Favorite Frugal Cooking Ingredients

Beaudacious · Post by **Beaudacious** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:41 am

In an effort to keep my expenses low, I've been cooking big batches of food with my slow cooker and eating leftovers throughout the week. I eat to live, but I get a little pleasure from making healthy food tasty without breaking the bank.
My question...
Do you have a favorite or secret ingredient that you get a lot of usage out of in most of the food you prepare? The two that are always on hand for me are mustard (helps tenderize and adhere spices to meat) and Sriracha (I like my food spicy).

Post by **jacob** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:49 am

http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp
I have five different bottles in the fridge right now.
(I prefer the ones around the 150,000-250,000 mark.)

Freedom_2018 · Post by **Freedom_2018** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:11 am

- Garam Masala

- Cilantro Powder

- Asfoetida

- Mustard Seeds

- Cumin Seeds

- Ghee

- Cinnamon

- Tumeric

- Coriander

- Black Pepper

- Fenugreek Seeds

- Fennel Seeds

- Ginger

- Garlic

- many more!
I like cooking, what can I say.

Post by **jacob** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:42 am

Sambal Oelek?

mikeBOS · Post by **mikeBOS** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:56 am

Can you imagine life before salt? I can't.

Freedom_2018 · Post by **Freedom_2018** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:00 am

Good point.
Salt. So basic yet so fundamental..that I even forgot to mention it !

Post by **jacob** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:08 am

The only thing I use salt for is pasta and french fries. Thus other people's cooking must usually be followed by imbibing a gallon of water.

Freedom_2018 · Post by **Freedom_2018** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:15 am

@ Jacob: Did you have to consciously wean yourself away from salt as part of your diet/food habits or is that just how you were raised ?

Freedom_2018 · Post by **Freedom_2018** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:15 am

Post by **jacob** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:35 am

I just decided not to use salt and that was it. My parents use/d a lot of it but during my young days I read it was bad for you or something so I stopped using it when I moved out and began to cook for myself.

ShaneEde · Post by **ShaneEde** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:47 am

Cumin

Smoked Paprika

Ground Ancho Chili

Garlic

B · Post by B » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:24 am

I love garlic. I chop up a clove and put it in just about anything. Onion also adds a lot of flavor.

Surio · Post by **Surio** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:40 am

@Jacob,

Ditto here with the salt. Same motivation, same timing. Not totally out of our larders (yet!), but we use so little that socialising became an embarrassment. Friends dropping for a dinner/board game evenings would be constantly asking for the salt shaker during the meals! And I stopped eating at friends' because it gave me a very hard time (heartburn and sundry side effects) because of the excess salt and a gallon of water sloshing in the bladder all night was just no fun afterwards!
Oh, and I am pleased to note that my parents and my brother have also adopted this. I am mighty pleased with this *development*.

Another 'experiment' if you like is to move Chillies out of the recipes and replace it with Black Pepper (and long pepper). In my case, it was going back to the roots of Indian cuisine (a siddha form of eating) before the Portugese brought in the Chillies, so to speak. And there are many health benefits of the Pepper(s) over the Chillies. I am merely sharing some details in case anyone else's curiosity is picqued to give it a try.
If not Chillies, at least salt? It really is no big deal. You can easily reduce your intake by half and not even notice it.

dragoncar · Post by **dragoncar** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:08 am

Salt's not really bad for you unless you have high blood pressure AND a salt sensitivity (I've read that maybe 30% of people with high blood pressure are sensitive to salt, and that it's genetic, but uh.. this is the Internet so maybe take my random recollection with, ahem, a grain of salt).
Freedom, that list looks great, but is it frugal? I've always been under the impression that good spices are fairly expensive.
I use a lot of Tapatio hot sauce, which is fairly cheap at Costco (random ERE note: I don't have a Costco membership, but I asked a friend who is a member to buy me a few $5 gift cards. With a gift card, you are entitled to shop at Costco and they let you pay any overage in cash. Since I go very rarely and stock up, this has been fairly convenient.)

Freedom_2018 · Post by **Freedom_2018** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:21 am

Yes, good spices can be somewhat expensive but one hardly needs to use much...also depends where you buy..my local Indian store and Farmers Mkt has them for much less than say Whole Foods.
Interestingly I note that there is a lot of mention of pre-prepared sauces/stuff that comes in a bottle.
I pretty much prefer to have the basic spices and cook from first principles. I've often gotten weird/funny looks at the checkout counter when I go shopping since my cart is like 80% green vegetables and 10% meat/eggs and 10% cheese/milk...almost never anything pre-prepared. I've been shopping at Costco for a long time...even when I was just living by myself..low per unit cost on groceries and I batch cook to last me for a few days. Only wish they had a wider selection of vegetables and greens.

JohnnyH · Post by **JohnnyH** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:30 pm

Eat a lot of eggs; steamed in shells, sunny side up and bake them into coconut flour goodies... Get pasteurized eggs for $1.50 a dozen, I am lucky. Cheap, healthy, good.
I also eat a lot of coconut oil. Which normally comes to about .30/oz when AMZN has it on sale... Not exactly cheap but very versatile, healthy and tasty.
Buy a bunch of frozen vegetables (for steaming) when they go on sale. Try to pay under $1/lb.
Just started a 22 weeks weekly share of a growers coop... Delicious, fresh, local all for less than $1/lb. Can't wait!

learning · Post by **learning** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:27 pm

we use corn meal to make polenta as a staple food. it's whole grain, tasty and cheap. we also love lentils. so, lots of brown rice, polenta and lentils in varying combinations.

irononmaiden · Post by **irononmaiden** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:37 pm

I'm gonna say chuck roast. For those of us who think of beef as health food, it's a fantastic deal. Even better, I fillet it, tenderize the hell out of it, and grill it like steak. It has great flavor and costs about as much as ground beef.
Speaking of getting spices from Whole Foods, they actually have decent prices on bulk herbs and spices (bulk meaning "from a bin" not "three years' supply"). I'm trying out a few Indian dishes, so I got some fenugreek and turmeric. I got enough to make a few dishes, and it cost 51c. The selection is a little limited though.

hickchick · Post by **hickchick** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:03 am

I could more easily give up toilet paper than salt.
Potatoes are my favorite cheap and delicious food.

Beaudacious · Post by **Beaudacious** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:07 pm

I've found that condensed soup works wonders when slow cooking meat. Instead of the cup of water that they suggest throwing, I use other "watery" ingredients (vegetable stock, salsa, etc.) Yum...