I quite like Henry Dimbleby, minus starting Leon, I think he’s done a lot of good work recently in trying to push the UK government into action on the food crisis at our doorstep. I admire that he stepped away from his government position because he thought in his role he couldn’t do the work he set out to do, good for him.
Getting involved in creating “£1 meals” does not form part of this good work. “£1 meals” will remain in quotation marks for the rest of this piece because they are neither £1 nor a meal.
This Guardian article popped up on my Twitter feed and with every low cost recipe the first thing that I do is go to the ingredient list. Sorry Henry, at least you can see it’s nothing personal.
This is because these meals are £1 per person. The initial outlay, in other words the cost of of actual food shop, is never accounted for. So don’t worry I did it for him.
And before you give me shit about there being plenty for leftovers to make other meals, that’s not the point. This is stated as a “£1 meal”, not food shop, and if other meals can be made from the ingredients below then you’re going to have to give the recipes for these leftovers as well, otherwise there was no point in providing the original recipe.
As Tesco are the largest supermarket in the UK, I went onto their website to avoid regional pricing and picked the cheapest and closest size to the weights that was available for each ingredient when I put together this shop (19th April 2023).
Some ingredients like individual lemons were not available at the time of this shop and if life doesn’t give you loose lemons then you’re going to have to buy 4 in a netted bag… no that doesn’t sound right.
Tesco soya beans (600g) so I had to buy 2 bags to get to 750g - £5.40
Tin of chickpeas (400g) - £0.49
Coriander (30g) - £0.52
Spring onions (100g) - £0.50
Redmere Farms garlic 4 pack - £0.95
Crisp ‘N Dry rapeseed oil (1 litre) - £2.25
Papa Super Fine gram flour (1kg) - £1.45
Total = £11.56
That £11.56 is supposed to serve 8 people, which is £1.45 a head. If I’m being generous (which I think I already have been as I used my Clubcard to get 11p knocked off) then I could remove a bag of soya beans and stretch this meal out with 600g of soya beans instead of 750g which gets us to £1.11 per person and that’s close enough right?
No, it’s not, because as I said before you need to spend significantly more than £1 to get a meal. £11.56 is a lot. £2.25 on a litre of oil, most of which stays in the saucepan and then you have to find a way to get rid of it (one of the worst home kitchen tasks there is), is a lot. £1.45 on 1kg of gram flour to use just 5 tablespoons and your kids might not even like it so what do you do with the remaining 925g is a lot.
Calories
I said “supposed” to serve 8 people, because I don’t think this does. I ran the numbers on the calories for this “£1 meal” so you can see what I mean.
Soya beans (94g) - 114kcal
Chickpeas (50g) - 35kcal
Coriander (4g) - 1kcal
Spring onion (half) - 5kcal
Garlic (clove) - 5kcal
Rapeseed oil (12.5ml - it should be 125ml but most of it is not absorbed and eaten, so I’ve used a rough estimate that 10% of the oil is absorbed) - 103kcal
Gram flour (9g) - 32kcal
Total = 295kcal
295kcal is not a meal, it’s not even close. The average daily calorie recommendation for women in the UK is 2000kcal and for men it’s 2500kcal, so a woman would have to have this meal nearly 7 times to hit 2000kcal. It’s not a meal and it’s not £1.
But you read the article and tell me there are pitta breads and dips that you’re supposed to eat with it! Well according to the article these falafel are just fine on their own:
The cheapest way to make this into a meal is to add the pitta breads. They’re 55p for a pack of 6 and I’m going to say that there’s 2 per person. As this recipe serves 8 I need 3 packs which adds on another £1.65 bringing the total coincidentally to £1.65 a head and 584kcal. Great, that’s now a meal but it’s not a “£1 meal”.
I’ve even included the shredded carrot and cabbage salad, hummus, yoghurt and hot sauce which brings the total to £17.18 and £2.15 per person. Over double a “£1 meal”.
Stop telling people what to do and help them
There is so much advice, particularly amongst media outlets with a higher income readership, on how to save money. To me it’s another form of poverty porn. If I can do it so can you. Except you can’t do it and you don’t do it. Those who actual experience food poverty know how to manage their money the best they can, because they have no other choice. They often can’t take advantage of limited time offers or bulk buys because they have a set budget that can’t stretch any further, despite what certain MPs say.
The Food Foundation’s Broken Plate report found that per 1000kcal healthy foods cost over 150% more than unhealthy foods and to afford the Eatwell Guide the poorest fifth of households would need to spend 43% of their disposable income versus just 10% for the richest fifth. The reason that people focus on calories is because it quietens hungry bellies and when you’re hungry getting anything to reduce that is a priority. Broccoli is not going to cut it. It’s no wonder people turn to unhealthier foods, it’s the logical choice.
It’s not just the UK, look at this conclusion from a 2022 study conducted in Harlem, New York
I know these “£1 meal” pieces seem frivolous, but they perpetuate the idea that poverty and the many associated effects on a person’s physical and mental health is all about self-control and education. That’s clearly not the case.
A thought provoking article
Well said. Ironically, many can’t even afford the gas, electricity and appliances to cook these £1 meals. To get wealthy people to share recipe ideas is particularly perverse. There are way better resources like thrifty Facebook groups for inspiration!