30 “Poverty Meal” Recipes That Might Be Useful For Those Who Want To Eat Tasty And Cheaply

A 'poverty meal' is the kind of food that is made from ingredients that are as cheap as possible yet still provides all the needed nourishment that a person needs. It is usually something eaten in the more economically challenging times that some people have to endure.

Nostalgia could be another strong reason for people sometimes indulging in these foods, as they might have eaten stuff like this when they were younger if their situation wasn’t as fortunate back then as it is now.

However, just because it’s called a poverty meal doesn’t mean that it can’t have an amazing taste. According to The Foodbank, quite a few of today’s delicacies first started out as the food of the poor.

One such example is lobster. Nowadays, it’s often considered one of the most desirable and fancy dishes, at least in America, but back in the day, it was something that capturers would feed to prisoners and what Native Americans used as bait for fishing.

We could also add the now-all-so-popular barbeque, which used to be what enslaved African-Americans made before the Civil War, or the Chinese-American and Mexican-American cuisines that were created by immigrants, displaced people, and working-class representatives. 

Even the superfood quinoa, which you can find on the shelves of almost every supermarket today, comes from Peruvian farms that were much poorer not very long ago. In fact, according to statistics from Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture shared by Grace Livingstone of BBC, the price of this crop in the country rose by over 500% when compared from 2005 to 2014.

With the country-wide production grew from roughly 32,500 to nearly 115,000 tonnes a year, the once-poor Peruvian farmers who ate quinoa through generations turned their fortunes around when they started selling it. Now, thanks to the sky-rocketed popularity of this magnificent grain, these people are able to enjoy electricity and send their children to good universities, all while continuing to manage their now-successful businesses.

In the end, this goes to show that just because some food is cheap, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be tasty or nutritious, just like expensive meals aren’t necessarily of high quality. 

So, if these expensive times have struck you, just know that eating healthily and deliciously is definitely not out of the question. And if you need inspiration, threads like this one are there for you.

What is your favorite poverty meal? Do you know of any other foods that have had their popularity turned around and become delicacies? Share all of them in the comments below!