A peanut butter, dried thyme and garlic pasta dish is Nigella Lawson’s answer to money-saving as part of a suite of £1.25-a-portion recipes she has created under a partnership with online grocer Ocado.
The celebrity cook has been signed up as the upmarket delivery firm’s answer to the cut-price food blogger Jack Monroe in her first sponsorship deal with a retailer.
Lawson has created several recipes for Ocado including “dreamy creamy” peanut butter pasta, apparently a family favourite in the Lawson household, and feta, black bean and clementine couscous, all of which can be cooked for no more than £1.25 a portion.
The deal with Ocado Retail, which is part-owned by Marks & Spencer, comes as households across the UK look for ways to save money on rapidly rising food bills. Inflation in the UK has climbed above 10% amid the sharpest annual rise in food prices for more than 40 years
The cost of budget food items in supermarkets soared by 17% on average in the year to the end of September, according to data released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics, while the cost of vegetable oil shot up 65% and pasta 60%.
Lawson, who is probably best known for her indulgent recipes, from emergency brownies to Basque burnt cheesecake, has more recently gained attention with cheaper shortcuts such as fish finger bhorta and spaghetti with Marmite.
Under the deal with Ocado she is releasing four cost-saving recipes, which also include “cosy supper stir-fry” and “speedy steamed syrup sponge”, plus a “Nigella Loves” list of her favourite products, ranging from tinned beans to golden syrup.
Unlike fellow celebrity cooks such as Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal and even Delia Smith, who have all worked with major supermarkets, Lawson has largely stuck to TV programmes and cookery books rather than big-name sponsorship deals.
Her only previous brand collaboration was on a TV ad for Typhoo Tea in 2016 and 2017. Her Living Kitchen cookware range created with Conran and Partners and made by BlissHome launched in the early 2000s but has since been discontinued.
Lawson said: “I’m so thrilled to be joining with Ocado to come up with everyday recipes to make life easier and more delicious, and share with you the food that I love at home.”
Laura Harricks, the chief customer officer at Ocado Retail, said Lawson’s recipes required “little energy to cook” and used “everyday household ingredients in a unique way”.
She said research by Ocado had found that more than half of Britons were determined to use up ingredients lurking at the back of store cupboards while 57% wanted more cut-price recipes.
“Now more than ever, the nation is looking for ways to be savvy with spending, across food and energy consumption,” Harricks said.
