Frugal food substitutes

Being a frugal cook is all about thinking out of the box. Sure, even without that there are many things you can do to lower your grocery costs. By buying what's on sale that week, eating seasonally, by go shopping only once a week etc. 

But still some items are expensive. I have been frugal for as long as I can remember, but when finances were really tight for us, I've became way more frugal and learned to think outside the box when it came to food. Sometimes you crave a certain meal but it has some ingredients that are expensive and your budget simply doesn't allow that item. So what do you do? 

Over the years I've learned a lot about frugal food substitutes. Some I've read on blogs, some came from my grandmothers who had been through both the depression era and WW2. I've also learned a lot from my in laws, who are from another country than where I grew up, with a very different standard of living, and where I'm living currently. Even a lot of the richer people here are very frugal for western standards. I think food substitutes are awesome because they'll enable you to still enjoy certain recipes even when the budget is tight, or when certain products simple aren't available. 

So, here's some things I think can be great frugal food substitutes! 

Fruit and veg 

Strawberry- strawberries are available for a limited time where I live. I love making strawberry jam but sometimes I waited too long for the price to decrease a little bit, and gone were the strawberries. Oops! What I did was making watermelon jam instead. Believe it or not but taste wise, it resembles strawberry. It does have a very different flavour than eating watermelon plainly. It was really good. 

Apples and pears can be used interchangeably in many baking recipes. 

Raisins- quite expensive where I live. Especially when used in baking it can be substituted by dates cut in small pieces. Dates are a lot cheaper here. 

Sweet potatoes- unfortunately, I'm yet to find a sweet potato here! I usually just use pumpkin, and when I want to substitute a sweet potato mash, I replace it by half pumpkin/half regular potato. 

Zucchini when cooked can be substituted by cucumber. I wouldn't recommend to replace cucumber by zucchini when making a salad, but for pickling it should work. 

Most sweet pepper varieties can be used interchangeably. Same for hot pepper varieties. The same applies to some cabbage varieties. 

A lot of leafy greens can be used interchangeably. Here, spinach is hard to find and I use swiss chard or arugula instead. Especially when using swiss chard, no one will notice a difference. 

Turnips can be used instead of potatoes in some dishes like soup, stew etc. 

Parsley and carrots tops have a similar flavour profile. 

Starches

Semolina and corn meal can be used interchangeably in a lot of baking recipes. 

White flour can substitute whole wheat flour and vice versa, though health wise whole wheat would be a lot more beneficial. White flour is not suitable to use instead of self rising flour; you still need to add baking powder to the flour. 

Sorghum flour can be used as an substitute for whole wheat flour. 

Raw oats can be used as a muesli (raw granola) alternative; because that's exactly what it is ;) (only in muesli there may be some buts, seeds or dried fruits added). Just much cheaper!

Short grain rice is quite a good substitute for risotto or Turkish style rice; I must admit it's not exactly the same, but it's quite a good alternative. Especially in deserts. While our main rice for savoury dishes is Jasmine rice, we buy the cheapest kind of white rice for desserts etc.

Rice can be often substituted by course barley or wheat (also known as bulgur or burgul). This is especially useful for those who want to focus on eating as locally as possible and where rice is an imported product. 

Couscous and fine bulgur can be used interchangeably in most recipes, although one must take into consideration that both starches have different ways to prepare. 

Of course different pasta shapes can be used interchangeably, although that does change the taste of the dish a bit (at least thats what I think). 

Orzo/lesan 3asfour (rice shaped pasta) can substitute rice in certain recipes; it can also replace vermicelli in soups. 

Potato starch, corn starch and wheat starch can be used interchangeably in most recipes. 

Dairy products 

In most cases, margarine is a decent butter alternative, though nothing beats the flavour of real butter! In savoury dishes, I like replacing butter by rendered chicken fat. Oil can replace butter in some baking recipes.

Whipping cream and heavy cream, when used for savoury dishes, can be replaced by evaporated milk, plain milk, or milk mixed with melted butter. 

Sour cream can be substituted by yogurt or buttermilk mixed with melted butter.

Milk can be replaced by water in some cases, although the end result may be less rich. You can also make your own oat milk easily, which has a very creamy taste (recipe coming soon hopefully!). 

Yogurt can be substituted by soft cheese, and vice versa. Depending on the purpose yogurt can also be replaced by buttermilk (and vice versa). 

Egg replacements 

Chickpea flour- usually I use the 1:1 or 1:2 ratio to chickpea flour and water. 

Bananas replace eggs in certain baking recipes, although that might not be as frugal. Same applies to avocados. 

Applesauce is another great  egg replacer.

Flax seeds is another great eggs substitute. 

Leaving the eggs out altogether- I've done this with pancakes and waffles and they turned out great. 

•Will be updated•