How to Eat

I was planning on doing a series of posts about my favourite recipes, but to be honest I could spare myself the time by just linking to the original source. Instead, here’s a little commentary on how to eat well as a student.Like I said in my “Fajitas!” post, the key to good, cheap food is getting your act together with some friends/housemates. The following recipes comfortably fill 3 people and cost more or less £3.

General Advice

It’s a cliché, but preparation really does prevent piss poor performance. Make sure the kitchen is clean enough to cook in before you start anything, and get the ingredients and utensils out first. This is so you don’t get half way through the meal and realise you’re missing the vital ingredient and also you don’t end up running about frantically looking for your lentils. If you don’t own a garlic crusher and a tin opener already, go buy them now, you’re going to need them for practically every meal.

A sharp knife makes a world of difference; suddenly dicing ingredients is sorta fun and it’s actually safer (because now your food isn’t being pushed around and there’s less chance of the knife slipping).

How to cut an onion.

It’s good practice to have a store cupboard filled with pasta, rice, sun-dried tomatoes, tinned plum tomatoes, passata, coconut milk, tinned black olives, tinned tuna, thai green curry paste and tinned anchovies.

As far as spices go, you want to keep some dried coriander, cumin, garam masala, curry powder, hot chilli powder, Cajun seasoning, chicken & vegetable stock, MSG (yes, it’s safe) and white pepper handy. The best place to get all of this stuff is Lidl or Aldi.

Waitrose is actually fantastic value for money as long as you buy the right things. Their own brand products are always cheaper than the big brands and are just as good, and their chefs ingredients (the fresh herbs, chillies, ginger etc.) are the same price as Tesco’s but many times nicer.

The veg there does cost more, but it’s still less expensive than meat from anywhere, so as long as you’re substituting out some of the meat in your diet you can afford to treat yourself. 
Having said that, if you are buying meat Waitrose is not the place to get it. Sainsbury’s strike a great compromise between cost and quality (also, their sausages are a delicious bargain).

There’s an app/extension called “Pocket” that saves websites offline, so you can check these recipes from your phone without waiting for the internet to connect.

Curries

Curries are amazing; they’re the most fun to cook and can turn a few cheap ingredients into a delicious meal. I share a love of seasonal veg with good ol’ Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and while his curry recipes have only a passing relation to traditional Indian cooking, it is yummy and cheap.

Butternut Squash Curry          £1.90/person

-Waitrose sell butternut squash already frozen and cut up, this is a huge time saver!

-This curry tastes amazing if you put in a generous dash of MSG.

-Soak the lentils for about an hour

-Yoghurt is essential

Spinach and Egg Curry                                                       £3/person

-Probably the tastiest recipe here, but the eggs take WAY longer than 5 minutes to soft boil.

Thai Green Curry Bake                                                  £3.20/person

-Super easy but in my experience it takes more like 30 minutes for the rice to fluff than 20

-If you don't have a lid tin foil works just as well

Lamb Curry                                                                    £4.45/person

-Expensive, a lot of work, but absolutely delicious

-Soak the lamb in yoghurt overnight to make it fall apart in your mouth

-You can buy a joint of lamb for this that is perfect from Aldi for £4.50

Pasta

Who knew, pasta is cheap and tasty!

Ham and Leek Spaghetti                                               £2.80/person

Tuna Linguine                                                               £2.10/person

Anchovy, Olive and Sun-dried Tomato Fusili              £2.50/person

-Be way more generous with your ingredients than Nigel

Rice Dishes

Egg Fried Rice                                                               £1.60/person

Chicken Jambalaya                                                        £2.50/person

Potatoes

Spanish Omlette                                                             £1.90/person

Sausage and Mash                                                          £2/person

-Go crazy with that butter

-Bisto gravy powder is the best