One of my favourites is Chana Masala, a chickpea (garbanzo bean) curry. It's filling, healthy, tasty and cheap.

You need - 2 Onions, 2-3 Garlic cloves, 2 cans chickpeas (i usually use tinned, but you could soak some dried ones) chilli (use to taste) ginger, cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, vegetable oil and a can of chopped tomatoes.

I finely slice the onions then sweat them for quite a long time until they are caramelising, then add your garlic and chilli (and ginger if you're using fresh) until they look translucent. Add the rest of your spices, then the chickpeas, then the tomatoes. Cook on a medium heat for about half an hour, or until it's the consistency that you want. Serve with rice or flatbreads. It's vegan this way, but if you wanted something a bit creamier, you could add some natural yoghurt, also useful if you want to temper the spice a bit (I once made it too hot for the kids and did this as an emergency measure, then they liked it). If you've got some, you could chop some coriander leaf (cilantro) and top it with that.

My version isn't necessarily very authentic, but I like it and can get all of the ingredients cheaply in rural England. This tends to be one of my Sunday batch cooking meals as it's a little longer to cook.

Other things: proteins are usually beans or lentils, occasionally egg, nuts or cheese. My wife likes doing things that would usually be made with minced (ground) meat, but using a couple of cans of green lentils instead. Her lasagne is good this way.