Make a cheap and filling minestrone soup

Soup is a great option if you’re on a tight budget, as you can throw in all sorts of leftovers and ingredients that are a bit past their best.

A minestrone, for instance, lets you use pretty much anything you’ve got in, so you can make sure your food shop go a little bit further.

What you’ll need 

Serves four

• one tin of tomatoes or a carton of passata
• one chopped onion
• one or two chopped carrots
• one stock cube
• a handful of pasta
• a little oil for cooking

Optional extras:

• celery
• courgette
• peppers
• frozen vegetables
• a tin of beans or chickpeas
• leftover cooked vegetables 

How to make it

1.  Heat a little oil in a large pan.
2.  Add the onion and vegetables and cook for a few minutes until they start to soften.
3.  Add the tinned tomatoes or passata.
4.  Make up the stock cube with water and pour it into the pan.
5.  Add the pasta and simmer until the vegetables and pasta are cooked.
6.  Season with herbs, salt and pepper if you have them.
7.  Serve straight away with bread or homemade rolls.

A cheap and flexible meal option

You can throw pretty much anything into a minestrone, from leftover chicken to that half a pepper you’ve got lurking in the fridge.

Just chuck it all in and there you go.

You've made a tasty, cheap meal with ingredients you've already paid for that would have otherwise gone in the bin.

What's not to like?

And if you have fussy eaters at home, why not blend the soup?

Not only does that give it a lovely thick texture, it also means you can hide vegetables that people say they don’t like.

Save for another day

Minestrone freezes really well, so if you want to save money on lunches or dinners, make a big batch of soup.

You can then portion it up and put it in the fridge or freeze some for another day.

That saves you money straight away next time you go to the supermarket, as you've got a few meals already covered.

Just remember that pasta can become softer after freezing, so you can also cook the pasta separately and add it when reheating if you prefer.