CBC K-W Sounds of the Season cookbook: Dishes on a budget from local chefs

Each year at CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's Sounds of the Season kickoff show, local chefs prepare dishes using low-cost items that, when mixed together, pack a flavour punch.

The chefs often tell personal stories about their relationship with food and offer tips on how to transform very simple ingredients into something truly delicious.

The chefs also provide us with their recipes, and we've listed them below.

Mì Quảng gà

Chef Annie Nguyen of Nguyen's Vietnamese Family Restaurant in Guelph, Ont., made mì Quảng gà, a very special chicken noodle soup that has a long tradition in her family.

"The soup has a long story," Nguyen said. "It started with my grandmother, my mom and my auntie back home. And now, I am continuing the tradition."

While Nguyen makes her own rice noodles, the dish uses the relatively simple, inexpensive ingredients: pork bones for broth, chicken, sometimes mint, green onion, cilantro and peanuts on the side.

It can be made using only vegetables, too, if dietary or budgetary needs require.

Vegetable fried rice

Chelsea Frey, a registered dietitian and fresh approaches co-ordinator at The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, works with people who access the food bank to not only get them food, but understand what they can do with the items to make delicious meals.

Unlike in the past, when the food bank would provide hampers with specific staple items, now people are able to access a mixture of fresh, frozen and canned items.

"There's a wide range of products like fruit and vegetables, grain products, dairy products and meat or other frozen proteins," Frey says.

Paramount is balanced nutrition, but variety is also important, she says, adding that they align as closely as possible with Canada's Food Guide when creating the hampers.

Frey says her recipe suggestions, like vegetable fried rice, start with simplicity and creating a balanced plate.

Beef pastelles by chef Arielle Neils

Pastelles are a popular Trinidadian dish made during the holidays and for chef Arielle Neils, making them "brings me back to being in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother at Christmas time."

Similar to tamales, pastelles are made with beef or chicken which is sautéed with capers, olives, raisins and other aromatics which are stuffed into a pocket of corn-flour dough and then wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf. While not difficult to make, Neils warns there are quite a few steps, so it's good to be organized before diving into the recipe.

"Making pastelles, I start to feel warm inside. There is heart, passion and love that goes into making them," she said.

Panes con pavo by Denis Hernandez of Swine and Vine 

For chef Denis Hernandez of Kitchener's Swine and Vine, this is a simple and delicious sandwich prepared for family gatherings and special moments.

The dish, though relatively simple, is a comfort food favourite, Hernandez says.  

"It goes across all provinces in El Salvador. In our family, this is something for Christmas, for birthdays, for any celebration. Once we know our aunt is making it, that's where we go," Hernandez said.

Roasted pepper and tomato soup by Aicha Smith of Esha's Eats Catering 

Aicha Smith made this delicious, low-cost soup using easy-to-find ingredients.

Smith, who lives in Six Nations of the Grand River, says she started cooking to be with family in the kitchen and learn the latest gossip. Her dad is also a professional chef who let her watch him work when she was young.

"I've focused on Haudenosaunee-inspired menus with pre-contact ingredients. It's cooking with ingredients that we would have as Indigenous people," Smith said.

"I take those ingredients and develop recipes from there, thinking outside the normal construct of what those recipes would be."

Peas and rice by Kevin Thomas of Big Jerk BBQ

Kevin Thomas made this dish in 2018 and it is a dish he remembers his father making.

"It's an honour for me to continue his cooking. This is something that I've been doing since I was four-years-old, and it's nice to carry on dad's legacy now," he said.

"We say peas, but typically, we use beans. I'd have to ask my mom about this, but I think there was a shortage or gunga peas were too expensive, so they substituted red Mexican beans, and they just kept the name. You don't even use peas anymore."

Shepherd's pie by Jody O'Malley and Kirstie Herbstreit of The Culinary Studio

Jody O'Malley and Kirstie Herbstreit made this dish in 2017 and said it's a simple, but delicious and nutritious, meal.

"It's a classic dish, and you can put any sort of meat in it that you have on hand," O'Malley said. "We used ground beef, but it is traditionally made with lamb. You roast up the vegetables, and then anything topped with mash potatoes is going to be delicious."

Japanese breakfast salad by Jonathan Gushue of The Berlin

Chef Jonathan Gushue, who worked at The Berlin (now closed, replaced by the Rich Uncle Tavern), bought a few inexpensive ingredients to pair with items someone might receive from the food bank to create this dish to start your day in 2016.

Dirty rice by Aaron Clyne of B Hospitality

Dirty rice, explained chef Aaron Clyne in 2015, "is a Cajun and Creole dish made from white rice that gets a dirty colour from being cooked with small pieces of chicken or sausage, green bell pepper, celery, onion and Cajun spices."

The dish is made in under an hour with simple ingredients.