10 High-Protein Meals Under £3 at Tesco (2026 UK Guide)

You can build a week of high-protein meals from a Tesco shop and keep every portion under £3. The cheapest sources of protein per pound in 2026 are still tinned tuna, eggs, chicken thighs, frozen mince, dried lentils, and tinned beans. Pair any of those with rice, pasta, or potatoes and you've got a 40g+ protein meal for under £2.50 most of the time. Below are ten meals I rotate through, with rough costs, macros, and three full recipes for the ones worth a proper write-up.

I'll be honest — I spent years overpaying for protein. Whey shakes, branded chicken breasts, ready-made high-protein pots. Most of it was a tax on convenience. Once I started actually looking at protein per pound, the cheapest options were sitting in plain sight on every supermarket shelf. This is the list I wish someone had given me five years ago.

A note on prices: the costs below are approximate, based on Tesco standard ranges at the time of writing. Prices vary by region, week, and whether items are on offer. Use these as a guide, not gospel.

What "Cheap High-Protein" Actually Means at Tesco

Before the list, here's the principle. Cheap protein isn't about finding one magic ingredient — it's about knowing which staples give you the most protein per pound spent. Here's the current league table for Tesco:

Source	Approx. price	Protein per 100g	Cost per 25g protein
Eggs (Tesco medium, 15-pack)	~£3.00	~12g	~£0.30
Tinned tuna (Tesco in spring water, 4-pack)	~£3.50	~25g	~£0.22
Chicken thighs (Tesco boneless, 650g)	~£4.50	~26g	~£0.65
Dried red lentils (500g)	~£1.20	~24g (cooked: ~9g)	~£0.25
Frozen beef mince 5% (Tesco, 500g)	~£4.00	~21g	~£0.95
Tinned chickpeas (Tesco, 400g)	~£0.55	~7g	~£0.50
Greek yogurt (Tesco 0% fat, 500g)	~£1.85	~10g	~£0.45
Cottage cheese (Tesco, 300g)	~£1.10	~12g	~£0.30

Eggs, tinned tuna, dried lentils, and cottage cheese are the cheapest grams of protein you can buy in a UK supermarket. Build your week around those four and you'll struggle to spend more than £30 on a meal plan that hits 150g+ protein a day.

The trick is then padding out those protein sources with cheap carbs and veg — rice (16p per portion), pasta (12p per portion), potatoes (~30p per portion), frozen veg (~40p per portion) — to turn them into actual meals.

The 10 Meals

Each meal below is built for one portion and lists the approximate cost, total calories, and protein. I've kept methods short — assume basic cooking knowledge. The three meals marked with ★ have full recipes below.

1. Tuna Pasta Bake ★

Cost: ~£1.80 | Calories: ~620 | Protein: 42g

Tinned tuna, wholewheat pasta, sweetcorn, tinned chopped tomatoes, a handful of grated cheese on top. The cheapest "feels like a real meal" dinner on this list. Full recipe below.

2. Egg Fried Rice with Chicken Thigh

Cost: ~£2.40 | Calories: ~680 | Protein: 45g

One chicken thigh diced and fried, two eggs scrambled through cooked rice, frozen peas, soy sauce, sesame oil if you have it. Ten minutes start to finish.

3. Lentil Bolognese ★

Cost: ~£1.40 | Calories: ~580 | Protein: 28g

Red lentils cook in about 20 minutes and absorb the flavour of a tomato sauce just like mince does. Half the cost, double the fibre. Full recipe below.

4. Greek Yogurt Breakfast Bowl

Cost: ~£1.20 | Calories: ~430 | Protein: 32g

200g Greek yogurt 0%, 40g porridge oats, a banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter, a handful of frozen berries. Stir, eat. Hits 30g+ protein before you've even thought about lunch.

5. Chicken & Rice Meal Prep Box

Cost: ~£2.60 | Calories: ~620 | Protein: 48g

The cliché for a reason. Two chicken thighs (or one large breast), 75g uncooked rice, mixed frozen veg, a sauce of your choice. Make four at once on a Sunday and lunch is sorted for the week.

6. Beef Mince Chilli ★

Cost: ~£2.20 | Calories: ~640 | Protein: 42g

5% beef mince, tinned kidney beans, tinned chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, chilli powder, cumin. Cook a big batch on Sunday, eat it for three days, freeze the rest. Full recipe below.

7. Cottage Cheese on Toast with Eggs

Cost: ~£1.30 | Calories: ~520 | Protein: 38g

Two slices of wholemeal toast, 150g cottage cheese, two eggs (poached or fried). The underrated breakfast champion. Tastes far better than it sounds.

8. Tuna & White Bean Salad

Cost: ~£1.90 | Calories: ~490 | Protein: 40g

Tin of tuna, tin of cannellini beans (drained), half a red onion, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper. A 60-second lunch that genuinely fills you up.

9. Chickpea & Spinach Curry

Cost: ~£1.60 | Calories: ~550 | Protein: 22g

Tinned chickpeas, frozen spinach, tinned tomatoes, an onion, curry powder, a splash of coconut milk. Serve with 75g rice. Lower protein than the others, so pair it with a Greek yogurt side to push it past 35g.

10. Mince & Mash

Cost: ~£2.80 | Calories: ~720 | Protein: 45g

Beef mince with onion and gravy, served over mashed potato with frozen peas. The most British meal on this list. Honest, filling, hits the macros without trying.

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Three Full Recipes

★ Tuna Pasta Bake

Portions: 4 | Cost per portion: ~£1.80 | Macros per portion: 620 kcal, 42g protein, 75g carbs, 14g fat

Ingredients:

• 320g wholewheat pasta (penne or fusilli)
• 4 tins of tuna in spring water, drained
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
• 1 tin sweetcorn (200g), drained
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 100g mature cheddar, grated
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt, pepper, dried oregano

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Cook pasta to al dente, drain, set aside.
2. Soften onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes.
3. Stir tuna, sweetcorn, and cooked pasta into the sauce.
4. Transfer to an oven dish, top with cheese, bake 20 minutes until golden.

Divides into four portions. Reheats well for three days. Worth doubling.

★ Lentil Bolognese

Portions: 4 | Cost per portion: ~£1.40 | Macros per portion: 580 kcal, 28g protein, 95g carbs, 8g fat

Ingredients:

• 250g dried red lentils, rinsed
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
• 1 tin tomato passata (500g)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp paprika
• 1 stock cube (vegetable or beef)
• 320g spaghetti
• Olive oil, salt, pepper

Method:

1. Soften onion, carrot, and garlic in olive oil for 8 minutes until soft.
2. Add tomato purée, oregano, paprika. Cook 1 minute.
3. Add lentils, chopped tomatoes, passata, stock cube, and 300ml water. Simmer 20-25 minutes until lentils are tender and sauce is thick. Add water if it dries out.
4. Cook spaghetti, serve sauce on top. Top with grated cheese if you fancy.

Honestly, if you don't tell anyone it's lentils, most people won't notice. Freezes well in portions.

★ Beef Mince Chilli

Portions: 4 | Cost per portion: ~£2.20 | Macros per portion: 640 kcal, 42g protein, 70g carbs, 18g fat

Ingredients:

• 500g 5% beef mince
• 1 tin kidney beans (400g), drained
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 2 tsp chilli powder (adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp paprika
• 1 stock cube (beef)
• 300g rice (uncooked)
• Olive oil, salt, pepper

Method:

1. Brown the mince in a heavy pan, breaking it up. Remove with a slotted spoon, set aside.
2. In the same pan, soften onion, garlic, and pepper for 5 minutes.
3. Add spices, cook 1 minute. Return mince to the pan.
4. Add chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, stock cube, and 200ml water. Simmer uncovered 20 minutes until thickened.
5. Cook rice. Serve chilli over rice with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a squeeze of lime if you have one.

Tastes better the next day. Make double, eat for three days, freeze the rest in portions.

How to Shop for This Without Overspending

A few small habits that save you serious money over a year.

Buy frozen mince, not fresh. It's the same product, often the same supplier, ~20% cheaper. The "fresh" mince on the meat counter has often been frozen and defrosted anyway.

Tinned tuna in 4-packs. Around £3.50 for four tins works out at 88p per tin. Buying single tins at £1.20 each is a 35% premium for nothing.

Dried lentils, not tinned. A 500g bag of dried red lentils costs about the same as one tin of cooked lentils, but yields about four times as much when cooked.

Eggs in 15-packs. The price-per-egg drops noticeably once you go above 12. If you're eating eggs daily, get the 15s.

Frozen veg over fresh. Same nutrients, often more (frozen at peak ripeness), zero waste, half the price. Frozen peas, sweetcorn, broccoli, and spinach are non-negotiable staples.

Tesco Stockwell range. Tesco's basics range is genuinely fine for pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, and oats. You're paying for branding, not quality, on these.

A week of meals from this list — rotating across breakfast, lunch, and dinner — should land you somewhere around £30-£35 for the full shop if you're cooking for one. That's £4-£5 per day for 150g+ protein. There's no app on the market that beats those economics, but a meal planner can make sure you don't waste anything you buy.

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Want this done for you? Pono generates a 7-day high-protein meal plan to your exact calorie targets, with a shopping list grouped by aisle so you can walk into Tesco and walk out 15 minutes later. No subscriptions to track, no recipes to scroll through. Free to try, no card needed.

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FAQ

What's the cheapest source of protein at Tesco? Tinned tuna and eggs are consistently the cheapest at around 25-30p per 25g of protein. Dried red lentils and cottage cheese are close behind. Branded protein powders work out at roughly twice the cost per gram of protein compared to these whole-food sources.

How much protein do I need per day? For muscle gain, aim for 1.6-2.2g per kg of bodyweight. A 78kg person needs roughly 125-170g of protein per day. We covered this in detail in our guide to calorie needs for muscle gain.

Can I really eat well on £30 a week? Yes, if you're cooking for one and willing to eat similar meals across the week. Bulk-cooking on a Sunday and eating the same chilli or pasta bake across multiple days is the cheapest way to eat. If you want full variety every day, expect to spend £45-£60 a week.

Are these meals good for weight loss too? Yes. High-protein, whole-food meals keep you full for longer, which is the hardest part of any deficit. Drop the portion size of rice/pasta by a third and most of these meals come in at 400-500 calories with the protein intact.

Where can I find these meals already planned out? Pono builds high-protein meal plans to your exact targets, including budget-friendly options like these. Generates a full week's plan and a Tesco shopping list in under two minutes.

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Joe is the founder of Pono, an AI-powered meal planner built for people who train. He's been lifting for over a decade and has done his fair share of cheap-protein meal prep.