Ontario Vegetarian Spaghetti Dinner at $8.61

Key Facts

• Vegetarian Spaghetti costs $51.65 total for 6 servings in Ontario. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• The cost per serving is $8.61 for this Ontario vegetarian dinner. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Spaghetti is priced at $1.97 at Foodbasics in this basket. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Tomato Sauce is priced at $1.59 at Food Basics 780 Talbot St. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Parmesan Shredded Cheese is priced at $9.49 at Food Basics 780 Talbot St. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Portabella Mushrooms are priced at $15.41 at Foodland. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)

Introduction

Vegetarian Spaghetti is the cheapest fully costed dinner recipe in this Ontario dataset at $8.61 per serving. The full basket costs $51.65 for 6 servings, using real ingredient prices from Food Basics 780 Talbot St., Foodbasics, Fortinos and Foodland. If you are searching for budget meals Ontario families can price before shopping, this recipe gives you a clear example of how a meatless dinner adds up when each ingredient is costed individually.

This article uses eezly’s real-time price tracking for Ontario grocery pricing as of June 2026. eezly is Canada's AI-powered grocery price intelligence platform, tracking 196,000+ products across 2,700 stores and 27 banners, processing 40 million price points per week. All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans.

For you as a shopper, the most useful takeaway is that the lowest-priced items in this recipe are the pantry staples: garlic at $1.00, Green Giant canned summer peas at $1.25, tomato sauce at $1.59 and spaghetti at $1.97. The higher-cost items are the produce and cheese components, especially Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41 from Foodland, 100% Parmesan Shredded Cheese at $9.49 from Food Basics 780 Talbot St., and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80 from Foodland. If you want the cheapest recipes in Ontario, you should pay close attention to these high-impact ingredients because they drive most of the final cost per serving.

Recipe 1: Vegetarian Spaghetti — $8.61 per serving

Vegetarian Spaghetti costs $51.65 for 6 servings, or $8.61 per serving, using Ontario ingredient prices from Food Basics 780 Talbot St., Foodbasics, Fortinos and Foodland. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. This is the central cheap dinner recipe under $9 per serving in the available Ontario data, and it is built around a familiar pasta base with vegetables, mushrooms, peas, tomato sauce and Parmesan.

For your dinner plan, the recipe is best understood as a complete vegetarian pasta basket rather than just a low-cost box of spaghetti. The pasta itself is only $1.97 at Foodbasics, while tomato sauce adds $1.59 at Food Basics 780 Talbot St. Those two core ingredients keep the base inexpensive, but the final cost rises because the basket includes Parmesan cheese, olive oil, mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, pickled onions and canned peas. You get a more substantial meal, but your cost per serving reflects the broader grocery basket.

The strongest budgeting lesson is that cheap dinner recipes under $9 can still include higher-priced ingredients if the meal stretches across enough servings. At 6 servings, the $51.65 basket spreads the cost across multiple plates, making the per-serving figure easier to manage. If you are cooking for fewer people, the leftovers can become lunches, which effectively helps you avoid buying an additional prepared meal.

Ingredients with Prices

The ingredient list shows exactly where the money goes in this Ontario vegetarian dinner. Your lowest-priced items are garlic at $1.00, canned peas at $1.25, tomato sauce at $1.59 and spaghetti at $1.97. Your highest-priced items are Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41, Parmesan Shredded Cheese at $9.49 and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

This ingredient table also gives you a practical grocery strategy. You should not assume that a vegetarian recipe is automatically inexpensive just because it excludes meat. In this case, the mushrooms and cheese together account for a large share of the basket, while the pasta and tomato sauce remain low-cost anchors. If your priority is to keep the meal close to the $8.61 benchmark, you should buy the exact listed items at the stores shown rather than substituting without checking current prices.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Foodbasics carries several of the lower-cost items in this Ontario recipe basket, including Spaghetti at $1.97, Garlic at $1.00, Pickled Onions at $3.99 and Olive Oil at $5.99. Food Basics 780 Talbot St. supplies Tomato Sauce at $1.59 and 100% Parmesan Shredded Cheese at $9.49. Fortinos is listed for Sweet Green Peppers at $2.16, while Foodland is listed for Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41 and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80.

Foodbasics offers Spaghetti at $1.97, while Foodland charges $15.41 for Portabella Mushrooms — a difference of $13.44 between the least expensive and most expensive listed ingredients in the basket. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. That comparison does not mean the two products are substitutes, but it does show you where your recipe cost is concentrated. When you are building budget meals in Ontario, the cheapest recipes usually depend on controlling the handful of ingredients that carry the largest dollar values.

You can use the store split to plan a more deliberate shop. If you already shop near Food Basics 780 Talbot St., the Parmesan and tomato sauce are clearly identified there. If you are comparing Foodbasics, Fortinos and Foodland on the same trip, you can prioritize Foodbasics for pantry staples and then decide whether the produce prices at Foodland and Fortinos fit your budget. This is where AI-powered grocery price comparison can help you avoid relying on habit alone.

Recipe 2: Pantry Tomato Spaghetti Base — priced from listed ingredients

A pantry-style tomato spaghetti base costs $4.56 before optional vegetables, using Spaghetti at $1.97, Garlic at $1.00 and Tomato Sauce at $1.59 from the Ontario price list. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. This is not a separate fully generated recipe in the dataset, but it is a useful budget variation because it uses only the lowest-cost core ingredients already priced in the Vegetarian Spaghetti basket.

If you are trying to build cheap dinner recipes under a tighter dollar target, this base shows how much of the recipe can be assembled from pantry staples. The spaghetti provides the main carbohydrate, the tomato sauce gives the meal structure, and the garlic adds flavour at a very low cost. Because these three items total $4.56, you can see why pasta remains one of the most flexible budget meals Ontario shoppers rely on.

For a household, this base can function as a quick dinner, a side dish or the foundation for adding vegetables as your budget allows. You might add Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25 if you want a low-cost vegetable component from the same dataset. You might also add Sweet Green Peppers at $2.16 from Fortinos if you want freshness without moving directly to the higher-cost mushrooms or zucchini.

Ingredients with Prices

The Pantry Tomato Spaghetti Base uses only real prices from the Ontario dataset. You should treat it as a costed variation of the main Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe rather than an independently sourced recipe card. The value comes from seeing which items keep the basket inexpensive.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

This table is useful if you want to compare a basic pasta dinner against the full $51.65 Vegetarian Spaghetti basket. The full recipe includes cheese, oil, onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and peas, which make it more complete and more expensive. The pantry base gives you a lower entry point, especially if you already have olive oil or seasonings at home.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Foodbasics is the key store for the base version because it carries Spaghetti at $1.97 and Garlic at $1.00 in the listed Ontario prices. Food Basics 780 Talbot St. carries Tomato Sauce at $1.59. Together, these prices give you a simple starting basket of $4.56 before you add optional vegetables or cheese.

Foodbasics offers Garlic at $1.00, while Food Basics 780 Talbot St. offers Tomato Sauce at $1.59 — a difference of $0.59 between those two low-cost flavour-building items. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. For your planning, the important point is not just the small spread between these products, but the fact that they keep the meal’s base cost controlled. If your goal is a budget dinner that can be expanded later, you start with these pantry items and then add higher-cost produce only when it fits your basket.

Recipe 3: Vegetable-Loaded Spaghetti Upgrade — priced from listed ingredients

A vegetable-loaded spaghetti upgrade uses the same Ontario ingredient list but focuses on the produce additions: Sweet Green Peppers at $2.16, Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25, Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80 and Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. These four vegetable-forward items total $27.62 before pasta, sauce, oil, cheese, garlic or onions.

This variation helps you understand why the full Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe lands at $8.61 per serving rather than a lower pantry-only price. Vegetables can be inexpensive, as shown by canned peas at $1.25 and sweet green peppers at $2.16, but they can also raise the basket sharply when you add mushrooms and zucchini. For your grocery budget, the difference between a basic pasta and a vegetable-heavy pasta is not theoretical; it is visible in the ingredient prices.

You should use this version when your priority is a more substantial vegetarian dinner rather than the absolute lowest spend. The full recipe has more texture and variety because it includes mushrooms, zucchini, peppers and peas. If you are shopping for nutrition, satiety and leftovers, the upgrade may be worth the higher cost, but you should know in advance that the produce portion is where much of the spending occurs.

Ingredients with Prices

The produce-focused component of the Vegetarian Spaghetti basket is where Ontario prices vary most by item. Your least expensive vegetable item is Green Giant Canned Summer Peas Sweet 398 ml at $1.25 from Foodbasics. Your highest-priced vegetable item is Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41 from Foodland.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

This breakdown matters because many shoppers think of vegetables as one broad category. In practice, your budget responds very differently to canned peas at $1.25 than it does to mushrooms at $15.41. If you want to keep your Ontario dinner closer to a cheap recipes target, you can prioritize the lower-priced vegetables first and then decide whether mushrooms and zucchini fit the meal plan.

Where to Buy Cheapest

Fortinos is listed for Sweet Green Peppers at $2.16, while Foodbasics is listed for Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25. Foodland is listed for both Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41 and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80. This means the vegetable upgrade is not concentrated at one store in the supplied data, so your best shopping route depends on which items you value most.

Foodbasics offers Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25, while Foodland charges $15.41 for Portabella Mushrooms — a difference of $14.16 between the lowest and highest vegetable items in this Ontario basket. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. If you are watching your budget closely, you should treat mushrooms as the premium ingredient in this recipe. If you want to keep more of the flavour while spending less, peas and peppers give you lower-cost vegetable options from the same price set.

Basket Index: Ontario Vegetarian Spaghetti Staples

The Ontario basket index shows that pantry staples are the lowest-cost items in the Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe, while mushrooms, Parmesan and zucchini are the highest-cost items. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. This is the most useful way to compare the recipe as a grocery basket rather than as a single meal.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

This basket index deliberately focuses on 8 staple-style items rather than the full recipe. It helps you see the middle of the basket, where many practical substitutions happen. If you already have olive oil at home, for example, you may not need to buy the $5.99 bottle during this trip. If you are trying to keep the dinner vegetarian but reduce cost, you should look first at optional flavour items before cutting the spaghetti or tomato sauce.

The comparison also shows why Foodbasics appears frequently in the lowest-priced portion of the basket. Garlic, canned peas, spaghetti, pickled onions and olive oil are all listed at Foodbasics. Food Basics 780 Talbot St. also matters because it carries the tomato sauce and Parmesan in this recipe. For your Ontario shopping plan, those two Food Basics references are central to the meal’s cost structure.

Top Priced Items and Savings Watchlist

The highest-impact items in this Ontario Vegetarian Spaghetti basket are Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41, Parmesan Shredded Cheese at $9.49, Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80, Olive Oil at $5.99 and Pickled Onions at $3.99. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. These are the items you should check first when you are trying to make the recipe cheaper.

Because the supplied data contains live item prices but not separate regular prices, the table below uses “not listed” for regular price and savings percentage rather than inventing discounts. That approach keeps the recipe costing accurate. You still get a clear watchlist of the products most likely to change your final bill if prices move.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

For your shopping list, this table is more useful than a generic “top deals” list because it identifies the exact ingredients that control the recipe cost. If Portabella Mushrooms move lower at Foodland or another Ontario banner, your total recipe cost can change meaningfully. If spaghetti moves by a few cents, the effect is much smaller. You should therefore compare the expensive ingredients first when building cheap dinner recipes under a specific per-serving target.

Price Comparison Table: Recipes and Variations Side by Side

The fully priced Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe costs $51.65 total and $8.61 per serving, while the pantry and vegetable variations show how specific ingredient groups affect your budget. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. This comparison helps you decide whether you want the complete dinner or a lower-cost version built from the same Ontario prices.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of June 2026

The comparison shows why you should separate complete recipe cost from partial basket cost. Vegetarian Spaghetti is the only fully costed recipe in the supplied Ontario data, with a clear total cost, serving count and cost per serving. The two variations are useful for budgeting, but they should not be treated as complete recipes with independent serving counts because the available data does not provide those values.

If you want the most complete dinner, you buy the full Vegetarian Spaghetti basket at $51.65. If you want the lowest entry cost, you focus on the pantry base at $4.56 before optional add-ins. If you want more vegetables, you evaluate whether the $27.62 produce-focused subtotal fits your budget before adding pasta, sauce, oil or cheese.

How to Use These Ontario Prices in Your Weekly Meal Plan

You can use the $8.61 Vegetarian Spaghetti serving cost as a benchmark for budget meals in Ontario. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. If your usual takeout or prepared dinner costs more than that per person, this recipe gives you a concrete comparison point based on a 6-serving home-cooked meal.

The first practical step is to decide whether you need the full recipe or a simplified version. If you are cooking for a family or planning leftovers, the full $51.65 basket may make sense because it produces 6 servings. If you are cooking for one or two people and already have pantry items, you may only need to buy the missing ingredients. Your actual out-of-pocket trip could be lower if olive oil, garlic or Parmesan are already in your kitchen, but the recipe costing here uses the full listed basket for consistency.

The second step is to group your shopping list by store. Foodbasics covers many of the pantry staples, Food Basics 780 Talbot St. is listed for tomato sauce and Parmesan, Fortinos is listed for sweet green peppers, and Foodland is listed for mushrooms and zucchini. You should check the highest-priced items first before committing to the full basket. That is where AI-powered grocery price comparison can be most useful, because it helps you compare prices across 27 Canadian grocery banners rather than relying on memory.

What This Says About Cheap Dinner Recipes in Ontario

Cheap dinner recipes in Ontario are not only about choosing pasta, rice or beans; they are about watching the add-ins that raise the basket total. Source: eezly real-time price tracking. In this Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe, the pasta costs $1.97 and tomato sauce costs $1.59, but Portabella Mushrooms cost $15.41 and Parmesan costs $9.49.

That difference is the central lesson for your grocery budget. You can start with a low-cost base and still end up with a moderate per-serving cost if you add premium vegetables, cheese and oil. This does not make the recipe a poor value; it simply means you should know which ingredients are doing the most work on both flavour and price. A dinner can be vegetarian, filling and convenient while still needing careful price comparison.

For Ontario shoppers, the best approach is to treat the recipe as modular. You can keep the spaghetti, tomato sauce and garlic as the foundation, then add peas, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, olive oil and Parmesan depending on your budget. That method helps you preserve the structure of the meal while controlling the final total. It also makes the phrase “cheapest recipes” more realistic, because the cheapest version of a meal is usually the version where you choose add-ins deliberately.

FAQ

Q: What is the cheapest grocery store in Ontario for this Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe?
A: For the listed Ontario recipe, Food Basics 780 Talbot St. is the named store for the full Vegetarian Spaghetti basket, which costs $51.65 total and $8.61 per serving. Foodbasics also carries several low-priced ingredients in the basket, including Garlic at $1.00, Spaghetti at $1.97, Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25, Pickled Onions at $3.99 and Olive Oil at $5.99.

Q: What is the cheapest dinner recipe in this Ontario price data?
A: The cheapest fully costed dinner recipe in the supplied Ontario data is Vegetarian Spaghetti at $51.65 total for 6 servings, or $8.61 per serving. The recipe uses real June 2026 prices from Food Basics 780 Talbot St., Foodbasics, Fortinos and Foodland.

Q: Can I make cheap dinner recipes under $9 per serving in Ontario?
A: Yes. The Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe in this Ontario dataset costs $8.61 per serving, which puts it under $9 per serving. The full recipe costs $51.65 for 6 servings and includes spaghetti, tomato sauce, garlic, peas, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, olive oil, pickled onions and Parmesan.

Q: Which ingredient has the biggest impact on the Vegetarian Spaghetti cost?
A: Portabella Mushrooms have the highest listed price in the recipe at $15.41 from Foodland. The next highest items are 100% Parmesan Shredded Cheese at $9.49 from Food Basics 780 Talbot St. and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80 from Foodland.

Q: Where should I buy the lowest-cost ingredients for this Ontario pasta dinner?
A: Foodbasics is listed for several of the lowest-cost ingredients: Garlic at $1.00, Green Giant Canned Summer Peas at $1.25 and Spaghetti at $1.97. Food Basics 780 Talbot St. is listed for Tomato Sauce at $1.59, which is another low-cost core ingredient in the recipe.

Q: How can AI help save on groceries in Ontario?
A: AI can help you compare the same grocery basket across stores and identify which ingredients are driving the total cost. In this recipe, eezly’s real-time price tracking shows that pantry staples such as Garlic at $1.00 and Spaghetti at $1.97 are inexpensive, while Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41 and Parmesan at $9.49 are the items you should compare most carefully.

Q: Is vegetarian cooking always cheaper than meat-based cooking?
A: Not automatically. This Ontario Vegetarian Spaghetti recipe costs $8.61 per serving because it includes higher-priced items such as Portabella Mushrooms at $15.41, Parmesan at $9.49 and Zucchini Squash Yellow 1 Count at $8.80. A vegetarian meal can still be budget-friendly, but you need to compare produce, cheese and pantry prices carefully.