Yorkshire mother-of-two reveals how she made 9 different dishes out of one base sauce

“I’m just a self-trained home cook,” said Freda Shafi, who started posting her home-made dishes on Instagram and has now racked up thousands of followers - as well as saving thousands of pounds.

The mother-of-two, from Bradford, sees food as art and as a result of her stylish dishes has delivered cookery demonstrations in the likes of Harvey Nichols, as well as now writing her own food column.

She said: “I am a normal mum and I just want to inspire others to create good home-cooked dishes on a budget.”

And while she is not a trained chef, she did trained in art at Leeds University’s Bretton Hall.

Freda added: “I strongly believe that creating and sharing food is a natural conduit to connect people of all backgrounds and cultures, as well as inspiring the inner chef in everyone.”

Ingredients

6 onions chopped

10 cloves garlic crushed

6 tomatoes chopped or a jar of passata

1 inch piece ginger crushed

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Oil or ghee

The sauce cost Freda around £3.50 to make for this jar which includes a bag of onions 65p, 12 tomatoes 95p each, £2 spices and oil approx 80p in this jar.

Freda’s sauce was used as a base for nine other dishes.

Method

Take a large saucepan and heat the oil before adding the onions. Gently brown until translucent before adding the garlic , ginger and tomatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes then add the spices and simmer for a further few minutes.

Use a hand held processor to grind the sauce down to a paste. Place in a jar and refrigerate.

The sauce will stay fresh for up to a week and can be adapted with other spices and used over so many different dishes as shown in the video. It cuts down cooking time and the amount of energy required by half if not more.

Here are Freda’s top cost-cutting, time and energy saving hacks:

Sauces

Freda said: “The answer is batch cooking which means preparing a basic sauce with a few ingredients which can be adapted to make several other dishes. It cuts down the amount of time you need to have your stove on because half the work is done”

She says the sauce “can be put in a jar in the fridge and can be used for simple things such as on pizza bases, complex things like chilli con carne, delicious curries, vegan dishes, Italian dishes, casseroles and so much more.”

Buy from a reduced aisle and freeze it

To save money on ingredients for her dishes such as her sauce she is inspired by the reduced aisle to spark what she is going to create next. It’s here she has stumbled on ingredients amounting to as little as 20p.

Use a slow cooker

The perfect solution for those with little time, a family eating at different times and who want to save money. Using the sauce you could make a tasty casserole this way.

Spice it up

“Any dish can be transformed using different spices,” said Freda, who made a curry out of this sauce.

This sauce can save you time, money and energy in the kitchen, here's how to make it:

This is the recipe for Freda’s cost-cutting batch-cooking sauce. She used her sauce as a base for nine other dishes to feed her family.

Details of all the recipes seen in the video, using the sauce can be found on Instagram @fredashafi_spiceitup