Key takeaways
- Chicken breast costs about €1.35 per portion — most protein sources on this list cost a half to a seventh of that.
- The cheapest: dried lentils and chickpeas at under €0.20 a portion, seven times cheaper for the same job in a meal.
- You don’t need to swap everything: moving two dinners a week to the cheap end does most of the work.
- Easiest swaps: breast → thighs, half your mince → red lentils, fresh → frozen.
Chicken breast has somehow become the default answer to “how do I eat more protein.” It’s a fine food. It’s also one of the more expensive ways to buy protein in a European supermarket — and the alternatives aren’t compromises.
How to read the prices: the number that matters is cost per portion, not per packet. Take the €/kg from the shelf label (legally displayed in the EU and UK) and multiply by your portion in kilos. Chicken breast: €9.00/kg × 0.15kg = €1.35 per portion. Everything below beats it.
1. Dried lentils — €0.19 per portion
The cheapest protein in the shop by a distance. Red lentils need no soaking and become a dal in twenty minutes.
Best use: dal with cumin and lemon — or stirred into a meat ragù, where they vanish and let you halve the mince.
2. Dried chickpeas — €0.18
Two-thirds cheaper than tinned, because you’re not paying to ship water. Soak overnight, cook a big batch, freeze in portions.
Best use: curry with tomato and spinach, or roasted crisp at 210°C with spices.
3. Eggs — €0.50 for two
A complete meal in eight minutes and the most flexible item here.
Best use: baked in thick tomato sauce with cumin and paprika, with bread for the sauce.
4. Dried split peas — €0.20
Overlooked and extremely cheap. They break down completely — ideal for thick soups.
Best use: split pea soup with something smoky: bacon end, ham bone, or smoked paprika.
5. Tinned beans — €0.45
Not as cheap as dried, but zero friction — a fifteen-minute meal with things you already own.
Best use: stewed with tinned tomatoes, carrot, oregano and good olive oil.
6. Tinned sardines — €0.77
The cheapest way to eat fish in Europe, and genuinely distinctive: oily fish brings omega-3 fats most European diets lack.
Best use: flaked into pasta with garlic fried in the tin’s own oil.
7. Tinned mackerel — €0.85
Same family, stronger flavour, better cold.
Best use: flaked over potatoes with mustard, vinegar and onion.
8. Chicken thighs — €0.94
Half the price of breast, more flavour, far more forgiving — they don’t dry out if you overshoot ten minutes.
Best use: traybake over potatoes and onions, skin-side up, so the fat renders into everything below.
9. Frozen white fish — €0.98
Cheaper than fresh and often better, because it was frozen at sea within hours. Cooks straight from frozen.
Best use: into the oven alongside roast potatoes for the last eighteen minutes.
10. Milk — €0.28 per glass
Easy to forget it’s a protein source. It’s how a lot of people quietly get a meaningful share of their intake.
Best use: in porridge, which turns it from a snack into a breakfast.
11. Plain yoghurt — €0.30
Buy the biggest tub you’ll actually finish, plain not flavoured — add your own fruit for a fraction of the premium.
Best use: alongside anything spiced. Cools a curry, adds protein.
12. Hard cheese — €0.27 per 30g
Buy the block, grate it yourself — pre-grated costs meaningfully more and contains anti-caking starch.
Best use: over anything with tomato. Keep the rinds for soups.
13. Peanut butter — €0.22 per 20g
Check the label: the good stuff is peanuts and maybe salt. Cheaper per gram of protein than most “high-protein” snacks.
Best use: on wholemeal bread, or stirred into a spicy sauce.
14. Oats — €0.08
Not high-protein in the strict sense, but they contribute more than people expect and cost almost nothing.
Best use: porridge made with milk rather than water — roughly doubles the protein.
15. Frozen peas — €0.20
The highest-protein common frozen vegetable. Never rot, cost a fraction of fresh.
Best use: fried rice, through pasta, or blended into soup.
Two things worth knowing
You don’t need to combine plant proteins at each meal. The rice-and-beans-together rule was current decades ago and has since been set aside. What matters is variety across the day and week, not each plate.
Fibre is doing part of the work. A lentil dinner holds you longer than its price suggests because legumes bring fibre alongside protein — and fibre is where most European diets fall short.
The practical version
You don’t have to move everything down this list. Moving two dinners a week from the expensive end to the cheap end does most of the work — a couple of hundred euros a year for one person.
Easiest swaps to start:
- Chicken breast → chicken thighs. Same dish, better flavour, half the price.
- Half your beef mince → red lentils. They disappear into any ragù or chilli.
- Fresh salad and berries → frozen vegetables and frozen berries. A third of the price, no race against spoilage.
The full system — the ten-ingredient core, the two-week rotation, the batch-cooking method, and what to do when the plan breaks — is in The €30 Week, a short practical ebook.
