42 free recipes from the EuroFoodTrails food-guide library — written for a home kitchen, with a note on how to cook each one cheaply. Every recipe points to the country guide that explains the table it comes from.
Read the free guide: Mediterranean diet on a budget →Potatoes, cream, garlic. No cheese — that is a different dish.
Chicken braised with peppers and tomato from the Basque southwest.
The real one: eggs, cream, lardons. No cheese, no vegetables.
Bitter leaves, bacon, croutons and a poached egg — a bouchon in one bowl.
Provencal summer vegetable soup finished with a basil-garlic pounding.
A flat apple tart with no custard to hide behind.
Soupy tomato rice — the side dish that quietly becomes the main.
Salt cod, straw potatoes and eggs, stirred together into Lisbon's favourite supper.
Potato and kale soup from the Minho — the cheapest good bowl in Portugal.
Northern bean stew that stretches a small amount of meat across six plates.
Custard tarts with blistered tops — the home version that actually works.
Grilled sardines, coarse salt, bread underneath to catch the juices.
Sizzling garlic prawns — six minutes from fridge to table.
Catalan breakfast that costs pennies and beats most restaurant starters.
Crisp potatoes and a smoky brava sauce that needs no tomato ketchup shortcut.
Spain's answer to ratatouille, eaten hot, cold or under a fried egg.
Cordoba tomato cream — thicker, richer and cheaper than gazpacho.
The bar-counter standard: potatoes, onion, eggs, patience.
Three ingredients, one pan of starchy water, and the most argued-about sauce in Rome.
Summer tomato and bread salad — no cooking, no waste.
Sicilian aubergine and tomato pasta finished with salty ricotta salata.
The Roman chickpea-and-pasta pot that costs about a euro a head.
Tuscan bread and bean soup built to be reheated — it improves overnight.
The Veneto original: eggs, mascarpone, coffee, cocoa. No cream, no gelatine.
Viennese apple strudel with a pastry you can read a newspaper through.
Beef in a silky root-vegetable cream sauce with dumplings.
A soup, not a stew — paprika, beef shin and slow heat.
Deep-fried dough with garlic water, sour cream and cheese.
Potato and curd cheese dumplings with fried onion.
Sour rye soup — tangy, smoky, and traditionally served in bread.
Coiled cheese pie in filo — bakery breakfast across the Balkans.
Little grilled minced-meat fingers with onion and flatbread.
Chard and potatoes with garlic and olive oil — every konoba's default side.
Dalmatian squid-ink risotto — cheap seafood, dramatic plate.
Roasted red pepper relish made in autumn to last all winter.
Sour cabbage rolls simmered slowly — the winter dish of the whole region.
Slow-roasted summer vegetables — an oven tray that needs no attention.
The white bean soup Greeks call the national dish — and it is nearly free.
Baked butter beans in tomato — a taverna staple served warm or cold.
No lettuce, no vinegar, no fuss. Tomatoes, cucumber, feta and oil.
Sifnos-style oven-baked chickpeas: five ingredients, overnight in a low oven.
Strained yoghurt, cucumber, garlic — the meze that makes everything else stretch.