Bengali daal - a thin lentil soup, served over rice. Rice and dried lentils are one of the cheapest things you can buy in my country (& probably worldwide) - and this recipe uses very limited ingredients. The spices it uses - Indian bay leaf and kalo jeera - are not expensive in Bengal, and pretty basic/versatile, used in all sorts of dishes. But they’re also optional - only daal, salt, water and green chillies are mandatory for making a decent daal!

a really simple ground meat and noodle casserole, my go to when I don’t want to spend much effort cooking. Good for about 3-4 servings.

• 2 packages of kraft dinner (or macaroni noodles). Boil these in a pot until they are done. Strain the water, add these to a large bowl.
• 1 pound of ground meat (beef, chicken, or turkey all work). Season the meat as it cooks, I usually add salt, ground pepper, paprika, rosemary, a splash of vinegar or Worcestershire sauce. Cook this in a pan on low-medium heat with some oil until it’s done. Then add to the bowl.
• grated cheese (or you can make a cheese roux). Add to the bowl as well.
• whatever else you’d like!
• mix everything and serve

For vegetables, I have something quick like cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, or something frozen like peas or corn that’s easy to heat up in the microwave.

Spaghetti alla Putanesca:

For 4 people:

• 400 grams spaghetti
• Olive oil
• One small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• Red chili flakes, about 1 tsp or to taste
• White wine, 1 glass
• 1 tin of anchovies
• 1 tablespoon brown olives, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 2 400 gram cans of tomatoes (crushed or whole, doesn’t really matter)
• A small bunch of flat parsley, chopped

1. Fry the onions in a large skillet on medium heat in the oil, until translucent.
2. Add the garlic, anchovies, chili flakes and olives and fry for a few minutes (go easy on the chili flakes, it shouldn’t be super spicy and you can always add more at the end).
3. Add the white wine and deglaze the pan, cook for a few minutes until reduced by about half.
4. Add the tomatoes and mix everything, let it simmer for half a hour.
5. After half a hour add the capers and most of the parsley.
6. Cook the spaghetti (should take a minute or 8, depending on the spaghetti)
7. The sauce has probably reduced a bit, so add some starchy pasta water to make it more ‘saucy’.
8. Add the cooked spaghetti to the sauce and mix everything.
9. Plate and top with the rest of the parsley.

If you’re making it for 2 people: after step 5, transfer half of the sauce to a Tupperware container. It keeps in the fridge for a few days or you can freeze it.

Need: Egg nuddels, some slices of garlic,chilli, salt, pepper and some cooking oil.

Cook the nuddels.

Chop the garlic and chilli.

Mix the garlic, chilli, salt, pepper in the oil.

Fry up the nuddels with the oil mixture.

Need even cheaper version, replace the garlic, chilli with their powder version.

If you want something extra, add some soy and/or mayo when it is finished. You can also add an egg boild or fried.

Probably not “good”, but a tin of chickpeas and a jar of store-bought curry sauce (doesn’t really matter which one) is super easy. Just put the chickpeas and sauce in a saucepan, and simmer for 20 minutes (also get some rice).

A nice risotto - it takes a bit of time, but the basic recipe is super simple. Get a pot of about 5 or so cups of stock (chicken veggie, whatever) simmering on the stove. In a big pan, sauté a diced onion with olive oil, add a bit of minced garlic, then toss in about a cup and a half of arborio rice (or another short grain rice) and get it all coated in the oil. You can add half a cup of white wine now if you like, or just slowly start adding in a stock, one ladleful at a time. Keep stirring, don’t walk away! This takes some time, but as the stock gets absorbed the rice releases its starch and gets super creamy. Taste test to know when it’s done. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with some parmesan cheese grated over the top (ideally from an actual block of parm, which would likely be the most expensive part of this dish).

You can add various veggies in - I like adding mushrooms or blanched asparagus. It’s great as a side dish, but also works as a main.

My stir-fry sauce works wonders with almost anything that can be fried in a pan/wok.

It’s just soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, apple cider vinegar, minced garlic and chili flakes. Mix those up and add it to something you have already got on the pan, when it’s just a few minutes away from being done.

Can also be used as an extremely flavorful marinade for chicken especially.

Recently I have been doing rice, canned black beans, and frozen veggies. Fry the veggies up in a large pan with a little olive oil. Rinse beans and add them to the pan. I’ve been using microwave rice recently because I don’t have access to a rice cooker. Add the microwaved rice to the pan, add some spices.

Boom easy meal. Can also throw all this in a tortilla for burritos.

Pasta aglio, olio, peperoncino. Garlic, olive oil, dried chilies. Comes together in the time it takes the pasta to cook. Grate some cheese over the top, or nutritional yeast to keep it vegetarian, and you’re done. I like to add some minced preserved lemon right before it comes off the heat.