Struggling to find budget friendly and healthy recipes? Tesco’s got you covered. With the cost per serving under £1, we can eat nutritious meals without making a dent to our budgets. Green lentils are a great source of plant-based protein and also help us meet our daily fiber goals. Fiber helps our bodies regulate our blood sugar and can keep us full for longer. Not to mention, lentils are delicious, inexpensive, and easy to store.

We can go to Tesco’s family budget meals to find more delicious recipes.

Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 large carrot, scrubbed and diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 celery sticks, trimmed and diced
• 250g white potatoes, peeled and diced
• pinch crushed chillies
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 250g lentilles vertes, rinsed
• 500ml reduced salt vegetable stock
• 4 tbsp low-fat natural yogurt, to serve
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley, to serve

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the carrot, celery and potatoes, and cook, stirring, for around 15 mins or until golden. Add the chilli and garlic and cook for a further 1 min.
2. Stir in the tomatoes and lentils. Add the vegetable stock and 500ml hot water and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25-30 mins until the lentils are just tender.
3. Transfer a large ladleful of the lentils to a large jug or bowl and use a hand blender to blitz until smooth. Pour back into the pan and season to taste. Ladle into bowls, top with a dollop of yogurt and scatter with the parsley.

Easy swaps

No blender, no problem: we can use a fork to mash some of the lentils directly in the pan. To save a little extra, we can swap fresh tomatoes for canned tomatoes and fresh parsley for dried parsley. With canned and dry foods, we don’t have to worry as much about our food spoiling.

Love your leftovers

With our leftover lentils, we can cook other recipes like lentil and spinach salad or lentil and beef spaghetti. Another tip is to double the recipe and freeze half so that when we’re in a rush, we have ready-made healthy meals at our fingertips.

*prices correct at time of posting (April 2024)

Recipes and photography © Tesco.com 2024.