This tasty goulash and potato side dish comes in at a bargain 75p per portion. Follow my simple, step-by-step recipe below…

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If you’re looking for ways to feed your family for less whilst keeping meal times interesting then Swap your Shop to Aldi and have a go at making this tasty one pot Goulash! This dish – along with a side of crispy salad potatoes will allow you to feed a family of four for just £3! I usually make this dish with diced beef, but to save money I swapped it for some Aldi Super 6 vegetables. So it’s not only purse friendly, it’s vegan friendly too!!

The total cost of buying the ingredients from Aldi comes to just over £5 but you’ll have lots of leftover ingredients to use in other dishes. For example, my recipe on requires one onion, a 50p bag of wonky onions has around six in it and they last for a while. You might also find you have some of the basic ingredients like stock cubes and tomato puree, those kind of cupboard staples are really handy to have in for making tasty meals from scratch. I had some of those ingredients in already so I spent just £3.88.

If you’re a novice cook, fear not! This is a really easy meal to make and doesn’t require loads of fancy gadgets and pans. It’s also the perfect dish to pot up for work the next day or to put in the freezer. I still make a four person sized portion despite there just being two of us, it’s easier than trying to scale the recipe down. It’s great to have this on hand for a night when you really don’t want to cook which also helps to resist the urge to order a takeaway!

Here’s everything you need to know to make your own vegan goulash…

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes – 28p
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree – 3p
• 1 tin of mixed beans – 45p
• 1 pepper – chopped in to 1 inch chunks (any colour but I prefer red) – 35p
• 1 pointed pepper – sliced into rings – 35p
• 1 onion – diced – 9p
• 1 carrot – grated – 4p
• 125g mushrooms – 34p
• 4 tsp paprika – 12p
• Half of a vegetable stock cube dissolved in 200ml of boiling water – 2p
• Salt, pepper and sugar for seasoning
• Oil for frying

Method:

1) Prepare you veg – you can chop you veg however you like but I like to chop mine into different sizes to give a variety of textures to the dish.

2) Gently heat the oil in a frying pan (or large saucepan). Add the diced onions, sprinkle with a bit of salt and stir, this will prevent them from browning. 

3) Once the onions start to soften add the sliced mushrooms to the pan. Cook until gently browned.

4) Next, add the two varieties of peppers. Fry on a low heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally until the peppers start to soften.

5) Stir in the tomato puree and vegetable stock, simmer for a further two minute.

6) Drain the beans, rinse with cold water and add them to the pan along with the tin of chopped tomatoes and grated carrot. Stir to combine.

7) Finally, add the paprika, a pinch of salt, pepper and a teaspoon of sugar to season.

8) Leave to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

If you find that the sauce is getting a bit too thick, add a splash of water and stir through – repeat until required consistency. If you would like a more intense flavour, you can add in half a teaspoon of soy sauce, this gives the dish a slightly darker colour and richer flavour in place of using beef stock.

If you want to convert this in to a slow cooker meal, follow steps 1-4 then add everything else to the slow cooker. Leave it on low for 4-8 hours for a tasty slow cooked meal. To turn this into a meat based dish, fry some diced casserole beef along with the onions (step 2). Leave the beans and mushrooms out and use only one pointed pepper. Your cooking time will need to be adjusted to the guidelines on the packaging of the meat you select.

You can serve this goulash with rice, couscous or some oven roasted vegetables. Or if you’re a carbaholic like me, you can serve it with mashed potato or why not try making my crushed crispy salad potatoes, here’s how:

Ingredients

• 1 bag of salad potatoes – 69p
• 1 tsp Oil
• Salt and pepper
• Dried herbs (optional)

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 200 degrees

2) Boil the potatoes whole for 20 minutes

3) Drain off the water and return potatoes to the pan. Add the oil, herbs, salt and pepper, mix in the pan until all potatoes are coated.

4) Transfer to an over dish or roasting tray then crush each potato by gently pressing down on it. You can use a potato masher, spatula or a fork.

5) Place in the oven for 15 minutes or until the rough edges of the potatoes are crisp.

So that’s it, a super simple meal of vegan goulash and crushed potatoes for just 75p a portion! I hope that this shows how swapping your shop to Aldi can save you money whilst still having delicious meals packed full of quality ingredients.

There’s lots more fantastic recipe ideas on Aldi’s website, click here for more tasty meal ideas.

Thrifty Clair x