Is Economy Gastronomy good for me?

We've been through a fair few TV chefs (and their shows) here - Nigella Express, Delia's How to Cheat and Jamie Oliver's various vehicles. I've been critical at times, I admit.

The latest TV show to have a go is Economy Gastronomy, which is based around a cookery book just produced by Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merritt, both of whom I don't hold a grudge against, so that's a start. Allegra's the brain behind Leon's (one word: YES) and Paul, well, I don't know as much about him but he doesn't bug me, so there.

My brief with all these shows is to put them to the test on how realistically good for you the recipes are. Economy Gastronomy ticks two boxes I strive to tick myself - tasty and not too expensive. But if they blow it out of the water with lots of fatty or unhealthy foods, I'll call them out on it - and suggest a few tweaks of my own.

One of their latest recipes is for a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with grilled vegetable and white bean salad and smoked aubergine. Those early autumn flavours spring into my mouth just thinking about it - especially the smoked aubergine (which I had recently at the Empress of India with seared scallops, but that's another story...).

By my calculations - and that's assuming you have all lean parts of the shoulder - the menu comes to just under 900 calories. If you're not doing that, it's at least 1200 calories per serving. Now, I've seen worse - getting a burger and chips at a Wetherspoons [pdf] is likely to set you back at least that - but 900 calories to my mind is really more of a special treat rather than an economic gastronomic meal.

It could have been much worse, though - they were sparing with the oil, didn't go crazy on the feta cheese, and incorporated lots of veggies. I think it's really just the lamb that's sending us over the top - so I'd recommend instead of reducing the other ingredients, to simply reduce the portion size of lamb. Go ahead and cook the whole thing, but reserve some of the lamb for later in the week (which surely, Allegra and Paul would approve of).

From what I've seen so far, I'm more positive than negative on the project. I'll keep sizing up the recipes. In the meantime, what do you think? Have you tried any of their recipes?