Cooking

I've always understood that beans and rice is the defacto struggle meal. It's hard to beat them for sheer dollars-to-calories ratio, and may even be less expensive than potatoes.

I'm sure you're aware - and I empathize with your situation - but eating a variety is best if you're able to manage it. Potatoes can go a long way to stretching a diet, but aren't very nutritionally diverse on their own.

A few less expensive supplements I've used in the past are peanut butter, and eggs. There's often a deal to be had by shopping seasonally - pumpkins are in right now and I get a surprising amount of mileage out of them.

Personally I love green onions with potatoes. They're not very nutritionally dense, but they're a pleasing aromatic and you can get a bundle for around a dollar. If you place your onions in an open jar of water on the counter, they'll continue to grow. I usually regrow my onions 4-5 times from a single bunch and plain water, a handy frugal tip

But assuming potatoes are the only or main item on the menu, there's an impressive degree of versatility in their preparation. Ultimately that usually adds up to mashed, baked, boiled, or fried.

Potatoes make an excellent soup. Even on their own - a local place here does a side dish which is just a quarter potato simmered in miso / vegetable stock. If you're doing other ingredients, the potato can be made into a thickener for soup - corn chowder is an inexpensive meal that I've leaned heavily on in the past.

If you make a large batch of mashed potatoes, you can repurpose the leftovers for other meals. Mix with flour and you've got croquettes or potato pancakes. You can pretty much just toss them in a pan and refry them. If fish is available to you, you can mince a can into a potato / flour mixture and then fry it to get a tasty fish cake.

You can jazz up a baked potato into what's known as a Hasselbeck potato if you want a fun presentation. Essentially you score the potato into several thin segments and drizzle it with oil while baking. It has a pretty unique look.

This last one is a bit off the deep end - but it's a local dish here and something that our family does for major gatherings. It's called Rappie Pie, or Pate a la Rapure, or sometimes Potats Rappe. It's a bit of a process, but the only essential ingredients are potatoes and soup stock. It can be a ton of work and not for the faint of heart, but it's a rather unique preparation and genuinely comfort food for me. We like ours fairly runny - we sometimes call it Potato Jello

This recipe appears fairly accurate, but I'll try to summarize.

1. Grate potatoes into pulp then squeeze to remove the starch. This is the most laborious part of the process, so it's common for people to do this communally or to take a shortcut by buying a processed potato block.

2. Gradually mix potato mixture into boiling broth. Whisk until smooth

3. Pour into a greased pan, halfway through adding additional fillings if you have them. This is commonly served as a meaty dish with chicken, rabbit, or venison, but I've made it vegetarian or plain before too.

4. Bake until a crispy skin forms. Serve while hot, leftovers can be frozen or refrigerated, then reheated in the oven or a skillet

Anyway, good luck to you. I hope food security is in your future, nobody should have to go hungry 😞

One thing that does help is to make broths and roux to help stretch your dollars further.

I take my leftover vegetable trimmings and put them into a freezer bag and froze them. When I make broth I toss them in and you’ve turned trash into nutrients and flavour (just make sure you strain them out of your broth).

I do not use potato peelings first that, but they probably work fine.

Someone made a YouTube series 100 ways of cooking potatoes

Buy a bag of dried lentils, very cheap and highly nutritious with 25% protein. I use this recipe all the time. If you don’t have an instapot they can boiled on top of the stove, just takes a bit longer (you can soak a cup of lentils overnight in water to speed up cooking time). Goes wonderful on top of a baked potato

https://www.acouplecooks.com/instant-pot-lentils/print/39985/

A couple of years ago I picked up a recipe that someone shared in response to a post about three ingredient recipes. I partially boil potatoes, dump them on a cookie sheet, fork smash them, pour butter over the top, and throw them in the oven until they're a little brown and crispy on the tips, and then salt. They are so good and you could sprinkle a little bit of anything on top of this -any kind of seasoning. A little bit bacon would be good, or ham or leftover taco meat or some spicy chicken. It's kind of a good base for whatever leftovers you might have in your fridge and it has a little better presentation than just mashed potatoes. People are always amazed at how good it is. Who knew that potatoes, butter and salt were good together?

Cheap and easy for me means shepherd’s pie or pasta with sauce. Both are simple to make, cheap, and healthy. They also can freeze well so you can make a big batch on sundays for the whole week.

Potatoes are really versatile.

Hash browns are quick and easy, shred the potato, line it flat on a plate, cover with paper towel and microwave for two minutes, then fry. Add in some grated onion or other root vegetables and fry in chicken fat for latkes, great with apple sauce or sour cream (if using the latter, use vegetable oil to be very traditional)

Roasted potatoes with dried herbs and a squeeze of lemon, also easy, not as quick. About 35 min in a 425°F oven.

Potato dumplings or spatzle are also good. Boil peeled potatoes then mash with flour, egg, and some fat to form a dough. Then form into small balls and boil again or, more traditionally, grate the dough into boiling water. You can season the dough with some nutmeg for a simple but earthy touch.

Potatoes can make a good soup, too. Sweat onions, garlic, other alium like leeks, and maybe celery, add in peeled, inch cubed potato, cover with liquid (stock, water with bouillon, or just water) by like an inch, boil until the potatoes are fork tender then mash the crap outta it until its thick and homogeneous. Ideally you'd blend this, but you said equipment is limited. Make it rich with butter or milk. Err on the side of less liquid, it's easier to thin a thick soup than it is to thicken a thin one without burning stuff on the bottom of the pot.

This isn’t quite the question you asked, but my best advice based on being in survival mode some time ago is: Get a Costco membership or borrow someone’s card, and start to get small batches of $50-100 worth of groceries from there at a time. Plan it ahead for what you’ll need for the couple of weeks coming up. Big sacks of rice or flour, cases of tinned bean or veggies, milk and eggs or cheese, peanut butter, cheese and oranges once you’ve got a reserve of the staples. Potatoes, olive oil, bread, Annie’s mac and cheese.

Even if you’re only buying 3-5 things with each trip, your money will go pretty far and it’s wonderful to have some basic stuff in the cupboard all month and then be spending your money on filling in new stuff you want, instead of just on survival.

I have no potato recipes for the now, this is just some stuff for later that worked for me.

If you can afford eggs, latkes and gnocchi. You would use maybe 1-2 for a meal of latkes, but you can make a big batch of gnocchi with only a couple as well.

Latkes are like a heartier hashbrown made into a pancake.
Potato gnocchi are simple, but luxurious. You can put just about any sauce you like on them.

Both of these require flour as well, but a bag will last a long time if these recipes are all you're using it for.

Get yourself a couple of onions while you're buying potatoes. Gently cook a sliced half onion in a bit of margarine until it's nice and soft, then add your chopped up potato, a bit of salt and some herbs (see below), pour water in and cook gently until the potato is done. Soup!

Ideas for getting fresh herbs: trickiest one is visiting a garden centre that sells herbs and casually nipping off a sprig. Rosemary is very tasty and pungent, you don't need much, thyme is also good. Is there a botanic garden or similar near you? Learn what various herbs look like and go scouting. If you see someone gardening ask if they have herbs, and would they mind letting you have a twig. Again, you don't need a whole lot. But it makes a big difference to flavour, and is nicer than dried herbs.

I did a lot of shameless scrounging when I was young, including sifting through vegetables discarded by retailers but still ok to eat, but I realise not everyone is up for this kind of malarkey. So think about investing in a packet of basil seeds. Very tasty herb. All else you need is some dirt and an empty margarine tub. Easy to grow basil on your window ledge.

This isn't a potato suggestion, but a food pantry suggestion. They're generally run by your local food bank if you have one, or sometimes churches. Instead of giving you money to spend on food, they just give you actual food that has been donated. The food they give you is quite varied.

I have some thoughts on this, but do want to echo what one other poster said about bulk buying ingredients. If you're in the US, Costco accepts EBT at all stores, and I believe you don't need a membership. I would also look online to find any and all local food assistance programs to help augment what you will have available to have available, because some rice and beans could absolutely change your life with some potatoes.

For recipes:

• Potato soup/chowder (good storage)
• Korean stews if you can get your hands on a big bag of Korean red pepper powder one time that lasts years, usually
• Scalloped potatoes
• Mashed potatoes (good storage)
• Kenji's Crispiest Potatoes Ever
• Real Slow Baked Potatoes (1+ hour in the oven, no foil) though this doesn't store well
• Broth and potatoes (some people try to rebrand as Melting Potatoes
• Oven Baked Fries

Some of these may need more ingredients, like a base broth, but most should be pretty minimal. I have all kinds of food buying and providing hacks if you need more tips, or mention a general area of where you're at. Someone else may also know of other programs you can take advantage of.

When I am super lazy and when it’s cold outside I usually make potato stew. Ingredients are afaik cheap all around the world. It goes something like this:

Cut and roast some onion. Peel and cut some carrots into bits and add it into the pot. Add some concentrated tomato paste, salt and pepper. Let it continue simmering at low temperature. Peel and cut some potatoes. Add them to the pot and pour in some water. Just enough to cover everything. Let it simmer at the lowest temperature for an hour or two or five. Doesn’t matter really. It’s potato stew, not beef wellington.

I actually like this. It’s one of the easiest things I occasionally cook and it reminds me of my childhood. The good times at least.

Lot of good info here already, but here's a quick easy potato that I fall back on a lot:

-take your potato, wash it well, and poke a few holes in it all over with a fork or whatever you have

-microwave it for ~2-4 minutes, flip, and do another 2-4 depending on how strong your microwave is and how big of a potato. If it isn't cooked through (completely soft), flip and do another round until it is

-bam, 4-8 minute baked potato. Cut open and put margarine in it, a bit of salt, green onion, whatever. Sour cream/cottage cheese/other cheese are a great way to make it tastier and make it a complete source of protein, mayonnaise probably isn't as good for you but tastes similar, is easier to find cheap/free in squeeze packs, and if you can score unopened jars is shelf stable for a long time so you can have it on hand for tighter times.

My grandad used to make "Fricassée", although his recipe has little to do with actual fricassée. Fat, potato, chicken broth.

Toss some diced onions (and/or garlic) in whatever fat you've got on hand until they brown slightly or become translucent.
Add potatoes (cut into chunks about 2") and water.
Not too much water... almost cover the potatoes, but the top layer of potatoes should still peak out of the water.
Mix in powdered chicken broth, I just wing the quantity here, aiming for a light yellow.
Simmer and stir until the water is mostly absorbed and potatoes are can be cut easily with a knife.
If potatoes look done but it's too watery, crush a few chunks of potatoes and mix the starch in with the rest. Aim for a thick gravy.

The fat could be whatever you got on hand, whether that's butter, oil, margarine, shortening, saindoux, or leftover fat from some other pervious cooking is fine.
Onions and/or garlic are nice, but ultimately optional.

German reibekuchen or Polish placki. It is basically the same thing and delicious.

3 potatoes (1.5 pounds) 1 small onion 1 small egg 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Grate patatoes and onion, drain moisture, add egg and flower. Salt, pepper. Now you should have a nice batter. Fry the pancakes in the margarine on medium heat. I always fry three little pancakes at a time, size a little bigger than a burger. Takes a little time to cook the patatoes so don't make them too thic, raw starchy patato isn't a nice taste. The margarine should add some calories.

Try different types of potatoes. The common "Russets are rejects from the french fry industry". (direct quote from a Potato farmer I met a few years ago - I'm guessing he doesn't grow Russets and always take the quote with some salt). Different types of potatoes work well with different cooking styles.

(everything else I have to say has been well covered by others)

Kielbasa is cheap and tastes good. You can bake some potatoes with it or chop it into little pieces and put it into an omlette or slice it and make a stew with it and potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, etc. It's just something to add to the mix to change things up and as a single person you can probably use one for like 3 meals.

I've been there. I hope things get better for you.

Good and Cheap cookbook

Budget bytes recipe website

Not sure if this one’s been said yet, but potato gnocchi and tomato sauce is easy and cheap. Some recipes require egg yolk, but I’ve seen it done without it. Basically potatoes, flour, egg yolk (or a binder of some kind, but eggs can be found cheap at bargain groceries around me) and salt. It takes some time, but it makes for a pleasant meal without a lot of skill or expense required. Get yourself a jar of premade sauce or a can of diced tomatoes with some salt and pepper to top it with. Italian seasoning if you can spring for it.

My grandma would make us potato fritters when I was young and we didn’t have much money. Basically just hashbrowns fried with some salt and pepper with a bucket of salsa on top. You can also find powdered milk for things like mashed potatoes. Hope this helps!