These budget range pasties from Aldi are ideal if you’re keeping an eye on rising food prices and just want some filling and easy meals for under £1; this is one of my favourites! Are they worth buying?

Over the years I’ve tried a lot of cheap pasties from supermarkets; they were always as unsatisfying as one’d expect, but I recently tried the Aldi Beef & Vegetable pasty for the first time and I was pleasantly surprised!

These have become one of my “Go To” purchases every time I’m shopping this year!

The pasty is already cooked, so it would be possible to eat it cold, although that’s not ideal is it! You can microwave this if you want, accepting that the pastry will be a little on the soggy side due to the moistness of the filling leeching through it while cooking. But, for this little weekly treat I’ll actually put the oven on!

The puff pastry is of good quality, much better than other supermarket cheap pasties I’ve tried. The filling is a little chunky. It tastes fine, for the price. These pasties are definitely a keeper and go on my “Best Meals” list for this year. I’m currently eating them about 5x a month!

The brand name is Crestwood and they’re described as beef with potato, onion, carrot and swede wrapped in puff pastry. Each pasty weighs 200 grams and the filling contains 18% potato and 17% beef; the carrot and swede are 2½% each.

The beef content, at 17%, is 34 grams.

Can You Freeze Pasties?

You can freeze these pasties. Just leave them in the wrapper and pop them in the freezer. You can defrost them in the fridge.

What To Serve With a Beef Pasty

“49p for a pasty” – that makes it a cheap dinner winner – representing good value for money for the price point. The pasty can be eaten on its own, hot or cold – or made into the main meal of the day by serving it with mash and baked beans, or chips, or mash and mixed veg and gravy.

In the photo below I’ve oven-cooked the pasty and served it with mashed potato and baked beans, both of which were wholly cooked in the microwave. The potato and baked beans cost about 21p, so this would be a main meal for just 70p, well under a meal for £1.

Gripes!

I have no gripes with the product itself, nor its price. This is a keeper, this pasty is a winner. BUT … I do wish they’d make the cooking instructions easier to find and read. It’s TINY! I have, to date, never bothered to check and do what it says. I just pre-heat my oven to about 170°C (fan) and put it on a dish and cook it for about 20 minutes.

But, looking online at the packet, it says

• Oven: Electric 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5 for 25-30 mins
• Remove all packaging. Place on a baking tray on the middle shelf of a preheated oven for the time specified.

Would I Recommend and Buy Again?

Absolutely.

These are on my “Hot Picks” list and I’d recommend them to anybody who wants a cheap, ready made pasty and has felt disappointed at other supermarkets’ products. I’ll keep buying them!

2022 Price Update: 12.25% Increase

With the “cost of living” crisis, as it’s now termed, Adli Beef & Vegetable Pasties have increased in price.

These pasties are now 55p (200g) – I am still buying them, but I am thinking about it before I reach into the cabinet! I’m now typically just buying one pasty at a time, whereas I was selecting two by default.

This is a price increase of 12.25%

Still good value, still great tasting, but when everything’s gone up 5-6p restraint is being exercised 🙂

Would still recommend to a friend, but if they were looking for cheap and low budget meals I’d steer them to other choices; when every penny really counts, there are alternatives.

Another 2022 Price Update!

I was just looking at these pasties again – and noticed that they have increased in price again.

The last update was written on 6 June – it’s now a month later and these pasties are 59p! That’s a 7.1% increase in the last month.

Going back to the previous, 49p, price, that’s a 20% price increase since earlier this year.

No More!

As they say “I’m out” – for now I’ll stop buying these as a regular item, they’re now on the “maybe occasionally” list!