How to save your pennies Inventive ways to use up leftovers, cook on a budget and shrink your shopping bills
Fruity tabbouleh with feta
■ Serves 4 ■ Prep 20 mins plus standing ■ No cook
100g bulgur wheat
6 tbsp olive oil
100g couscous
200g mixed nuts, roughly chopped
(any mixture of almonds,
hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or
pistachios)
200g mixed dried fruit, large fruit
chopped (any mixture of raisins,
sultanas, apricots, dates and
cranberries)
2 lemons, zested and juiced
small pack each mint and flat-leaf
parsley, leaves roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g feta, crumbled
1 Boil the kettle. Put the bulgur wheat in a sieve and rinse with cold water until the water runs clear. Drain well and transfer to a bowl. Pour over 200ml boiling water and 1 tbsp olive oil, cover with a plate and leave to soak for 30 mins. Meanwhile, put the couscous into a second bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil, just cover with boiling water, then cover with a plate and leave to stand for 5-10 mins.
2 Once the bulgur wheat and couscous are ready, put them in a bowl and fluff up the grains with a fork. Stir through the nuts and dried fruit, too.
3 Whisk together the lemon zest and juice, herbs, remaining olive oil and the garlic. Pour over the grains, nuts and fruit, and stir everything together well with some seasoning. Transfer to a serving plate and scatter with the crumbled feta.
PER SERVING 829 kcals, fat 50g, saturates 10g, carbs 72g, sugars 35g, fibre 7g, protein 23g, salt 1.4g
Use up nuts and grains
Here’s a brilliant dish for hoovering up those annoying bits at the bottom of storecupboard packs, such as dried fruit, nuts and grains. Serve it as a vegetarian meal with crusty bread, or as a side dish to put on the table to go with other dishes if entertaining over Easter. It works well with lamb and chicken or chunky griddled vegetables. Just double the couscous or bulgur wheat if you don’t want to use a mixture of both.
BUY, EAT & SAVE
Have you heard of the brilliant app Too Good To Go? In a bid to prevent 2.5 billion tonnes of food waste every year, it's a service that connects customers to restaurants and stores in their area that have a surplus of unsold food. Thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, it's become one of the fastest-growing apps worldwide. It has encouraged millions to reduce food waste and save money by rescuing unsold produce from restaurants, bakeries or grocery stores, before they go to landfill. In the UK, the app has notable partnerships with Costa, Greggs and a variety of supermarkets. Visit toogoodtogo.co
