The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 1 plus 5 letter word ON A PLATE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
N
A
P
L
A
T
E
More clues leading to the result ON A PLATE
- How meal may be served effortlessly
- Love to sleep on, perhaps, needing to make little effort
- Everyone’s awake early, evidently, and readily available
- Easily the most convenient way to collect church funds
- Where to find dinner without any effort
- Old earl taking short sleep on toilet, making no effort
- A polenta stew requiring next to no effort
- A polenta prepared with little effort
- Old pile passed on and acquired easily
- Easy to get nothing, tipster’s favourite being tardy
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "with little effort" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case with little effort = on a plate.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.