"Not curried cauliflower, please! That's not a feast!" I'll ignore the irritating panel of critics that sit at our dining table and assure you that called by another name and without an overbearing amount of cauliflower in it, this curry is a veritable feast. And what's more, it can be made from almost anything you have in the fridge, veg patch or cupboard. Please see the exciting recipe below

Flavoursome frugality does call for some forethought, however, or it just becomes frugality, which often translates into inedible at our house and that doesn't save anything, because they'll find something else to eat and waste my valiant efforts. So it's worth keeping a few basics in the cupboard that will enable you to transform awkward ingredients into delicious dishes. I expect that the creator of the tv programme Ready Steady Cook had a mum who could rustle up a wonderful meal with just a potato, some jam and an old box of ritz crackers, but I need a bit more than that. I try to keep the cupboard stocked with a few emergency ingredients. Tins of things like haricot beans, lentils, chickpeas and tomatoes are useful and to add instant glamour to a dish, try tinned coconut milk. Dried herbs, chilli flakes and spices are essential and also keep well - but not forever (check the dates on the packets and you'll probably get a horrible shock; time travels faster in cupboards).

Knowing what's in season helps too - things in abundance are usually cheaper, (which is very annoying when you grow your own - all that nurturing and then it's virtually free in the shops...). In the autumn and winter the seasonal fresh vegetables are mainly roots and cabbagey crops: comforting foods which go beautifully in soups and stews. We often have something called Soup Monday here (as if Monday wasn't bad enough already, some may squawk). I make a soup from whatever we've had for supper the previous day (excellent with roast chicken, but it doesn't work so well if it was beans on toast). And then there's 'pot luck' pasta, where I disguise a multitude of leftovers in a tomato sauce - a hand-held blender is useful here, if you don't want them to identify the ingredients.

I love making one meal stretch into several, but it does sometimes take imagination and tenacity. If you grow your own though, it's useful (actually nigh on essential) to have a few recipes to hand that are flexible enough to take either the three peas you've proudly managed to grow at one end of the veg-growing spectrum, or the huge haul of courgettes at the other.

So with winter coming and no end yet in sight to the financial hard times, here are some versatile, delicious and fiendishly frugal dishes to liven up the dark days.

Cupboard Curry

Serves 4 (bulk out with rice and bread for an unexpected guest)

It's Sunday night, they're starving (Uncle Bob's just popped over and shows no signs of leaving) and all you can find is half an old cauliflower, two bendy carrots, a large sprouting onion, curry powder and a pot of yoghurt that no one wants to finish. What perfect ingredients! If you can find a tin of chickpeas, or some leftover meat, some potatoes, chilli flakes and a tin of coconut milk as well, then Bob's your (grateful) uncle! A lime and some coriander might be too much to expect from the back of the cupboard on such an evening, but they would be wondrous additions. Serve with a generous helping of rice and naan bread or pitta if you have any, depending on how far this needs to spread and how frugal you need to be.

• assorted vegetables as discussed, include an onion if possible. For the one in the picture I used (oldish) new potatoes, two small carrots, half a small cauliflower, a handful of mushrooms, a tin of chopped pineapple (a handful of sultanas also works well, esp. if you're using yoghurt or cream instead of coconut milk.
• 1 tin chickpeas (or lentils, or more potatoes - how bare is your cupboard?)
• 1 tin coconut milk - be prepared to thicken. Or yoghurt or cream (or milk if you're desperate) can substitute.
• 1tsp approx. chilli flakes (to taste)/green Thai curry paste if using coconut milk, or 2 tsps medium curry powder for the cream/yoghurt version
• optional extras: chicken pieces, chopped coriander, lime juice

Pre cook any potatoes you're using. Sauté the onions in a deepish pan for 5 mins, then add the other vegetables and sweat until they're soft. Add cooked potatoes, chickpeas, chilli/curry, extra ingredients (but not the coriander) and the coconut milk/cream/yoghurt and either place in a medium oven for 45 mins, or simmer in a heavy based pan for a similar amount of time. Adjust the seasoning depending on how spicy you like it. This tastes even better the next day.

Free Lunch Frittata

Serves 6 if you serve it with salad and bread. I also do it cubed on cocktail sticks with a tomato or chilli dip as an appetizer, where, depending on the size of the cubes, it will serve a multitude

Obviously this is not free unless you have chickens and grow your own vegetables, but I'm always especially smug when I can serve this up (with a salad from the garden too). My family then kindly ask whether I've grown the olives to make the oil and point out that we have to buy the chicken food and then there's the man-hours involved etc. But (casting the nitpickers aside), it's the closest I can get to a free lunch.

• 8 large eggs
• small bunch of spring onions or 2 med. onions
• some cooked, cubed potatoes (exact quantities dependent on the other vegetables involved)
• either: a red pepper/a courgette (or 2) / mushrooms / green beans (these will need pre-cooking) / peas, a handful of chopped parsley, oregano, or whatever you need to use up - enough that with the potato and onion they almost fill the pan
• olive oil for frying
• pinch of salt
• cubed pancetta - optional

Use a heavy based, or non-stick, medium sized frying pan for this recipe. If you're splashing out and using pancetta, fry it gently until it starts to crisp and then soften the onions and uncooked vegetables in the bacon fat for 5 minutes or so (if not, just use a little olive oil) then add the cooked potato. Meanwhile crack the eggs into a bowl and beat together, then pour over the vegetable mixture and cook gently until the egg starts to set - no mixing, or you'll scramble the eggs - and keep the heat low, or the bottom will burn. When the mixture's been cooking for around 15 mins, place the pan under the grill to cook the top - or put it in the oven if your pan has a detachable handle - this is to make sure the frittata cooks all the way through. Serve warm or cold.

Serendipity Soup

Serves 4

The edibility of soup depends, to a great extent, on the quality of stock you use. Having a good fresh (or frozen) stock to hand will improve it considerably, but a couple of stock cubes will do. I also grow a lot of leeks, mainly because they're easy and they sit in the ground without a fuss for months. Leeks are my favourite soup ingredient. The recipe below uses a leftover chicken carcass. Call it Chicken soup if enough meat was left over to be detected in the bowl, otherwise make up a name based on the main ingredients.

For the stock:

• 1 chicken carcass, meat stripped off and put in the fridge
• a selection of stock-making vegetables cut into chunks - onion, carrot, leek, celery
• seasoning to taste - bay leaves and bouquet garni if you have them
• 1.5 litres water

Put all the ingredients into a large pan with a lid. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for around an hour. If you're freezing it to use at a later date, then do reduce the stock (by boiling it down without the lid on).

For the soup:

• leftover chicken pieces, shredded
• a potato
• 2 leeks, cleaned and chopped - or 1 onion
• assorted vegetables - your choice.
• I sometimes find a tin of tomatoes and some haricot beans useful here if I'm short on time or vegetables
• 50g butter / 2 tblsp oil
• seasoning - extra stock / bouillon powder / pepper / spices / garlic

Chop all the vegetables up into chunks - I dice them up small, but if you like it chunkier, then do larger dice. Soften the leeks/onion in butter or oil in a heavy based pan, then add the diced vegetables and sweat them gently for around 20 minutes. This slow sweating will help draw out the flavour of the vegetables. Add the stock and chicken, bring to the boil and simmer gently for another 20 minutes. Check the flavour and season accordingly. Serve with crusty bread (house rule: the more feeble the soup, the nicer the bread should be).

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