Bubbles And Squeaks, 7p each.
Bubbles And Squeaks. Makes 10 bubble and squeak patties at 7p each, eat one or two or five, depending on how hungry you are. I was really hungry, so didn’t even get a picture of these. However I have half the mix left in the fridge for tonights dinner, so will fry it up and snap it later. In the meantime, here’s a recipe for ridiculously cheap food.
Ingredients:*
2 potatoes, 10p (5p each, from a 1.25kg vegetable pack, £1)
1 carrot, 5p (5p each, from a 1.25kg vegetable pack, £1)
1 onion, 5p (5p each, from a 1.25kg vegetable pack, £1)
¼ cabbage, 20p (Savoy Cabbage, 80p)
1 egg, 23p ( free range medium eggs, £1.40 for 6)
Tbsp flour, 2p (65p/1.5kg)
Tbsp lard, 4p (49p/250g)
Vegetable stock cube, 1p (10p for 10)
How To:
1. Bring the vegetable stock to the boil in a medium sized saucepan.
2. Dice the potatoes and carrots (I don’t peel mine, but this is optional) and add to the stock. Simmer for 20 minutes or until they are soft. I find prodding a knife into the saucepan is a good indicator; if it slides through a chunk of potato smoothly, you’re good to go.
3. While the root veg is boiling, take a separate saucepan and add a little lard or oil to it. Some of you may balk at the thought of using lard – I was brought up cooking eggs and bread at my grandfathers guest houses along the seafront, and we used the stuff all the time. Feel free to use some sort of oil if you’d rather, but I find slicing off a chunk of lard is a much better indicator of fat content than a nice slosh of oil. To be blunt – I use less lard than oil simply because of how it looks! Anyway… Finely slice the onion and cabbage and add to the saucepan, and fry gently until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally to allow it all to cook.
4. When the root veg is cooked, drain it and tip back into the saucepan. Add the onions and cabbage and mash together thoroughly with a masher.
5. Add the egg and flour and stir.
6. This is an optional stage but keeps it together more successfully, however if you’re in a rush and willing to keep an eye on it, it’s not essential. I scoop the mash into a bowl and refrigerate it for an hour or two to allow it to set a little. As I said, optional, but I use this setting time to wash up the pans!
7. Heat some oil/lard/fat in a frying pan, and dollop a spoon of mashed veg mixture into it. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork or spatula, and cook on a medium heat until golden and crisp on one side (depends on your hob, but mine takes about 7 minutes). Turn over and cook the other side. You may need to do these in batches, but cook until all the mixture is used up.
Variations:
You might like to add cheese to the mix, if you like that sort of thing.
Also, you can use pretty much any vegetables you like in bubble and squeak. I likt to make a posh version with parsnip and red onion, when I have them both lying about. Sweet potato is also a good base, extra carrot will make it sweeter and peas will sneak extra veg into your kids. Play with it and see what you come up with.
Oh, and I had mine with a fried egg and some ketchup, but depending on your budget and preferences, you can have bubble and squeak with sausages, or roast chicken and veg, or on its own as a lunch or snack… Do what you like.
They keep cold for a few days to have with bacon and an egg as brunch, too. Or you could be a heathen, like me, and snack on them from the fridge.
Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe
*(Prices calculated at Sainsburys, using the Basics range where available. Costs checked on date of publication against ASDA SmartPrice, Tesco Value, Morrisons Value and Waitrose Essentials. Some variation between major supermarkets but most items widely available at similar price.)
Categories: 10p RECIPES, 20p RECIPES, Recipes & Food, RECIPES UNDER 30P, RECIPES UNDER 50P, RECIPES UNDER £1, VEGETARIAN
interesting to use root veg in the bubble and squeak I usually just use leftover cooked cabbage, mash and maybe onions – just to let you know the Basics Veg Stock cubes have gone up to 20p in the Sainsbury’s I use – how can they qualify doubling the price I can’t guess.
WHAT?! That’s another basic that’s jumped right up in the past week or so. I’ll blog that later. >:( and yeah I like the addition of a carrot in mine but it’s not essential. Parsnip and red onion and thyme is good too…
They were 15p in the Sainsbury’s I used. Couldn’t believe it.
I made these last night but used some left over mash and swede and added cabbage and onion. I found they worked best when I made then quite small (about 2 inches across) otherwise they tended to break up a bit. They were lovely though and I even my veggie-hating son ate them.
Eggs arent vegan
Hi Karen,
This isn’t a vegan recipe, it’s labelled Vegetarian. Some of my recipes are meat and animal product based, I was transparent about that when PETA got in touch as neither I nor PETA wanted to offend any vegans, but the consensus was that there were vegan recipes that people could try.
I did try to give up animal products for the Lent period, with support from my vegan friends. I considered removing all recipes from my blog that contained animal products, but felt that this would be dishonest – and many of my readers do eat meat and animal products.
Jack.
Hi Jack, if the veggies are cooked in lard, then I don’t think the recipe can be classed as vegetarian. Personally I just used a bit of olive oil. PS: these turned out great, thank you for the recipe 😘
do these freeze well?
Look here Ms Jack Monroe, I want to see a photo of this 5p Onion with a receipt proving such a thing exists.
It was part of a vegetable bag that Sainsburys did for £1, a mix of carrots, onions, potatoes and parsnips, that had 16-20 items in depending on how carefully you chose the bag! They discontinued it for the summer but brought it back in some stores – I’m yet to see it in my own.
They also do a bag of ‘cooking onions’ (what else are they for?!!) for around £1, which would again work out at about 5p per onion.
😉
Oi Monroe. Pics of the 5p onion or GTFO.
It looks like an onion. Search ‘veg bag’ on my blog and there’s probably one with a receipt.
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Vegetables/Sainsburys_Red_Onions_1Kg.html
I count 21 in that picture. £1. Less than 5p each then.
Link to vag beg or GTFO.
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-price-comparison/Vegetables/Sainsburys_Red_Onions_1Kg.html
I count 21 in that picture. £1. Less than 5p each then.
I count 18 in that picture. 5.56p per onion non?
I don’t particularly care to debate 0.56p of a single onion enough to recount. Night.
A Tbsp lard costs more like 6p too FFS.
I can’t really tell if you’re being facetious.
I am a vegetarian and don’t have a lot in my cupboard please can you help me out with cheap vegetarian meals that I can cook please. At the moment in my fridge I have fresh tomatoes, a few potatoes, chillies, ginger, cheese, 1 onion and I just don’t know what to make I am beside myself please help
Thank you
J
Hiya! From the sounds of that lot you can make Bombay potatoes or a potato/tomato/cheese bake in the oven… Put ‘tomato’ in the search bar in my blog and they should come up.
Looks tasty and I like to add a wee splash of sweet chilli sauce to mine.My local Family Bargain store does a HUGE bottle for 99p and I add it to almost everything I cook .Do you think these will freeze well as i live alone and would be hard pressed to eat more than maybe 2-3 at a time ???
Yes they freeze brilliantly x
We had these for lunch today with fried egg. My two little ones loved them! Yet another recipe of yours we love 🙂
Their faveourite is the soda bread toasted with some jam
Thank you for such a fantastic book! Xx