Courtney Pochin
Published November 30, 2025 8:00am
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Miguel Barclay lets Metro raid his kitchen (Picute: Metro/Justin Griffiths-Williams)
Welcome back to What’s Cooking, Metro’s food series where we find out exactly what’s going on behind the scenes in the nation’s kitchens.
This week we’re at home with Miguel Barclay to find out what the chef really eats when no one is watching.
For years, Miguel has been known for creating £1 meals and while there tragically isn’t as much you can make for that price these days (thanks cost of living crisis), he’s still fully committed to making tasty dishes for the whole family, on a budget.
As such, his fridge, cupboard and freezer are full of wallet-friendly ingredients, as ‘fancy’ food just isn’t something he’s interested in.
Here’s everything we learned from our snoop through his kitchen, including how to make an ‘absolute winner’ of a dish for less than a quid…
Miguel has become well-known for cooking budget meals (Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)
First, tell us a secret… What’s your ultimate guilty pleasure food?
Marks & Spencer have this loaded pistachio cookie in their bakery section and I really enjoy eating those. I have to walk by an M&S every day and if I’m even remotely hungry at the time, I’ll go in and get one.
I don’t know what’s in them, they’re probably not very healthy but they’re addictive. They’ve got a little bit of saltiness to balance out the sweet, it just hits all the right notes for me.
He’s become obsessed with the loaded cookies from M&S (Picture: M&S)
Name one thing you always have in your fridge…
Streaky smoked thick cut bacon. It’s a great ingredient as a little goes a long way and it elevates dishes and makes them feel a little more luxurious.
Miguel’s a big fan of adding bacon to dishes (Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)
And one thing you have to have in your store cupboard?
If you went to someone’s house and they cooked you a risotto, you’d be really impressed, because it sounds sounds fancy, but it’s actually a really cheap dish to make.
This is why risotto rice is one of the most important ingredients in my kitchen as you can fill yourself up with it for almost no money and make a lovely meal. But some people might not like how I eat it, as I’ve started making risotto with cheddar cheese.
I cook the rice and melt in the cheese and then top it with something like asparagus or prawns. It tastes different, but I promise it works! For the best results, I like to use an extra mature cheddar.
A look inside the chef’s store cupboard full of staples like rice and pasta (Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)
What about in the freezer?
I’ve always got a bag of frozen peas in there, as they’re a great way to sneak some extra veg into meals for my kids. Plus they never go off.
I also use them in fried rice and in carbonara. Just add a handful of those into the boiling water in the pasta pan, about a minute before the end.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUSh4JLxzW/?hl=en
If I’m honest, I think it makes it taste better – carbonara can be quite salty and savoury, but the peas give nice little pops of freshness throughout. You could also add a squeeze of lemon as well to cut through the richness.
The Italians would hate me for it and they’d be absolutely horrified that I also put onions and mushrooms in there too. It’s definitely more of a carbonara-style dish, than a traditional one, but it’s my favourite thing to make.
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What’s the most impressive dish you can make on a budget?
A stroganoff is an absolute winner. It sounds complicated, but you just add a load of mushrooms, onions, bacon, a little bit of cream and a little bit of paprika and you’ve got something really special.
Serve it with rice and it can probably be done for under a quid. Mushrooms are very cheap and economical, you’re looking at half an onion and that’s about 4p, then just one slice of bacon cut into really small pieces.
If you’ve used portobello mushrooms and have any left over, you could also make stuffed mushrooms as well by putting a chunk of cheese inside and some breadcrumbs on top, then whack it in the oven for about 12 minutes.
Stuffed mushrooms are quick and easy to make (Picture: Justin Griffiths-Williams)
Any game-changing cooking tips?
Cook salmon in the air fryer. It’s a much cleaner way of cooking it and you won’t have any lingering smell of fish in your kitchen, which is something that puts many people off, myself included.
You’re a budget cooking pro, but if you had to splurge on one ingredient, what would it be?
It has to be Hellmann’s and Heinz in the Barclay household (Picture:: Justin Griffiths-Williams)
I’m not bothered about most food brands as I can cook with anything, but italways has to be Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Heinz ketchup.
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Those are the ones I was brought up with, so it’s those flavours that I’m used to. If you give me a different brand, it’s just not as nice.
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