Add these new budget-friendly everyday meals to your cooking repertoire
Gingered chicken patties
■ Serves 4 ■ Prep 10 mins ■ Cook 25 mins patties only
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
thumb-sized piece of ginger, chopped
4 spring onions, roughly chopped
4 skinless chicken thighs and 2 skinless
breasts, cut into large chunks
1/2 small bunch of coriander, chopped
2-3 tbsp fish sauce
300g egg noodles
3 tbsp sunflower oil
250g pack stir-fry vegetables
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
sweet chilli sauce, to serve
1 Put the garlic, ginger and spring onions in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the chicken, coriander, fish sauce and some seasoning, and pulse again until well combined. Use wet hands to shape the mixture into 12 patties.
2 Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and cook the noodles following pack instructions. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large pan and fry the patties for 4 mins on each side until cooked through. You may need to do this in batches. Remove from the pan, cover and keep warm. Drain the noodles.
3 Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the vegetables. Cook over a high heat for 2-3 mins, then add the noodles and soy sauce, stir-frying for a few minutes to heat everything through. Serve the noodles and chicken patties with chilli sauce.
PER SERVING 567 kcals, fat 19g, saturates 4g, carbs 55g, sugars 4g, fibre 5g, protein 44g, salt 2.5g
Tip Using jars of ginger and garlic paste will speed up the prep time even more
Garlic chilli prawns with sesame noodles
If you don’t have fresh chilli, omit the sugar and add sweet chilli sauce instead.
■ Serves 4 ■ Prep 5 mins ■ Cook 15 mins
250g medium egg noodles
1 tbsp sesame oil, plus extra to
serve (optional)
1 tbsp groundnut oil
bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced
lengthways
300g bag beansprouts
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
400g raw peeled tiger prawns
1 tbsp brown soft sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Cook the noodles following pack instructions, then rinse with cold water and drain. Toss with 1 tsp of the sesame oil.
2 Heat 2 tsp of the groundnut oil in a non-stick wok. Stir-fry most of the spring onions and all the beansprouts for a couple of minutes until tender. Add the noodles and warm through. Stir through the remaining sesame oil and tip out of the wok onto a serving dish.
3 Carefully wipe out the wok and add the remaining groundnut oil. Toss in the garlic and chilli, and cook for 10 secs. Pop in the prawns and stir-fry for a couple of minutes until they have just turned pink. Stir in the sugar and soy, then bubble until the sugar has melted and prawns are cooked through. Spoon on
