Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
‘Nutritious and delicious’ recipes on offer
Nadia Lim’s new e-recipe book promises to bring low-cost and nutritious meals to families struggling to budget as food prices keep rising.
Saver Flavour is a free ebook New Zealanders can download and is a collaboration with Kiwi TikTok influencer The Contraversial Kiwi, aka John Fox, and the chefs at Bargain Box by My Food Bag.
Along with affordable dinner ideas, Savour Flavour offers a range of “affordable” snacks, desserts, sides and practical tips for reducing the cost of people’s weekly shops.
Lim said she had been hearing of so many people who were “struggling” with their grocery budgets: “I just hear so many stories of people not being able to put proper food on the table, you know, like good nutritious meals.”
Lim said it was a “no-brainer” getting together with the Bargain Box team and Fox to put together a resource that could help people cook “nutritious and delicious” meals.
“It’s a challenge. If you’re not a natural cook, dinner, it’s quite a challenge to be able to think up on the spot and put it all together,” Lim said.
The collaboration came together naturally: Lim approached Bargain Box and said, let’s do this and, because Bargain Box had been working with Fox, they got him on board too.
The ebook was a small way to help families around the country, even if it’s just a “little bit”.
After it launched last Friday, Lim said they got about 15,000 downloads that day.
Fox said the launch of Saver Flavour was “built” on the premise of what he sets out to do as The Contraversial Kiwi.
“I’m a dad and a home cook who understands first-hand just how expensive it is to feed a family, and I know from my TikTok community that many others are struggling with this, too,” Fox said.
Shopping locally and seasonally can have a big benefit not only to our wallets but to the local food economy and waste as well.
Lim’s best under-rated budget ingredients
might be a bit obvious, but red lentils was the first thing that popped into her mind, followed by potatoes, chicken nibbles (for the kids) and the “humble apple”.
You can make a lot of “awesome” meals with lentils – curries, dahls and soups – and apples, when in season, can be added to anything or you can stew them.
Lim’s big tip for trying to get that weekly grocery shop down was to try to get into growing some of your own food.
“The best example is leafy greens because they’re so expensive. You know, one bag of greens today is costing about $6, anywhere between $5 and $7, and a little punnet thing of herbs is about $4.”
Saver Flavour was available for anyone to download from try.bargainbox.co.nz/ saver-flavour-cookbook.