How to make meals for under £1: Chef Miguel Barclay's budget cooking tips

From chicken katsu curry to pulled pork chilli

Miguel Barclay's 89p Paella (Dan Jones)

With rising prices, busy lives and stretched budgets, the motivations to cook original, fresh and hearty meals are often cast aside in favour of repetitive servings of cupboard pasta and jarred-sauces, or the same old noodle-based stir fries.

However, one chef is pledging that everyone can be inventive and expressive in the kitchen for less than £1 per meal.

Derived from a challenge he set himself to cook all his meals on a tight price-plan, Miguel Barclay excelled and turned his ideas into a business.

He rose to prominence through Instagram, where he now boasts over 136,000 followers. His posts regularly include videos showing him making a variety of dishes which all have an individual cost of £1 or less. Some of the most popular posts include an 81 pence chicken chow mein to a 55 pence chicken katsu curry.

In each post, Barclay provides a recipe along with a breakdown of all the ingredients, where you can buy them, and how much they cost per portion.

As is the prerequisite of any successful emerging modern chef, he also has a YouTube channel and appeared on ITV’s This Morning. He has now released a book of his recipes such as pulled pork chilli, Dijon chicken and aubergine dal and chapatti (which you can find the recipes for at the end of the article).

We asked Barclay just how easy it is for everybody to cook on this budget and whether the problem is that food is just too expensive.

What made you want to write the book?

My Instagram account was like my test kitchen, where I would post in real time whatever ideas I was working on that day, it was sort of documenting my journey. But I really wanted to create a definitive collection of recipes that would showcase my style of cooking and be a lasting handbook for how to cook exciting and vibrant meals on a budget.

Miguel Barclay (Dan Jones)

Why did you start making meals on such a budget and what made you take that to Instagram?

What you see on One Pound Meals had pretty much always been my style of cooking, using minimal basic ingredients with loads of cheeky shortcuts to make the tastiest and most fun dishes I could. Then one day I set myself the challenge of doing it all for under £1 and I plucked up the courage to post them on Instagram to see what people thought.

Was it from personal experience that you started cooking meals on a tight budget?

Cooking was a hobby that consumed most of my spare time and by experimenting with lower cost ingredients, it was an inexpensive way to push the boundaries without too much fear of getting it wrong. I then found cooking even more fun when I had to solve the puzzle of how a seemly impossible dish could be achieved for £1

How easy is it for people to cook on meals for £1?

If you follow the recipes, then it is pretty easy, just grab the ingredients and away you go. Then, as your confidence grows, why not try adapting a few dishes and maybe even creating a few of your own. In the book there are loads of techniques that can be applied to cooking meals on a budget, and once they become second nature, you'll be looking at food in a whole new way.

Are people put off cooking at the moment because they think it is too expensive?

Busy lifestyles and washing up seem to be two of the biggest excuses I hear. But if you are motivated and you have been thinking about that moussaka all day, you will have the enthusiasm and spring in your step to get cooking. This is part of the One Pound Meals philosophy: I wanted to create dishes that were fun and interesting to give you people motivation to cook.

Should food be cheaper?

It is a difficult one. The cost of food is a delicately balanced eco-system stretching from the farm to the shopping basket. There are so many factors that affect it, from importing out of season produce from far away to the cost of advertising, the welfare of the animals and even the packaging. I am sure there are solutions but the producers still need to be paid a fair price and welfare standards definitely shouldn't be reduced to achieve it.

One Pound Meals by Miguel Barclay is published by Headline, priced £14.99, and is available now.

Recipes:

Dijon Chicken

Dijon chicken (Dan Jones)

To make one portion:

1 chicken thigh, de-boned

4 charlotte potatoes, halved

1 spring onion, roughly chopped

2 mushrooms, sliced

½ chicken stock cube

50ml cold water

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

To cook

Season and pan-fry the chicken skin-side down over a medium heat in a splash of olive oil. Meanwhile, soften the potatoes in a microwave for 1 minute (or boil for 5 minutes). After about 5 minutes, or when the chicken skin is nicely browned, turn it over and continue to fry for another 5 minutes. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the spring onion, mushrooms and potatoes to the pan and continue to fry for a few more minutes until everything is cooked. At this point, crumble in the stock cube, add the water and simmer for a few minutes before adding the Dijon mustard. Stir and continue to simmer for a couple of minutes, reducing the sauce slightly, then serve.

Aubergine Dal and Chapati

Aubergine Dal with chapati (Dan Jones)

To make 1 portion

1/4 aubergine, cut into chunky cubes

3 tsp curry powder

1/4 onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, sliced

2 handfuls of red lentils (approx. 80g)

375ml water

2 tbsp wholemeal flour

Vegetable oil

Salt

To cook

Preheat your oven to 190°C/gas 5. Put the aubergines in an oven-proof dish. Add a splash of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of curry powder, then mix well to evenly coat the aubergine. Slowly roast in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown, with a gorgeous gooey and sticky texture. Meanwhile, start to fry the onions in a splash of vegetable oil over a medium heat. After a few minutes, add the garlic and continue to fry for a few more minutes until the garlic is just about starting to brown. At this point, add the remaining curry powder, lentils and 350ml of water. Bring the lentils to the boil and simmer gently over a low heat for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are fully cooked and have a lovely rich, thick consistency.

While the lentils are simmering and the aubergine is roasting, start mixing your chapati dough. In a bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, 25ml of water and a pinch of salt to form a dough. Knead for 5 minutes, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky, and then roll into a circle using a rolling pin. Preheat a frying pan on a high heat and cook the chapati for 2 minutes on each side, or until you start to see golden brown spots appearing. Season the dal with salt, add the aubergine cubes, and serve with a warm pan-toasted chapati on the side.

Pulled Pork Chilli

Pulled pork chilli (Dan Jones)

To make one portion

2 pork belly slices (approx. 150g total weight)

1 red onion, thickly sliced

1 garlic clove, sliced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp plain flour

200g chopped tomatoes (from a 400g tin)

1 beef stock cube

150ml water

200g kidney beans (from a 400g tin, drained)

1 tbsp crème fraîche

A few thin slices of spring onion tips

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

To cook:

Start by seasoning and frying the pork belly slices in a saucepan with a splash of oil. When they are nicely browned, add the onion and then a few minutes later the garlic. As the garlic just starts to brown, add the cumin, paprika and flour. Stir until all the flour disappears, then add the chopped tomatoes, crumble in the stock cube and add the water.

Simmer gently over a low heat for 1½ hours with the lid on then, 10 minutes before serving, add the kidney beans and simmer with the lid off. If you find there’s not enough liquid in the pan, add a splash more water. Using two forks, tear the pork apart into chunks, then serve the chilli with a big dollop of crème fraîche and sliced spring onion tips.