and heat everything up until it’s boiling. Add kidney beans, corn, more cut onions, and whatever else you want to add. Cook for a few more minutes until all ingredients are done.
Emergency Bread
(A bad version of arabic bread, it’s probably insulting to even call it that. It’s really great if you have no food at home or no money left though and it tastes way better than it sounds!)
What you need:
Water
Flour
Salt
Mix water and flour in a bowl until you have a liquid substance. It should not be thick-ish since you want to spread it very thin! Add salt. Heat up a pan, add a bit of oil – just a few drops. Add the water-flour-mix until the base of the pan is barely covered with it. Remember, it has to be as thin as possible! Fry it for a few minutes until one side is done. Turn it around and do the same with the other side. You know it’s perfectly done when it’s no longer doughy inside!
Flädlesuppe
Can’t translate this one into English since it’s a very (Southern) German dish. It’s basically pancakes cut into stripes and put into vegetable broth. Probably sounds weird, but it tastes better than you think!
What you need:
Emergency bread (see recipe above)
Vegetable broth
Spices: Pepper, salt
(Onions)
You want to make some emergency bread first, except this time spread the dough a little bit thicker so it’s still soft inside after it’s done. Like a pancake! Cut the pancakes into small stripes and put them into a pot of hot vegetable broth. If you like onions, add some of those too. And done! You should eat it fast before the pancakes soak up all the broth though.
Recipe for mayonnaise and all kind of dips
When I have enough money left for milk, I usually make mayonnaise, but you can also use recipe this for e.g. a curry dip or salad dressing.
What you need:
1/3 of soy milk (Doesn’t work very well with other milk)
2/3 of sunflower or rapeseed oil
Spices: Salt, pepper, mustard, vegetable broth powder, lemon juice
Mix the soy milk and the oil (e.g. 50ml of milk and 100ml of oil) and use a blender to mix it for a few seconds. Ideally it has now the consistency of mayonnaise, but no worries if it doesn’t, we can fix that. Just add the spices and stir it, that will make it more solid.
For a curry dip, just add some curry powder, salt and pepper instead. Or other spices, whatever you fancy! Basically you can use this for any kind of dip that you can think of.
For the salad dressing use the same spices as for the mayonnaise, but add a little bit more milk in the end.
Tarte flambée / Flammkuchen
What you need:
Emergency Bread (see recipe above)
Mayonnaise (see recipe above)
Onions
Tofu (Optional, since expensive)
You can either use the emergency bread and put warm ‘mayonnaise’ and roasted onions on it.
Or you can use 250g flour, 20g yeast, 150ml water, salt, sugar and olive oil to make a dough and let it rest for at least 45 minutes. Roll the pastry so it’s very thin, add mayonnaise and cut onions and put the whole thing into the preheated oven for around 5 minutes.
Cream Sauce
This one is a classic and great for any kind of noodle recipes, or vegetables like potatoes. Or, if you have the money, broccoli, cauliflower and tofu.
What you need:
Margarine
Flour
Hot water
Tofu (Optional, since expensive)
Spinach (Optional)
Spices: There are many versions for this recipe, I listed them further down
Heat up a pot and put margarine in it – at least two table spoons. When it’s fully melted add about the same amount of flour, little by little. Stir it with an eggbeater. Now add hot water, again little by little and constantly stirring until you have a thick sauce. If it’s too thick, add more water. If it’s too liquid, add more flour.
For the classic version, add only salt, pepper and a bit of nutmeg.
It’s important to eat green vegetables too. :P Add some (frozen) spinach and done!
I also like to mix it additionally with oregano and parsley for “Italian” noodle dishes. And if you have the money, take half a block of classic tofu, mash it with a fork and add it into the pot to cook for a bit. (No spinach in this version.)
Hot Red Pepper Sauce
What you need:
Hot Red Pepper Paste (I always buy it at Turkish grocery stores, but I heard Korean grocery stores have it too)
Water
Spices: Pepper, salt, vegetable broth, paprika powder, chili flakes
Heat up water in a pot and add hot red pepper paste until you have a smooth sauce. Add the spices and you’re done! Tastes especially great with rice and, if you can afford them, fresh vegetables.
Tabbouleh Salad
The perfect thing for hot days! Plus the vegetables you need for this are usually cheaper during summer too.
What you need:
Bulgur
1-3 Onions
½ Cucumber
2 big tomatoes
A big bundle of fresh mint leaves
Salad (Optional)
Spices: Salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil
Take about 150-200g of bulgur and soak it in cold water for an hour, then put it in a sieve to drain off the water. Put the bulgur in a big bowl or pot. Cut the onions, cucumber, tomatoes and mint leaves into small pieces and add them. (The original recipe has 3 big onions, which is a lot. Most people I know are more than happy with only one.) Add salt, pepper, a bit of lemon juice and 4-5 table spoons of olive oil. Optionally you can add a bit of fresh salad too.
Noodle Salad
What you need:
Noodles
Kidney beans
Onions
Corn
Paprika
Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Cook the noodles and let them cool. Add everything else. Done!
Pudding
Sweets are expensive too. So whenever I have money left for milk, I make pudding. I have two versions for you:
1.) Chocolate or Vanilla pudding
You know pudding powder? Every grocery store has those for a few cents, so go get some. The instructions are on the back. Takes about 5 minutes to make!
2.) Semolina pudding
You need:
200g semolina
200ml vegan milk
2 table spoons sugar
Heat up the milk in a pot. Add sugar. Add the semolina and stir for about 5 minutes until you have gooey substance. Fill it into a bowl of your liking, let it cool, then put it into the fridge for a few hours. Add some nuts, if you can afford them!
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And a bit of advice:
If it’s too liquid, add more spices or a bit of flour
If it’s too spicy, add sugar, syrup and/or lemon juice
Don’t search for vegan recipes since they usually include super fancy and expensive ingredients. Instead take normal, simple recipes you already know. You can turn literally anything vegan. Usually it’s enough to replace a few things, most commonly:
Soy/Almond/Rice milk instead of cow milk
In many cases you can even replace yoghurt with milk
Half a banana instead of an egg
Or vinegar mixed with natron instead of an egg (Baking only)
Every household needs at least one mint plant. :P You can add them to every kind of spicy dish as topping
Get more spice plants!! They are cheap and you have a seemingly endless source of fresh spices
I don’t know about other countries, but here in Germany spices can be really expensive, at least in most German grocery stores. And they aren’t even good or spicy. I always buy them at Turkish grocery stores – the spices are affordable and actually spicy. Arabic, Korean, Chinese (etc.) stores have great spices too!
May I introduce to you the "Jammerlappen " aka whining cloth ;). My little companion. Always pessimistic, always whining, never satisfied. Incredibly annoying.
16. Favourite place: The top of a mountain on a warm summer day, Prague
20. First thing I notice in new person: Hmm, hair, i think?
27. Meaning behind my URL: It’s the name of an album by Mohsen Namjoo
37. Tattoos and piercing i want: Not very fond of piercings, but i do want tattoos someday, though i have no idea of what
47. Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? At a reasonable level, my left ear is really fucked up and loud noises make the tinnitus worse or cause another sudden hearing loss :q
