Guardian readers' feasts for a fiver

Those grumpy Guardian readers came up with their own cheap meals, and they are even better than the professionals, all on one page:

Crostini with cherry vine tomatoes and basil with a rocket (arugula) and parmesan salad
Rigatoni with tomato, aubergine (eggplant), basil and mozzarella

Courgette (zucchini) soup with garlic croutons
Spaghetti with crab, chilli and garlic

Spinach, lemon and peppered mackerel pilaf
Berry ice cream

Cabbage bhajis
Chana masala (chickpea curry) with rice

I'm most intrigued by the chana masala, which I may try very soon. Aubergine and courgette sound so much prettier than eggplant and zucchini, don't they?

It seems the Guardian readers were pretty grumpy about the budget series, complaining about the absence of meat in the dishes, the failure to account for the cost of the gas used in cooking(!), the lack of imagination of Jamie Oliver's dish, and the fact that the dishes didn't seem to be as cheap as promised.

Rose Gray's asparagus risotto, which I made tonight, got the best reviews, and it was indeed delicious and decadent. Something about a good risotto leaves me feeling indescribably contented and happy, but I had never actually made a risotto myself before this. It was very easy! Gray's directions are good, and I've been fortunate in having watched Italian friends make it, which really only made me understand how easy it is.

The Guardian recipes are written with metric measurements but translating is easy:

125g risotto rice
I had a box of arborio rice from Trader Joe's that conveniently said 500g on it, so I used one-quarter of that.

I've had this box for a long time and I don't remember how much it cost.

300g asparagus
This works out to a little over half a pound, and the bunch I bought was a little over one pound. I used half the bunch.

Fairway was having a special of $2.86 a pound.

½ tbsp parsley leaves
I have a pot of flat parsley growing on my kitchen window sill.

½ tbsp mint leaves
I don't have any mint so I just used twice as much parsley

½ red onion
The red onion I bought at Fairway was so big I only used one-quarter.

The whole onion cost $.50.

25g parmesan
I used what felt right.

I keep parmesan on hand.

1 chicken stock cube, in 750ml water
750 ml works out to be about 3 cups.

I used chicken broth from Fairway that unfortunately cost $2.89 for a large container, when I could have gotten it at Trader Joe's for $1.99. Oh well.

50g unsalted butter
This works out to be 1.5 tbsp.

I keep butter on hand

1.5tbsp extra virgin olive oil
I keep olive oil on hand

Sea salt, Black pepper - I didn't taste the need for these!

The cost for the asparagus, onion and chicken broth came to roughly $4.50, and it did indeed make two servings.