Cheap and healthy cooking

Healthy cooking works on a tight budget too: pulses, oats, potatoes, rice, eggs, carrots, cabbage and quark are cheap and filling. This collection brings together recipes that mainly use these basics and do without pricey ingredients like salmon, prawns, steak, pine nuts or lots of berries. We deliberately don’t show prices – they depend on the shop and the season.

All budget-friendly recipes

Quick banana and oat cookies – 180 kcal
High-protein quark semolina bake with cherries – 350 kcal
Vegetarian cottage cheese and spinach omelette – 340 kcal
Vegan beetroot and kombucha juice – 85 kcal
Vegetarian millet and veg patties for the lunchbox with peas and cheese – 325 kcal
Vegan chocolate banana nice cream with peanut butter – 290 kcal
Moroccan chickpea stew – 350 kcal
Sweet vanilla quark bake with raspberries – 472 kcal
High-protein quark with honey and walnuts – 280 kcal
High-protein apple and cinnamon cookies with oats and quark – 274 kcal
High-protein cookie bowl – 380 kcal
Keto easy cheese omelette roll – 420 kcal
Vegetarian ricotta spinach muffins – 330 kcal
Low-carb spinach shakshuka – 340 kcal
Mediterranean fig and walnut bowl – 340 kcal
Paleo apple and cinnamon pancakes – 290 kcal
Turkish lentil soup (mercimek) – 250 kcal
Keto creamy sliced veal – 460 kcal
Vegan sweet potato and chickpea curry bowl – 420 kcal
Vegetarian potato cakes from leftover mash with chive quark – 354 kcal
Fresh vegan beetroot and apple juice – 140 kcal
Leftover frittata with pasta, peas and Alpine cheese – 355 kcal
Vegetarian ricotta and pumpkin gnocchi – 480 kcal
High-protein peanut butter porridge – 400 kcal

Frequently asked questions

How do I cook healthily on a budget?

Plan your week, batch-cook and build meals around basics: pulses, oats, potatoes, rice, eggs and seasonal veg. Frozen veg is cheap and just as useful.

Which protein sources are cheap?

Lentils, chickpeas, beans, eggs, low-fat quark and oats give you plenty of protein for little money. You can use them to stretch meat and fish.

How do recipes end up in this collection?

We count the cheap basics and the pricey ingredients in the ingredient list; fewer ingredients make a recipe cheaper still. Small amounts, like a teaspoon of berries, don’t count.