Stretching meals with starches
Fill up a plate without running up the grocery bill
Intro
If you’re getting by on a tight budget, it can be a real challenge to make meals filling enough to get through the day. One thing that can help is increasing the amount of starches in your diet. These are complex carbohydrates that are found in grain and starchy produce (like potatoes, winter squash, and plantains). These foods are filling because they digest slowly, giving you a steady supply of energy instead of a sudden burst followed by a crash. They are some of the least expensive ingredients at the grocery store, so cooking with them is a low-cost way to fill up a plate. They are also mostly shelf stable, so they can safely be kept in the pantry to fill in the gaps between paydays too.
Starchy food can be used:
- As a low-cost base for a meal, like tortillas, noodles, or oatmeal
- As a hearty side, like rice, fried plantains, or cornbread
- To make a meal more filling, like adding potatoes, barley, or dumplings to a soup
More tips and recipes for cooking with these inexpensive ingredients are below!
A note on carbohydrates and health
Foods that are high in carbohydrates have gotten bad press for the past decade or so, but for most people, that has more to do with food marketing than nutrition science. Carbohydrates are an important macronutrient that provides essential energy to your cells. Some medical conditions, like diabetes and celiac disease, can influence how a person eats carbohydrates, but carbohydrates themselves are not bad for you. Fruits and veggies, beans and lentils, whole grains, and dairy products are all very healthy and high in carbohydrates. If you don’t have medical sensitivities to those foods, there’s no health reason to avoid them.
Flour
If you’re looking for a cheap and flexible pantry staple, flour is hard to beat. Flour is not as nutritious as whole grains, and it’s more effort to cook with than pre-made products like pasta, but it costs very little and can be turned into a huge range of foods. A bag of flour plus a few other ingredients can be made into bannock, pancakes, tortillas, noodles and bread at a lower cost than buying each product individually, and can stretch out your food supplies significantly.
Tips
- Regular flour is made of wheat. Wheat can be milled in different ways to make flours that are best for making different things. For example, you may see cake, bread, and pastry flour at the store. Unless you are a master baker, “all-purpose” and “whole wheat” flour are all you need. All-purpose flour is standard-issue flour. If a recipe just calls for “flour”, this is what you’ll want to use. Whole wheat flour has wheat germ and bran added back into it for extra nutritional value. This makes it healthier but also tends to produce denser baked goods. Most recipes use a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour to keep the texture light. In general, if you’d like to make a recipe healthier, you can replace up to half of its all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour without altering the texture too much.
- Flour does expire, so be sure to check the bag for a best-before date. If you transfer flour into a different container for storage, consider labelling it with the expiry date too. This is especially important with whole wheat flour, which goes bad more quickly as the oils in wheat germ can go rancid. It’s a good idea to buy smaller amounts of whole wheat flour and store any you don’t think you can use up in 3 months in the freezer.
- There are also many non-wheat flours available. These are made out of a variety of other grains, nuts, and seeds. These all have very different properties and should be used according to instructions instead of being swapped in for wheat flour in recipes. They aren’t covered in this section but are good for people with gluten allergies and sensitivities.
Recipes
Grains
Grains are the edible seeds of cereal grasses. Wheat is a grain, and so is rice, oats, corn and barley. Quinoa and buckwheat aren’t technically from the cereal grass family, but they’re cooked and eaten in basically the same way, so they’re usually considered grains too. Most cultures eat grain as a staple crop. Wheat, rice, and corn alone account for more than 40% of the calories eaten daily around the world.
Most Canadians are familiar with rice and oats, but many of us aren’t used to cooking with other kinds of grains. It’s worth learning how! Grains are usually inexpensive, healthy, and filling. They’re generally easily prepared by tossing them into some boiling water or into the microwave. They are especially great for batch cooking. A pot of grains prepared on Sunday can easily be used to make bowls, wraps, stir frys and salads for the next few days. Most grains can also be made into a porridge by adding extra water and leaving them to cook longer. This is a very inexpensive way to start a winter morning off with a big bowl of something comforting and warm.
Tips
- “Whole grain” foods are made with the entire grain seed, while “refined grains” have had some parts removed during processing. Brown rice, for example, is a whole grain, while white rice is a refined grain with the germ and bran removed. Whole grain foods are generally healthier because they contain more dietary fibre and vitamins than their refined counterparts. Refined grains usually cook faster, and can be easier on the stomachs of people with digestive issues
- Oats, rice, barley and cornmeal are almost always very cheap. Other kinds of grains can be expensive at health food stores, or in the wellness aisle of the supermarket. They are usually very inexpensive at ethnic grocery stores, or in the international and baking aisles of the supermarket, so try buying them there instead.
- Cooked grains have a high risk of causing food poisoning if they’re stored incorrectly. They must spend as little time as possible at room temperature to prevent harmful bacteria from multiplying in your food. You should never leave cooked grains sitting out on a counter. If they’ve been sitting at room temperature for more than 2 hours, throw them away. Once grains are cooked, it’s a good idea to transfer them to a shallow container and let them sit uncovered in the fridge until they’ve cooled down. Once the food is as cold as the fridge, put the lid on. Leftover grains should only be reheated once.
Recipes
- Mexican rice
- Cornbread
- Easy homemade granola
- Veggie fried rice
- Nanny's chicken and rice casserole
- Red beans and rice
- Arepas
- Mujadara
Pasta
A midweek meal champion, fast, easy, and delicious! The word “pasta” comes from Italy, where noodles are traditionally made with only two ingredients, water and wheat flour. The Asian version of the same staple food is usually just called “noodles” in English. Asian noodles are made with a wider variety of ingredients, including rice flour, buckwheat, and sweet potato. Regardless of what kind you make, noodles are a cheap and reliable pantry food that can help stretch your groceries between paydays.
Tips
- All noodles are cooked by boiling them. The length of time depends on the size, shape, type and freshness of the noodle, so be sure to check the package or recipe you’re using for instructions.
- Dried pasta cooks best in a large pot with a lot of water, so that the noodles have room to move around. Make sure that the water is at a full boil before you add the pasta. The temperature of the water will dip when they are added, and if it’s not hot enough, you’ll end up with soggy, undercooked noodles.
- Fresh pasta usually cooks a lot quicker than the dry version. Small and thin noodles will cook the quickest- sometimes within 30 seconds!- so you’ll want to keep a close eye on them, and taste them regularly to see if they’re done. Fresh pasta starts very soft and doughy, but it’ll firm up as it cooks. It’ll usually start to float when it’s done cooking.
- Like grains, pasta is another high-risk food for causing food poisoning. The same food safety rules will apply. Minimize the amount of time that pasta spends at room temperature by transferring leftovers to the fridge as soon as possible. Reheat only the portions that you’re going to eat, and leave the rest in the fridge at a food-safe temperature.
Recipes
Pasta sauce:
Pasta and noodle recipes:
Starchy produce
Produce is considered starchy when it has a relatively high amount of carbohydrates. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, peas, cassava, plantain, and corn are all examples of starchy produce. Many of these foods have gotten a bad reputation in the era of low-carb dieting, but it’s very unwarranted. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre, and are eaten as staple crops all around the world. Starchy produce is also usually some of the least expensive at the store. These foods are satisfying, tasty, and keep well in the cupboard or freezer. They’re excellent for adding some extra flavour and heartiness to mains and sides.
Tips
- Potatoes, corn, and peas are usually inexpensive, while prices for plantains, winter squash, and cassava depend on the season and the grocery stores you have access to. Starchy produce freezes and cans well, so don’t be afraid to buy it in the freezer or canned produce aisles if it’s too pricey fresh.
- If you’d like to make your starchy produce healthier, steaming, baking, or boiling is a good alternative to frying in oil. It’s also a good idea to leave edible skins on veggies like potatoes and sweet potatoes; this increases the fibre and vitamin content.
- In general, you’ll want to store your starchy produce somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Watch for mould, sprouts, or soft spots, as well as musty odours. What spoilage looks like is going to vary by the type of produce; some things are going to be perfectly fine to eat with the defect cut off, while some things are going to be a sign that the food is unsafe. Never be afraid to double-check online if you aren’t sure.
Recipes
- Oven sweet potato fries
- Sweet potato, corn, and black bean salad
- Shepherd's pie
- Sweet potato hash
- Potato salmon bake
- Breakfast casserole
- Harvest chicken soup