£2.90 to feed 8? Lucy Andrews shows us how…

As we move into spring and welcome sunnier days, you might still crave a hearty meal. This edition’s recipes, made with ingredients available on the day from the Evermoor Hub, will warm you up—without breaking the budget!

All the recipes below serve 6-8 (the pie and veg bake together will feed 8 if you add some veg like broccoli, for example). I encourage you to have fun playing your own game of Ready, Steady, Cook!

Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

• 1kg of root vegetables
• Bunch of spring onions / 1 x onion 
• Garlic / sage / rosemary / any herbs
• Salt and pepper 
• From home: stock cubes / powder

Method:

1. Peel and slice vegetables as thin as possible 
2. Using a glass dish, layer 1/3 slices of vegetables across the base 
3. Season with your chosen flavours and salt and pepper 
4. Repeat twice more using all veg 
5. Pour 600ml of stock over the vegetables 
6. Cover with foil and cook for 1 hour at 180°c 
7. Remove foil and cook for a further 30 minutes

Easy Peasy Pie

Ingredients: 

• 4 x tins of beans and lentils
• Handful of spring onions / 1 x onion chopped small  
• 1 x flavoured / vegetable / chicken gravy granules 
• 1 x pastry (shortcrust or puff)
• From home: 200ml of milk and some for brushing pastry, some flour for rolling out pastry  

Method:

1. Make 800ml gravy, using 600ml water and 200ml milk. Leave to cool down  
2. Rinse beans, chop onion and mix in a deep pie dish
3. Pour gravy over beans, mix, test for seasoning  
4. Roll the pastry out and using a plate that is the same size as the top of the pie dish, cut around the plate 
5. Brush the pastry with milk 
6. Place the pastry disc on the pie filling
7. Bake at 200c for 25-30 mins or follow instructions on the pastry packet if different

Lancashire Peas

Ingredients:

• 500g x black peas (also known as Carlin peas)
• 2 x carrots
• Handful of celery
• 1 x onion (I used spring onions as they were available on the day)
• Vinegar
• From home: salt, bicarbonate of soda 

Method:

1. Rinse the beans and place them in a large pan. Cover with water to about 2” above, add bicarb and mix. Cover and leave to rest for 12 hours.
2. Drain the peas and cover again with water and the pan lid.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, then turn it down to a low simmer for 1.5-2 hours or until beans are soft 
4. Diced the vegetables into small pieces 
5. After the first hour, add the diced vegetables 
6. When beans are soft, drain beans tipping water into a jug 
7. Add small amounts of water back into the beans whilst mashing them. You want to keep many of the beans whole but mashing a few beans will create a thick sauce 
8. Add salt 
9. Serve in small portions as a snack, being generous with the vinegar

You don’t have to follow these recipes exactly—just use what you have! For example, in the vegetable bake, I used a mix of parsnips, swede, and carrots because they were available, but you could use all potatoes if that’s what you’ve got. I chose sage, but any herbs like parsley, rosemary, or thyme would work just as well. For the pie filling, you could swap in whatever you have available. Lancashire Peas are a Bonfire Night tradition, but the key to cooking healthy food on a budget is making the most of what’s on hand. Many traditional recipes have different variations, so I combined a few to create my own.

The Evermoor Hub community shop is open to everyone regardless of situation and shopping there supports those in need. Cash only and the opening hours are:

Mon-Friday 8am-7pm

Saturday Closed

Sunday 10am-2pm