Maine chefs offered helpful tips for ingredients and approaches that can stretch your home food budget while still letting you put together scrumptious meals.

“Some of the cover crops like chard and collard greens are a lot cheaper, but they can be prepared very easily,” said Neil Zabriskie of Regards. He suggested blanching chard, then marinating it in soy sauce for a cold salad.

He also noted that farmer’s market produce is cheapest when it’s most abundant. “First tomatoes aren’t the cheapest or the best,” he said. “Wait until they’re in full flourish.”

You can use the leaves, stems and roots of beets in all sorts of ways. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)

Peeled, pre-cut veggies and skinless, boneless chicken breasts cost more because they’re convenient. Joshua Kagenski of Crown Jewel touts the cost-savings of buying whole, unprocessed ingredients. “Sometimes the best way to save money is by figuring out how you can extend every part,” he said.

Kagenski likes to get radishes and beets with their green tops attached, for instance, since he can saute or braise the greens, use them in salad, even pickle the stems. Likewise, he recommends buying whole fish and chickens (simple butchery tutorials are readily available on YouTube). Once they’re broken down into fillets and parts, you can use the bones to make stock that dramatically raises your soup and sauce game.

Rotisserie chickens for sale at a Costco store. (Photo by Davslens/Shutterstock)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

“Pound for pound, I don’t think you can beat a rotisserie chicken,” said Michael Sindoni of Wayside Tavern. “It’s famously a loss leader for markets, but it’s such a great deal, cheaper than raw chicken.” He also makes stock from the bones at home.

“Even high-quality pork is always way cheaper than beef,” said Sindoni. While tougher cuts like pork shoulder have long been inexpensive, pork loin is selling for under $5 a pound, and it’s easier and quicker to prepare. “Peach and tomato salad with grilled pork chops — that’s a pretty inexpensive plate of food.”

Alex LeBlanc of Luncheonette likes to carve the well-marbled coppa muscle out of pork shoulder to use for marinated grilled steaks, pairing it with a cabbage salad and another great budget ingredient: pulse beans. “A cold yellow-eyed bean salad with grilled marinated pork coppa and a cabbage salad? Yeah, so, so good.”

Steer clear of premium offerings like tuna, halibut and cod, in favor of less heralded fish. Sindoni said local hake and pollock offer similar taste and texture to cod at a much lower price point. Sam Helmke of Sur Lie noted that monkfish is still relatively cheap.

Zabriskie said Maine’s warming waters are attracting new species of inexpensive fish like bluefish and Spanish mackerel (whole mackerel was about $6 a pound at local fish markets in early July). “Mackerel is one of my favorite bites on the grill,” Zabriskie said. “You can buy one very cheaply, because people still consider it bait fish.”