Budget Friendly Spicy Sausage Chilli

The recent first episode of The Great British Budget Menu got me thinking about how much we spend on food and actually, how much we waste. I feel very lucky that I can afford to shop for nice ingredients and we eat out regularly too but, I still have to watch the pennies and often write a meal plan to make the most of whats in the cupboards.

I also make full use of my freezer and its always well stocked with reduced items! It was an interesting show which certainly provoked some opinions on twitter – both good and bad but I think the most important thing whether you agree with the shows format or not, is that its got people talking about food and how to eat well on a budget.

This is a great meal for when pennies are tight, plus it uses very few fresh ingredients so is also good for the end of the month when you need to do a food shop. I estimate this at approx £2.50 a serving!

Ingredients, serves 2-3:

• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Tin of kidney beans
• Pack of 6 sausages – I used award winning and totally delicious The Giggly Pig chilli and garlic sausages. Get the best you can afford and go for something with a good spicy flavour.
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 red or green pepper diced
• 100ml red wine
• Salt and pepper to season
• Chilli oil (or normal olive oil if you don’t have it)

 If you don’t have chilli oil or chilli sausages – add a fresh chilli to the onions and garlic. 

Method: 

• Heat the oil in a cast iron or large saucepan and fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes then add the sausages and brown for 10-12 minutes.
• Add the peppers and allow them to soften for a couple of minutes.
• Turn the up and add the wine, allow it to come to the boil and then turn the heat down to low.
• Add the tinned tomatoes (plus half a tin of water) and kidney beans and season to taste. Put a lid on and allow the liquid to simmer down for around 15 minutes – this will also finish cooking the sausages through.
• Take the sausages out and cut them up into threes. This will help stretch your meat. Return them to the pan and cook for a further 5 mins.
• Serve with rice or crusty bread

I’ve decided to enter this recipe into this months Credit Crunch Munch which is being hosted by Fish Fingers for Tea – a blog I’ve only recently found and am loving reading. Thanks to Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All for coming up with such a good blog link up!  

Why not check these blogs out for more Credit Crunching recipes?