These are the cheapest and easiest traditional Hungarian recipes + VIDEOS

If you are the type of person who always searches for recipes online with the same keywords: “cheap” and “easy,” these recipes are for you.

For the recipes, I included Kitchen Paprikash’s recipe videos. Kitchen Paprikash is a YouTube channel dedicated to Hungarian cuisine and showing people how to make delicious Hungarian meals (in English).

Paprikás Krumpli (potato paprikash)

This meal has many advantages: it is one of the cheapest meals I know, and it does not need a lot of time nor any special cooking skills to make. All you need to do is peel and chop some veggies, then stir everything in a pot. Fun fact, you can easily make this a vegan meal if you just skip the sausage and the sour cream. I believe that paprikás krumpli tastes the best when you make it together with your friends and family in a huge cauldron somewhere outside. During my university career, potato paprikash was the centre of every get-together in the summer.

Lecsó (Hungarian ratatouille)

The love of lecsó connects Hungarian people. We think of it as a national meal, even though several other nations have their own version of the roasted vegetable one-pot meal. Just think about the French ratatouille or the Turkish menemen. But all of these are made from different ingredients, so we can rightfully say that lecsó is ours. Lecsó is one of the most versatile Hungarian dishes. Some people make it with fat, some with oil. Some people swear by the basic version, some people like to spice it up with sausages and salamis. Some families mix it with sour cream, others with beaten eggs. Lecsó with rice is quite a popular version, but others make the squash-dill version instead.