Cheap and healthy eating: the list that busts the superfood myth

Cheap and healthy eating: the list that sinks the superfood

Do you really need to spend 80 euros on Andean maca powder to eat well? The answer given in a home cooking discussion is a resounding no, and it comes with a recipe book. Legumes with chorizo, garlic soup, Spanish potato omelette, Cuban-style rice, French omelette sandwiches, macaroni with tomato and tuna. None of that costs more than a few euros per serving, and all of it delivers fibre, plant protein, carbs and some good fat. The starting point is a list of dishes that can be made with what's in any Spanish kitchen without mortgaging your paycheque.

What gets cooked when the budget rules

The dish that opens the conversation is a pantry classic: garlic soup with an egg, paprika and bread crumbs; potato omelette; macaroni with tomato, cheese and meat or tuna; Cuban-style rice; peppers stuffed with rice and meat; French omelette sandwiches with onion or cheese; Frankfurter sausages; longaniza; and mixed burgers. About the latter there's a specific fact that keeps coming up: a tray of twelve bought at a discount supermarket costs 5.99 euros. That's about 50 cents each. The obvious question is whether that's food or filler.

That's where the first sustancia ilegal appears. Some participants warn that sausages and pre-made burgers are hardly a healthy food and recommend reading the percentages on the label before putting them in the trolley. The reply comes quickly: the problem isn't the price, it's the processing. The discussion shifts from the shopping basket to the label.

Legumes: the meal that feeds a regiment for under 10 euros

If there's one point of consensus across the whole conversation, it's legumes. Lentils or beans with chorizo, bacon, ham bones, garlic, onion and paprika. The calculation thrown out is emphatic: for under 10 euros you can feed a regiment. And it doesn't just fill you up: it provides fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals and, as the argument goes, benefits for the gut microbiota, muscles, nervous system, skin, immune system and circulation.

The list of dishes added to that base is long: bean stew with greens and accompaniments, arroz a lo pobre with leftover meat, chorizo and peppers, chickpeas with mussels, potato salad with tomato, onion, pepper and tuna, potatoes with pork ribs, porrusalda (leek and potato soup), potatoes with saffron milk cap mushrooms, tripe with chickpeas bought from the butcher, braised rabbit with chillies, rabbit liver with garlic, fried anchovies, stuffed peppers, homemade pan-fried empanada. The list stretches as far as each household's imagination.

The mussel stew that takes the crown

There's one recipe that provokes a disproportionate reaction. Chickpeas with mussels. Someone asks for it to be explained in detail and the answer comes with technique: blanch the mussels in boiling water for a couple of minutes, sauté garlic, onion and hand-crushed tomato, deglaze the sofrito with white wine, add the mussel water, then very hot water and the previously soaked chickpeas with salt and bay leaf. When they're soft, add the shelled mussels, a handful of fresh spinach and turn off the heat. Serve ten minutes later with chopped parsley.

The touch of spinach, they say, is what elevates the dish. The reaction is so enthusiastic that someone calls it orgasmic. The full recipe, with timings and proportions, is there for anyone who wants to copy it.

The microwave war and burnt oil

Not everything is harmony. There's a recurring spat over how to cook. One camp defends the microwave as a quick, clean method for making French omelettes or heating tupperware containers of broccoli with cheese. Another replies that oil burnt at high temperatures is garbage, even worse than the microwave. The counter is that in a frying pan you use just enough oil to keep the egg from sticking, so nothing goes to waste. The discussion isn't settled, but it leaves a useful point: the method matters as much as the ingredient.

Health is inherited and other heresies

A sceptical current emerges against the official narrative of healthy eating. Its thesis: health is 90% inherited and food matters less than the industry claims. The supporting argument is a familiar one: people who punished their bodies all their lives and reached old age without problems. Against that, another camp reminds everyone that there are foods best limited —sugar, refined rice and bread, potatoes, non-wholegrain pasta, processed foods and alcohol— and that legumes, lean meats, fish, shellfish, vegetables, greens, fruit, eggs and dairy allow millions of combinations.

The clash isn't resolved. But it leaves one clear idea: cheap, healthy food exists; what doesn't exist is unanimity about what exactly is healthy.

From sixties bread to heatwave gazpacho

There's a nostalgic lament about bread. In the sixties it was cheap, good and filling, with the now-extinct half loaf. Now it's expensive and, in general, bad: barely toasted, full of additives, poorly fermented. The scene of people squeezing bread at the supermarket to see if it's just right repeats with every shop.

And then there's gazpacho, which appears as the star dish when the heat bites. Cheap, refreshing, made with tomato, cucumber, pepper, garlic, oil and vinegar. Little else is needed.

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The conclusion, if there is one, is that the shopping basket doesn't need imported superfoods or miracle powders. It needs legumes, eggs, potatoes, real bread and someone who knows how to light the stove. The rest is marketing.