About £1 Wonders

The aim of Jamie’s £1 Wonders is to be as useful to people as possible, with all prices correct at the time of filming (September 2022 and January 2023). We hope to arm you with the information and inspiration you need to make easy swaps, cook flexibly and make the most of the ingredients you buy, all within a budget.

Each recipe is priced at £1 or less per portion, which we’ve calculated based on an average of four UK supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons). Please note that these recipes do not use higher-welfare ingredients, although we do use free-range eggs and Red Tractor-assured meat.

We’ve calculated the cost per portion by the amount used, rather than the whole ingredient cost, as we believe you’ll already have many of the ingredients in your store cupboard/fridge/freezer. We don’t include olive oil, salt or pepper in the final costings, as we think you’ll definitely have these.

On the health front, we’ve kept an eye on veg portions to ensure that all of the main meals contain at least 2 portions of your 5-a-day. Plus, the majority of these recipes are classed as ‘everyday’, with only a couple of ‘occasional’ dishes. For more information on how we define ‘everyday’ recipes, click here.

Read our FAQs for more information.

£1 per portion isn’t affordable for everyone

We totally hear that. We’ve simply used it as a benchmark to price meals that is helpful to everyone. Find more budget-friendly cooking tips here.

What about meat standards?

We advise people to buy the best they can afford. In the show, Jamie cooked with the same ingredients used to calculate the £1 per portion dishes.

How did you work out the prices?

We’ve calculated the cost per portion by the amount used, rather than the whole ingredient cost, as we believe you’ll already have many of the ingredients in your store cupboard/fridge/freezer. We have then used the average price across four major supermarkets at the time of filming (September 2022 and January 2023). 

Which supermarket did you get the prices from?

We’ve calculated the cost per portion based on an average of four UK supermarkets –Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. This was using prices at the time of filming, September 2022 and January 2023.

Is microwave cooking safe?

Microwaves are super-convenient, time-saving and totally safe to use. To dispel a common misconception, The World Health Organization says that ‘it is important to realise that food cooked in a microwave oven does not become “radioactive”’.

What’s more, consumer group Which? found that microwaving is more likely to preserve nutrients than other cooking methods. Microwave cooking tends to be quicker and uses less water, so, as long as you don’t overcook vegetables, they’ll be just as nutritious as veg cooked in more traditional ways.

How was energy usage calculated to cook these recipes? Are the recipes low cost in energy too?

We made our recipes as energy efficient as possible, but we didn’t calculate the cost of the energy needed to cook each dish, as so many factors can affect it – who your energy provider is, the model and age of your appliance, not to mention the fact costs (per unit) are changing every day.

However, we did find out where each appliance sits in terms of energy usage, so to be as helpful as possible, Jamie offers recipes that can be cooked from scratch in the microwave, the cheapest appliance to run. He also shows you how to use your energy efficiently – eg, if you are going to turn on the oven, fill it up (cooking two dishes at once), or if you are using the hob, how to use it effectively by batch cooking.

For the TV series – to calculate the estimated cost of energy of different cooking equipment used, for various times of cooking and for various food items, we worked with Utilita Energy and The Energy Saving Trust.

To work out cooking times and cost we have multiplied the cost of energy by minutes used, however it is worth noting that different ovens use varying amounts of energy and will use more energy when getting to temperature, than when maintaining it.