Should I cook cheaper food over a long time or expensive food more quickly?published at 12:00 Greenwich Mean Time 2 December 2022

12:00 GMT 2 December 2022

Justine Pattison
Food writer and home economist

Liam in London asks whether cheap food like baked potatoes and dried pulses - which take a long time to cook - are a better deal than more expensive food, which is quick to cook.

Energy is more expensive now but, as you know, food costs have also risen. Cooking cheaper food for a longer time is a better deal, as the extra cost incurred by the longer cooking time is very unlikely to exceed or equal the cost of the more expensive ingredients.

But I think it’s a good idea to make the most of your oven when you do use it. Have something cooking on all the shelves, for instance, and batch cook when you can.

If you're cooking more expensive ingredients, such as fresh meat or fish, turn them into one-pan meals, where you can bulk out with extra vegetables or the pulses you mention.

And, make the most of your slow cooker, if you have one, too.

Read more energy-saving budget recipes here.

Image source, .

Marita Moloney
Reporting from north London

It’s time to decide what today’s menu will be - up to 100 meals will be made here in the space of a few hours.

A lot of creativity is needed by the chefs, they don’t know exactly from day to day what they’ll be cooking as it depends what’s in the bi-weekly food deliveries.

James Douglas will be cooking up today’s feast of Christmas party food, as well as a hearty gammon lunch.

The chef, who previously owned several food businesses in Canada before moving to London, began volunteering with Feast With Us during the pandemic and is now a full-time member of staff.

Friday is a particularly busy day, with lunch, dinner and also weekend meals needing prepping.

“It’s a lot of fun, I really enjoy working with people and I have new colleagues every day,” says James, who is a chef by trade.

“One of the challenges here is we can’t really order what we want, whatever shows up is what we have to work with.

“Every day is a challenge but it’s a lot of fun.”

Thanks for sending us your food-focused questions. We've received all sorts of queries about how to beat the rising cost of living through what you buy and how you cook it.

Shortly we'll be feeding through some answers from our expert: food writer Justine Pattison.

Justine writes cookery books and specialises in healthy-eating recipes - and has more than two decades of experience.

She'll be sharing her tips for cutting down your shopping costs - and of course some budget-friendly tips for the kitchen.

So make sure to stay right here on this page.

Emma Simpson
Business correspondent

Some interesting snippets from Tesco on our shopping habits this winter.

The supermarket giant says sales of frozen turkeys have jumped by 200% this year compared to before the pandemic in 2019.

Tesco reckons it is more about shoppers trying to budget for Christmas rather than any worries about a shortage of turkeys due to bird flu outbreak.

There has also been a huge spike in luxury frozen desserts. Searches for frozen food in general on Tesco's website are up 40% compared to 2021.

A frozen Christmas dinner is still a very small part of the Christmas market but there's a supermarket battle over who can provide the best deal.

Even Poundland is getting in on the act with its first ever frozen festive dinner. Though it isn’t £1.

Jamie Moreland
BBC News

Hana Agha manages the Cultural Food Hub in Leeds, where she says the number of families on a low income using the emergency food service has “skyrocketed”.

“This time last year we were serving about 70 people a week. Now we’re serving 170,” she explains.

The project began during the Covid pandemic, when the team realised culturally inappropriate food was being distributed by food banks, including items some religions can’t accept.

“We’ve got massive diverse communities - African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Eastern European. You want to make them feel valued,” she says.

Hana says she’s been shocked by some of the people needing help.

“A local school’s staff member was referred to us. She was crying and said never in her life had she needed to use a food bank.”

The food hub co-ordinator says despite work being “manic and busy”, it helps keep her clients healthy.

“It’s really rewarding to be doing this... you see the impact. Food is fuel for your body and you need a balanced diet to keep your immune system up.”

Big Zuu knows a thing or two about cooking on a budget.

The TV chef and rapper teamed up with a network of community pantries to share tips for making the most of a weekly shop.

As well as spreading his knowledge, Zuu also demonstrated a few cooking techniques outside one branch in Peckham.

Big Zuu will be back with his Big Eats Christmas specials soon

Marita Moloney
Reporting from north London

I’m here at a hostel in north London with FEAST With Us, a charity helping to tackle food poverty by using surplus ingredients to make hot meals for communities who need them most.

Volunteers are starting to arrive for a busy day ahead, and Ellie Butterworth and Jen Carmo are hard at work cleaning up after breakfast.

They’re also decorating the residents’ living room with tinsel and decorations - Christmas is coming to the shelter today, with a festive lunch planned for later.

The charity has 250 volunteers operating across eight locations, with demand high for people wanting to help out over the festive season.

Ellie says it’s a fine balance between having enough food donations and being able to provide meals to as many people who need them.

Demand for the charity’s services are higher this year than ever before, she says, but so far they’re coping thanks to reliable donations from other charities and supermarkets.

The Trussell Trust is calling on the government to provide urgent support for people struggling with spiralling food prices.

It said it welcomed the measures announced in the recent Autumn Statement - a host of payments to help ease the pressures of the cost of living crisis - but that further government intervention was needed now to ensure people could afford food and essential items over winter.

“We really do need further intervention from the government, particularly over this winter period.

"We welcome the announcements made in the Autumn Statement in terms of what will take place from April onwards,” chief executive Emma Revie says.

“But between now and April, with so many people already unable to afford the essentials, such as food, there needs to be another intervention.”

Justine Pattison
Food writer and home economist

I’m a food writer and consultant and my focus for the past few months has been on helping people save money through my recipes and tips, both on their shopping and energy costs.

I’ve created five weekly meal plans for BBC Food, including meals for one and for up to families of six, plus vegetarian options. You can find them here.

Based on research for the BBC which looked at the price of seven Christmas dinner staples - a frozen turkey, chipolatas, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, gravy, potatoes and mince pies - the cost will be 22% higher at just over £30.

It compares with nearly £25 the year before.

But there is some good news: the data from retail research firm Assosia looked at prices on 29 November this year and last.

It is highly likely that supermarkets will slash prices in the final week before Christmas.

While prices for fresh veg might not be quite as rock-bottom as last year, when you could buy 500g of Brussels sprouts for 19p, Ged Futter, director at the Retail Mind consultancy and a former food buyer for Asda, says: “Certainly, there will be big reductions on all of those products in Christmas week because there always are."

Read more here.

Image source, .

Marita Moloney
Reporting from north London

With prices soaring, many organisations are working to tackle food poverty across the country.

FEAST With Us, external is a London-based charity that mobilises volunteers to cook and eat meals with vulnerable people in various community centres and hostels in four boroughs across the city.

They make nutritious meals using surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away through donations from local food retailers and distributors.

According to the organisation, it cooks an average of 4,000 meals a month, delivering around 1,000 meals each week by car, bike and foot.

I will be bringing you more on the charity’s work when I join volunteers in north London later.

Aoife Walsh
BBC News Live reporter

Food security is “at the very heart” of coping with the cost of living crisis, the UK's largest food bank network says.

As food prices soar at their fastest rate in more than 40 years, food banks across the UK are struggling to keep up with record levels of demand.

The Trussell Trust’s chief executive, Emma Revie, says the network is seeing people who have often gone days without eating by the time they visit a food bank.

“[Food] is essential. If you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people need to feel that they know where their food is coming from, where they’re going to stay, access to personal hygiene items, and the ability to stay warm.

"All of these things are under threat for people on the lowest incomes,” Revie says.

US psychologist Abraham Maslow suggested there were five "hierarchy of needs" for human beings.

The most basic are physiological - including food and shelter - and a feeling of safety.

Revie adds: “These are essentials that we all need to be able to function in life and food is at the very heart of that.

"People need to eat, people need to be able to provide food for their children, and by the time somebody comes to a food bank, they will often have gone multiple days without eating food.”

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The latest official figures show the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks has risen by 16.4% in a year.

So a trolley of groceries that cost £100 a year ago now costs £116.40.

Prices are going up owing to suppliers’ costs.

Energy, used in production, has been more expensive, as has animal feed.

So too has packaging, and then there are the higher transport costs to get it to us all.

All that is bound up with economies emerging from Covid, which created demand for energy.

The war in Ukraine has also reduced the amount of grain available.

Given that a lot of food that we consume in the UK - particularly at this time of year - is imported, then we are more exposed to those issues.

The price of imports is rising at a faster rate than domestically produced food.

Soon we'll be joined on this page by food writer and consultant Justine Pattison, who will be sharing her favourite budget-friendly recipes and answering your questions on how to cut costs in the kitchen.

With over 20 years of culinary experience, Justine specialises in creating healthy-eating recipes and writing method-led cookery books.

You can send us your questions by emailing us at yourquestions@bbc.co.uk.

Image source, Kate Whitaker

We’ll be hearing a lot about food banks today - which provide donations of food that go to people who struggle to afford to eat - and their important role in tackling the rising prices.

In a recent BBC poll of young people, one in 10 said they had used a food bank in the past six months, with many struggling to find “healthy, balanced meals”.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Radio 1 and BBC Newsbeat in October, showed 45% of young people had shopped in a different supermarket to try and make savings on food.

Image source, .

Mandy, who is on universal credit, says the costs have forced her to use a food bank several times.

“Half of the time I live on noodles, because it is that difficult," she told the BBC.

The 22-year-old says she has to "rely on other people" for a hot meal.

You can read more about Mandy’s situation here.

For many people, access to food has become more difficult as prices in our local grocers and supermarkets have shot up in the last 12 months.

We’re seeing some of the biggest rises in food costs since 1980 - with the price of key staples such as bread, cereal, meat and dairy all climbing.

The cost of some items, like low fat milk, rose by nearly 50% - that means a pint of skimmed milk costing 95p in October 2022 was just 64p a year earlier.

And food is just part of the struggle - with many having to also contend with higher energy and transport costs and mortgage rates as the rate of inflation in the UK keeps surging.

Whether you’re a single parent struggling to feed a family, in a house-share of students or an individual living alone, these prices are really starting to pinch.

That’s why we’re offering dedicated coverage on the food crisis - offering useful tips on how to make your money stretch further both in the supermarket aisles, as well as at home.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage. As the UK’s food prices continue to rise at their fastest rate for more than 40 years, many of us are changing the way we shop, cook and eat.

As part of our ongoing cost of living coverage, we will be sharing ways to make your money go further with budget-friendly recipes and food shopping tips.

Today we are in north London, where we will be following Feast With Us, a support group that provides hot meals to communities facing food insecurity.

We’ll also hear from people across the UK about how they are coping with the food price hikes, and we’ll be providing support and advice from our experts.

Later, we’ll be joined by food writer and home economist Justine Pattison, who will answer your questions on how to make the most of your food budget.

Stay with us.