Looking for something easy, cheap, and thrillingly tasty? This round-up goes from snacks to sides, breakfast to after-dinner treats and everything in between. We’ve got all your thrifty bases covered.
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Texas-Style Barbecue Sauce
We’ve spent years testing Texas Style barbecue sauces, and this tomato-based version is our favorite by far. We keep the spices mild, but the depth of flavor is no less intense.
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This homemade hummus is easy to make, creamy, and exceptionally versatile. Chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and cumin. Need we say more?
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These chilaquiles are a quick, authentic, and very satisfying Mexican breakfast, made with day-old tortillas, eggs, and cheese.
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Curried sweet potato and lentil soup, made with red lentils and curry paste, packs a wallop of that traditional Thai juxtaposition of sweet, sour, salty, and hot even though it’s not at all southeast Asian in origin.
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This easy pot roast with potatoes and vegetables is quick to assemble and then made in the slow cooker or crock pot or simply slid into the oven. A simple classic with beef, carrots, potatoes, and red wine. Perhaps our best—and most comforting—Sunday supper.
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Slow cooker split pea soup with ham is traditional winter comfort food made easy. Just toss everything in a Crock pot and walk away. You’re welcome.
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This Cuban black bean soup is made from scratch from dried black beans, peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, and vinegar. lt’s cheap, simple, and vegetarian.
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Roasted red cabbage (actually, some would argue it looks more like PURPLE cabbage) is so incredibly easy—and surprisingly satisfying—to make in the oven. Simply toss with oil and cook.
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Carrot top pesto?! Believe it. Walnuts and fresh herbs and olive oil help create a vegan version of traditional pesto that puts to good use what would otherwise be kitchen scraps.
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Braised radishes are a relatively unknown novelty, or shall we say art form, that rely on a French cooking technique, chicken stock, and butter to turn the everyday into the elegant.
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This peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips is less of a recipe and more of us giving you permission to make something that’s already indulgent and satisfying even more so.
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This molletes is really more something you commit to memory than it is a recipe. It’s just refried beans on toast smothered with cheese and broiled until bubbly. Essentially Mexican grilled cheese.
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Leftover mashed potato cakes are the answer to Post-Thanksgiving food glut in the fridge. Leftover mashed potatoes are formed into pucks, floured, dipped in egg, and coated with panko breadcrumbs. They’re then pan-fried to crisp, golden perfection.
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These cornmeal griddle cakes are a simple Southern staple, made with a handful of inexpensive pantry ingredients including cornmeal, baking powder, salt, egg, and water. Entirely gluten-free and amazing at breakfast and beyond. Here’s how to make them.
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These easy roasted carrots boast four ingredients–carrots, butter, salt, and pepper–and one simple and perfect technique for roasting them to magnificence, bringing out their earthy sweetness.
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This slow cooker applesauce requires no work and only four ingredients: apples, brown sugar, ginger, and apple juice. You’ll never go back to jarred sauce again.
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With this homemade pancake mix, you can make fluffy buttermilk pancakes from scratch in minutes. Easy peasy. Simply combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter and stash the whole shebang in the freezer. Then add milk and eggs.
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Jim Lahey’s pizza dough allows you to create the sort of quality pizza crust at home that you’ve only ever experienced at the best of Italian bakeries and pizzerias. And it’s easier than you’d expect.
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Vegetable broth is easily made with vegetable scraps collected throughout the week. It's an economical and easy way to make sure you always have vegetarian stock in the freezer.
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These homemade potato gnocchi are the best version of this Italian classic we've ever had. They're made with russet potatoes, flour, egg, and salt and are like little pillows of potato heaven. Four ingredients. Ridiculously easy. Wonderfully inexpensive.
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Make your own homemade peanut butter thanks to this nifty, easy technique that turns out creamy, healthy, tasty nut butter every time.
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