The cheap student meal plan that makes 14 meals from one shop
- Published
This meal plan covers a week's worth of dinners and lunches for one hungry adult, designed to be affordable for students.
Lots of the elements are batch cooked, ingredients overlap between recipes and there's no specialist kitchen kit needed,
The recipes are written by Elly Curshen, well-known for being a whizz with leftovers and making basic ingredients shine.
More budget meal inspiration
Recipes
Day 1
Dinner: Spinach and coconut dal
Batch cook four portions of an easy dal: one to eat today, and three to store in the fridge and freezer for later in the week (served in different ways so you don't get bored).
Day 2
Lunch: Leftover dal
Dinner: Pearl barley risotto
For lunch, just reheat yesterday's dal and top with a little yoghurt and red chilli.
For dinner, pearl barley is cheap, filling, good for you, and great for batch cooking. The risotto is topped with roasted butternut squash, which is batch cooked to use throughout the week.
Day 3
Lunch: Leftover risotto
Dinner:Leftover dal with roasted butternut squash
An easy day with very little cooking. Lunch is a portion of last night's risotto topped with ricotta, basil and chilli.
Dinner makes use of leftovers by combining the butternut squash you cooked yesterday with the dal from day one.
Day 4
Lunch: Spinach and ricotta omelette
Dinner:Leftover risotto fritters
This high protein lunch is a simple omelette finished with spinach and creamy ricotta.
Dinner turns a portion of the batch cooked risotto into fritters to serve with spinach leaves (get some hot sauce involved too if you have some handy).
Day 5
Lunch: 6-minute egg with yoghurt and toasted pitta
Dinner: Pasta with spicy sardine and tomato sauce
A budget take on Turkish eggs is up for lunch today, with shards of toasted pitta for dipping.
For dinner is a quick pasta recipe based on two store cupboard essentials: tinned tomatoes and tinned fish. Sardines pack a punch nutritionally and are a really cheap way to get Omega 3s, calcium and protein into your diet.
Day 6
Lunch: Baked egg in tomato sauce with ricotta and toasted pitta (see the recipe tips)
Dinner:Pearl barley with spinach, peas, tomatoes and butternut squash
For lunch, bake an egg baked tomato sauce (leftover from last night's dinner) mixed with ricotta.
Dinner is a filling and nutritious warm salad of pearl barley, spinach and tomatoes mixed with the butternut squash you batch cooked earlier in the week.
Day 7
Lunch: Leftover pearl barley and vegetable salad
Dinner: Tomato, squash and chilli pasta
For lunch, you can eat last night's leftover salad warm or cold, so it's a good one to take with you to uni or work.
Dinner is a quick veggie pasta, mixing the last of the batch cooked butternut squash with sweet cherry tomatoes.
Day 8
Lunch: Leftover dal with a 6-minute egg (see recipe tips)
The final meal is leftover dal with a 6-minute egg, served with a little finely chopped red chilli if you like. If you have any strained yoghurt left over you can dollop that on top, too.
At this point, you should have used up all the fresh ingredients, except for a chilli and some fresh root ginger (unless you were able to buy them loose). Both things freeze well. Slice or chop the chilli and put inside a freezer-safe bag or small container, to use in future. The ginger can be frozen whole and grated straight from frozen (this is a game changer!).
Shopping list
Fruit and vegetables
□ 1 bulb garlic
□ thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
□ 3 medium onions
□ 1 bag fresh spinach (240–300g)
□ 2 large or 3 small red chillies
□ 1 butternut squash (about 1kg/2lb 4oz)
□ 1 basil plant (will last well all week, unlike a packet of cut basil)
□ 1 punnet (about 330g) cherry or baby plum tomatoes
Dairy and eggs
□ 500g/1lb 2oz Greek-style yoghurt (cheaper natural yoghurt can also be used but will need to be strained for the egg recipe)
□ 1 tub ricotta (alternatively use feta, freezing a third of the pack as soon as you open it on Day 2 and defrosting ready for Day 6)
□ 60g/2¼oz butter
□ 6 free-range eggs
Tins, packets and jars
□ 500g/1lb 2oz red lentils
□ 500g/1lb 2oz pearl barley (for convenience you can swap for pre-cooked mixed grain pouches, but this will cost more)
□ 160g/5¾oz penne pasta (or other pasta shapes)
□ 1 tin coconut milk (400ml)
□ 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
□ 1 tin sardines in spicy tomato sauce
Cooking ingredients
□ 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
□ 3 tablespoons olive oil
□ 3 vegetable stock cubes
□ 30g/1oz curry powder
□ 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
Frozen
□ 40g/1½oz frozen peas
Other
□ 1 pack pitta bread
□ ½ tsp sugar (optional)
Originally published September 2023
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