Watching mythical kitchen about hash browns and wondering if anybody have any ideas on how to make potatoes into other things that are extremely cheap. I usually have only potatoes and margarine at last 2 weeks before I get food stamps because it isn’t enough to cover basic food things.
Does anybody know any good ideas or recipes or something that does not require a lot of other one time ingredients? That’s really cheap on quantities, like spices, where it can last a while with it being really inexpensive.
Things I have is absolutely basic cooking skills and cooking appliances. Microwave oven and stove. I don’t have much of anything because and can’t afford anything
Anybody have any ideas or recipes or thoughts?
If you can afford eggs, latkes and gnocchi. You would use maybe 1-2 for a meal of latkes, but you can make a big batch of gnocchi with only a couple as well.
Latkes are like a heartier hashbrown made into a pancake.
Potato gnocchi are simple, but luxurious. You can put just about any sauce you like on them.Both of these require flour as well, but a bag will last a long time if these recipes are all you’re using it for.
Good and Cheap cookbook
Budget bytes recipe website
Get yourself a couple of onions while you’re buying potatoes. Gently cook a sliced half onion in a bit of margarine until it’s nice and soft, then add your chopped up potato, a bit of salt and some herbs (see below), pour water in and cook gently until the potato is done. Soup!
Ideas for getting fresh herbs: trickiest one is visiting a garden centre that sells herbs and casually nipping off a sprig. Rosemary is very tasty and pungent, you don’t need much, thyme is also good. Is there a botanic garden or similar near you? Learn what various herbs look like and go scouting. If you see someone gardening ask if they have herbs, and would they mind letting you have a twig. Again, you don’t need a whole lot. But it makes a big difference to flavour, and is nicer than dried herbs.
I did a lot of shameless scrounging when I was young, including sifting through vegetables discarded by retailers but still ok to eat, but I realise not everyone is up for this kind of malarkey. So think about investing in a packet of basil seeds. Very tasty herb. All else you need is some dirt and an empty margarine tub. Easy to grow basil on your window ledge.
Lot of good info here already, but here’s a quick easy potato that I fall back on a lot:
-take your potato, wash it well, and poke a few holes in it all over with a fork or whatever you have
-microwave it for ~2-4 minutes, flip, and do another 2-4 depending on how strong your microwave is and how big of a potato. If it isn’t cooked through (completely soft), flip and do another round until it is
-bam, 4-8 minute baked potato. Cut open and put margarine in it, a bit of salt, green onion, whatever. Sour cream/cottage cheese/other cheese are a great way to make it tastier and make it a complete source of protein, mayonnaise probably isn’t as good for you but tastes similar, is easier to find cheap/free in squeeze packs, and if you can score unopened jars is shelf stable for a long time so you can have it on hand for tighter times.
One thing that does help is to make broths and roux to help stretch your dollars further.
I take my leftover vegetable trimmings and put them into a freezer bag and froze them. When I make broth I toss them in and you’ve turned trash into nutrients and flavour (just make sure you strain them out of your broth).
I do not use potato peelings first that, but they probably work fine.
You can roast up the potato peels. Very tasty, like chips.
Had no idea, thanks!
Buy a bag of dried lentils, very cheap and highly nutritious with 25% protein. I use this recipe all the time. If you don’t have an instapot they can boiled on top of the stove, just takes a bit longer (you can soak a cup of lentils overnight in water to speed up cooking time). Goes wonderful on top of a baked potato
https://www.acouplecooks.com/instant-pot-lentils/print/39985/
This isn’t a potato suggestion, but a food pantry suggestion. They’re generally run by your local food bank if you have one, or sometimes churches. Instead of giving you money to spend on food, they just give you actual food that has been donated. The food they give you is quite varied.
I have some thoughts on this, but do want to echo what one other poster said about bulk buying ingredients. If you’re in the US, Costco accepts EBT at all stores, and I believe you don’t need a membership. I would also look online to find any and all local food assistance programs to help augment what you will have available to have available, because some rice and beans could absolutely change your life with some potatoes.
For recipes:
- Potato soup/chowder (good storage)
- Korean stews if you can get your hands on a big bag of Korean red pepper powder one time that lasts years, usually
- Scalloped potatoes
- Mashed potatoes (good storage)
- Kenji’s Crispiest Potatoes Ever
- Real Slow Baked Potatoes (1+ hour in the oven, no foil) though this doesn’t store well
- Broth and potatoes (some people try to rebrand as Melting Potatoes
- Oven Baked Fries
Some of these may need more ingredients, like a base broth, but most should be pretty minimal. I have all kinds of food buying and providing hacks if you need more tips, or mention a general area of where you’re at. Someone else may also know of other programs you can take advantage of.
Try different types of potatoes. The common “Russets are rejects from the french fry industry”. (direct quote from a Potato farmer I met a few years ago - I’m guessing he doesn’t grow Russets and always take the quote with some salt). Different types of potatoes work well with different cooking styles.
(everything else I have to say has been well covered by others)
That’s an odd thing to say. Did he forget that mashed potatoes are almost always made from russets? Try making it with Yukons and you’ll get potato glue.
A couple of years ago I picked up a recipe that someone shared in response to a post about three ingredient recipes. I partially boil potatoes, dump them on a cookie sheet, fork smash them, pour butter over the top, and throw them in the oven until they’re a little brown and crispy on the tips, and then salt. They are so good and you could sprinkle a little bit of anything on top of this -any kind of seasoning. A little bit bacon would be good, or ham or leftover taco meat or some spicy chicken. It’s kind of a good base for whatever leftovers you might have in your fridge and it has a little better presentation than just mashed potatoes. People are always amazed at how good it is. Who knew that potatoes, butter and salt were good together?
I’ve always understood that beans and rice is the defacto struggle meal. It’s hard to beat them for sheer dollars-to-calories ratio, and may even be less expensive than potatoes.
I’m sure you’re aware - and I empathize with your situation - but eating a variety is best if you’re able to manage it. Potatoes can go a long way to stretching a diet, but aren’t very nutritionally diverse on their own.
A few less expensive supplements I’ve used in the past are peanut butter, and eggs. There’s often a deal to be had by shopping seasonally - pumpkins are in right now and I get a surprising amount of mileage out of them.
Personally I love green onions with potatoes. They’re not very nutritionally dense, but they’re a pleasing aromatic and you can get a bundle for around a dollar. If you place your onions in an open jar of water on the counter, they’ll continue to grow. I usually regrow my onions 4-5 times from a single bunch and plain water, a handy frugal tip
But assuming potatoes are the only or main item on the menu, there’s an impressive degree of versatility in their preparation. Ultimately that usually adds up to mashed, baked, boiled, or fried.
Potatoes make an excellent soup. Even on their own - a local place here does a side dish which is just a quarter potato simmered in miso / vegetable stock. If you’re doing other ingredients, the potato can be made into a thickener for soup - corn chowder is an inexpensive meal that I’ve leaned heavily on in the past.
If you make a large batch of mashed potatoes, you can repurpose the leftovers for other meals. Mix with flour and you’ve got croquettes or potato pancakes. You can pretty much just toss them in a pan and refry them. If fish is available to you, you can mince a can into a potato / flour mixture and then fry it to get a tasty fish cake.
You can jazz up a baked potato into what’s known as a Hasselbeck potato if you want a fun presentation. Essentially you score the potato into several thin segments and drizzle it with oil while baking. It has a pretty unique look.
This last one is a bit off the deep end - but it’s a local dish here and something that our family does for major gatherings. It’s called Rappie Pie, or Pate a la Rapure, or sometimes Potats Rappe. It’s a bit of a process, but the only essential ingredients are potatoes and soup stock. It can be a ton of work and not for the faint of heart, but it’s a rather unique preparation and genuinely comfort food for me. We like ours fairly runny - we sometimes call it Potato Jello
This recipe appears fairly accurate, but I’ll try to summarize.
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Grate potatoes into pulp then squeeze to remove the starch. This is the most laborious part of the process, so it’s common for people to do this communally or to take a shortcut by buying a processed potato block.
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Gradually mix potato mixture into boiling broth. Whisk until smooth
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Pour into a greased pan, halfway through adding additional fillings if you have them. This is commonly served as a meaty dish with chicken, rabbit, or venison, but I’ve made it vegetarian or plain before too.
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Bake until a crispy skin forms. Serve while hot, leftovers can be frozen or refrigerated, then reheated in the oven or a skillet
Anyway, good luck to you. I hope food security is in your future, nobody should have to go hungry 😞
Eggs have gotten expensive lately. Still worth getting if you can find/afford them, but probably not as useful today as a few years ago, or in a few years.
The food shelf I volunteered at a couple weeks ago says peanut butter is one of the hardest things for them to get (I assume something like caviar would be harder but that isn’t something most people eat so who cars) . So might not be good advice. Nuts tend to be very expensive in general so probably not the best advice, but might be useful for variety when OP can get it. (technically peanuts are not nuts, but in this case lumping them together makes sense). You can make your own nut butter fairly easially in a minimal kitchen if you can get any nuts (including at a local park where they are often ignored)
Penaut butter is also notoriously hard to stock at the food pantry I voluenteer at too. We’ve had a lot of lentils lately I’ve been trying to push because they’re very nutritious and easy too.
Gosh, true that about eggs. I’ve been using them largely as a cheaper alternative to meat, but it’s getting to the point where I might as well have just bought the meat.
Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go vegan for a bit.
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This isn’t quite the question you asked, but my best advice based on being in survival mode some time ago is: Get a Costco membership or borrow someone’s card, and start to get small batches of $50-100 worth of groceries from there at a time. Plan it ahead for what you’ll need for the couple of weeks coming up. Big sacks of rice or flour, cases of tinned bean or veggies, milk and eggs or cheese, peanut butter, cheese and oranges once you’ve got a reserve of the staples. Potatoes, olive oil, bread, Annie’s mac and cheese.
Even if you’re only buying 3-5 things with each trip, your money will go pretty far and it’s wonderful to have some basic stuff in the cupboard all month and then be spending your money on filling in new stuff you want, instead of just on survival.
I have no potato recipes for the now, this is just some stuff for later that worked for me.
Aldi is just as cheap as Costco and no membership needed. Plus the potions are much smaller which means less waste if you are not a large family. Aldi is likely to be nearby as well unlike costco which tends to be only a couple locations in a large city. Only downside to Aldi is less selection, we use regular grocery stores for things we can’t get at Aldi.
Also less Aldi’s around the country. I’ve never seen one
According to Wikipedia there are 2,338 Aldi’s in the US, and 614 Costcos. Aldi also has some other brands though I’m not sure how they compare. Of course location matters, depending on where you live you will have access to different stores.
Piling on to the suggestion for a Costco membership. The rotisserie chicken is often available as a loss leader.
This means that Costco actually sells those chickens at a loss. The logic is that you’ll buy other things too, but you’re under no obligation to if you just need to get some cheap meat
You could probably go in with one or two other individuals or a small family and share Costco purchases. So much of their stuff comes in a six pack or an eight pack.
When I am super lazy and when it’s cold outside I usually make potato stew. Ingredients are afaik cheap all around the world. It goes something like this:
Cut and roast some onion. Peel and cut some carrots into bits and add it into the pot. Add some concentrated tomato paste, salt and pepper. Let it continue simmering at low temperature. Peel and cut some potatoes. Add them to the pot and pour in some water. Just enough to cover everything. Let it simmer at the lowest temperature for an hour or two or five. Doesn’t matter really. It’s potato stew, not beef wellington.
I actually like this. It’s one of the easiest things I occasionally cook and it reminds me of my childhood. The good times at least.
Someone made a YouTube series 100 ways of cooking potatoes
Cheap and easy for me means shepherd’s pie or pasta with sauce. Both are simple to make, cheap, and healthy. They also can freeze well so you can make a big batch on sundays for the whole week.
