Uni Recipes - Please add to this! Anything cheap and easy to prepare

[Ventress]

Hi all,
As we discussed on the year 13 thread, our young people are sometimes not the best with preparing cheap and healthy meals so this thread is give them some ideas 😊

Please join me in adding your ideas and recipes 😊

Here we go…

Pasta alla arrabiata:

Easy pasta! DS is a pasta based life form so I’ll start with his pasta alla arrabiata.

Cook a packet of dried spaghetti or linguine and drain.

If you are baking this knock a couple of minutes off the cooking time so it doesn’t go soft and stodgy.

In a separate small saucepan heat through a carton of chopped tomatoes with some garlic and add a lot of chillis - DS uses Caroline reaper or scotch bonnet, but he likes it hot. Add some other veg, like peppers or mushrooms, if you wish.

Once heated through mix together and divide into portions.

if baking, it put it in an earthenware dish, put some grated cheddar on top. (Looks posher if cooking for flatmates!) Bake for 15/20 minutes,

Roll of ready made pastry
Spread with Philly
add ham, olives, toms etc
bake according to instructions on box

Cut into 4

Thank you for this thread @Ventress. Now that my DC has finished his exams the next task will be learning to cook and clean in preparation for Uni! Not sure he sees it that way though ;)

Here's an easy halloumi recipe for 4 people:
Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a roasting tin or frying pan. Add 250g of thinly sliced halloumi and fry until golden on each side. Lift out and add in 2 chopped onions and garlic, fry for 5 min. Toss in 3 sliced courgettes and fry until golden, then set aside with the halloumi. Add 8 tomatoes (halved) and fry until softened. Return everything to the pan and add a can of butter beans (drained). Warm through and season with herbs. Can also add rice/warm pita bread etc.

Scrambled eggs or poached eggs and baked beans on toast

Egg fried rice: boil rice in large pan or frying pan, add prepared veggies after a few minutes (whatever there is, diced carrots, frozen peas and sweetcorn, chopped peppers). Drain if needed when tender. Season, use soy sauce, pepper, chilli, whatever you like, DD likes paprika. Push rice to side exposing bottom of pan, add tbsp oil to exposed bottom of pan, break in eggs, scramble, mix into rice when cooked. Can add cooked meat at this point if you have any / want to. I like adding chopped chives at this point too. Serve.

Store cupboard curry
Onion
Tin of potatoes
Tin of chickpeas
Tin of tomatoes
Frozen greens, spinach is good but any will do
Pataks curry paste

Fry onion . Add potatoes chickpeas and green veg. Add curry paste and fry for a few minutes. Add tinned tomatoes, stir well, bring to boil then simmer for about 30 mins. Improves the next day.Freezes well.

Love these recipes- I’ll deffo try them at home!

3 egg omelette - endless varieties Add oven chips if hungry teen.

Stuffed peppers - cut the tops off the peppers, stuff with sausage meat (just peel the skins off sausages). Bung in a dish in the oven for 45 mins. After 30 mins, add a garlic baguette to the oven.

Tomato sauce for pasta - heat chopped garlic in oil, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, simmer, then add some sliced pepperoni or frozen mussels. Cook some pasta. Mix

Grill a pork chop/steak or salmon tail. Put a veg stock cube in a jug, add 300m boiling water, stir, then add wholemeal couscous and a handful each of frozen sweetcorn and peas.

Put a chicken leg in a dish, tuck a couple of peeled garlic cloves underneath,. bake for 45 mins. Serve with salad & crisps.

Put a breaded frozen cod fillet and some oven chips on an oven tray, and bake for 25 mins. Microwave some frozen peas.

Spike and then microwave a large potato for 9 minutes. Cut a large cross in the top and push the quarters apart, pile with grated cheddar and some chopped spring onions.

That's at least seven different veg in a week of cheap suppers.

Jocasta Innes Paupers Cookbook inspired my love of good food on a budget.

Okay, Easy white or cheese sauce:

Milk
butter
flour

grated cheddar (if wanted)

mix the milk and flour in a pan. Keep stirring until it’s smooth. Mix in the butter and cheese (if you are having it ),

Tomato sauce;
mix a carton of chopped tomato’s with veges of your choice. Mix into the pasta or cous cous or carbs of choice 😊

Ragu;
I tend to do this in the slow cooker. I’d suggest doing these at home and freezing the end product into small bags to take to university. Remember to name and say what’s in the bags!

pasta bolognaise
fry the mince off in a saucepan
chop the veges (onions, peppers, celery , carrots, mushrooms)
put everything, plus a beef stock cube and herbs of choice, into the slow cooker.
after it’s finished (8 hours) let it cool and then put it in little bags. Freeze the bags of ragu.

defrost a bag and put in on your pasta. Heat through.
If you are feeling decadent add grated cheese or Parmesan.

https://share.google/RFE9PR6PklQoBUq0L
fantastic, thanks @FinallyHere 😊

Making a chicken (£5) comfortably last a week.

Day one - roast chicken with potatoes or salad or whatever.
That night - all leftovers and bones in stock pot, cover with water and stick in parsley, onion, bay leaf (easily nicked from a tree somewhere), garlic, celery. Boil 90 mins.

Cool and shred the remaining meat off the bones.
Reserve the stock.

Day one ramen - take stock, use to boil noodles. Season with some soy sauce and seasame oil. add some shredded chicken, crispy onions, chopped spring onions, a boiled egg, dash of cream.

Day two curry - fry onions and garlic and ginger. Fry off some curry powder or a combo of chili powder, paprika, ground coriander, garam masala. Add chicken stock and either canned tomatoes or tomato paste. Reduce down. Add some cornflour if it's too thin. Add shredded chicken and top with fresh coriander. Serve with rice.

Day three chicken supreme: make a roux with butter and flour. Pour on chicken stock. Salt and pepper. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and some cream. Serve with veg / rice / mash whatever.

Day 4: Risotto. Make a risotto. Use the chicken stock and add the shredded chicken at the end.

Also with shredded boiled chicken salads or sandwiches.

Top tip: get the squeezy tubes of garlic and ginger pastes. They last ages and don't go off. Other top tip: make sure they know how to cook rice! Loads don't.

Another top tip: for parents setting up kids at uni, invest in long term stuff like herbs, spices and oils (sesame, olive etc). Stock cubes. Stuff where you just need a bit but if you have to buy it all for one recipe it becomes too expensive to justify. Perishables they can buy themselves and will be gone within a week.

Another top tip: arm your teens with a box of those white sticky labels for labelling stuff. In shared houses / halls things get jumbled up.

Chickpea and chorizo stew.

Chorizo isn't necessarily the cheapest but you can buy one for a few quid from lidl and they last months and you just need a bit.

fry onion and garlic
Peel chop and fry chorizo in same pan (2 inches per person)
Add some chili powder or flaked chilies
Add on a can of drained chickpeas (proper recipe would have wine but lets assume students don't have this)
Can of water and a stock cube
Half can of tomatoes or 20ish small cherry tomatoes
bubble gently for half an hour until it thickens

Serve topped with parsley and crusty bread.

Just checking in, thanks @Ventress
I'm a dietitian so a bit obsessed by food and eating habits. Will pop back with DS ideas later. I'm supposed to be in clinic currently!

If you want a cauliflower recipe that isn't cauliflower cheese, there is a pasta bake that I like with tagliatelle. Start boiling cauliflower florets and 1-2 peeled, sliced garlic cloves, or more if you want stronger garlic taste. If you wish, you can also add small cubes of sweet potato. When these are on the way to cooking, add the tagliatelle to cook through.

Drain the above. Make or buy or use leftover white sauce and add about 0.5tsp or more of garam masala to it. Taste the sauce for any further seasoning preference.

Mix everything up and then bake it for around 10-15 mins so it becomes a bake, but don't allow it to get too dried up on the top.

Ciabiatta roll or nice quality bread or sourdough (often yellow sticker end of day and fine to toast next day), cut in half, spread with red or green pesto and slices of cheddar, grill it. Yummy and cheap.

omelette and a slice of bread
beans on toast (half a can of beans is same protein as two small eggs)

Food from the cucina povera - the kitchen of the poor - is delicious, trendy and available at inflated prices at posh restaurants throughout the UK.

One of my personal favourites is spaghetti carbonara: spaghetti with some butter or olive oil, eggs and a good, hard Italian cheese (ideally Pecorino Romano, but a good Parmesan is fine) and pancetta, bacon or, ideally, guanciale. And judicious amounts of pasta water and black pepper. You need a recipe and you need to practise; done right it is sublime.

Even with specialist items it it not expensive because the art of carbonara includes restraint. But you can make an excellent one with streaky rashers and supermarket Parmesan (as long as it is not pre-grated).

It takes a bit of practice to get a silky sauce with the right texture and flavour balance, but it is worth it.

Also minestrone, ribolitta, etc.

Best wishes to all student chefs. It is a fun time of life.

Most of them will live off toast, Greggs pasties and 4am kebabs anyway. 😂

Oh goodness, rice - Yes definitely need to know how to cook this @whatonearthdoidoz!

Cous cous with roasted veges:

Put the cous cous in a pan. Cover with vegetable stock (or cube of choice).

chop veges - I tend to use whatever is in season.
put on roasting with garlic (very good call about tubes!) and roast for about 20 to 30 minutes on gas 4/160 degrees. Mix the cous cous (which should have absorbed the stock) and mix together. Serve with anything but I really like salmon /or halloumi cheese.

The recipes are Fantastic, thanks all! I am going to try them at home 😊

I love the idea about taking stock cubes and herbs/spices in pots. Also the idea of white labels. Inspired , thanks 🤩

Ooh love spaghetti carbonara @poetryandwine. DS tried it once and got in a right state with the eggs! I’ve told him to go off recipe a little and use some milk!

Thank you for your good wishes.

I love the something on toast recipes- thank you for these!

Joining thread as I have decided to teach my 13 yr old to really be able to cook basic meals.

I was appalling at university! Jamie Oliver saved my life as a 20 something 😆

Very simple chilli,
minced beef 4/500g into a pan on middle heat until brown, add sliced mushrooms and onion until softened, add garlic if wanted, add 1.5 tin tomatoes (use the other half for some pasta the day after) a Schwartz chilli packet mix, a tin of kidney beans and 125mm cold water, a sprinkle of chilli flakes depending on how hot you like it. Allow to simmer for minimum half an hour but the longer the better. This pot is enough for four hungry people or portion up and freeze for day you can’t be bothered to cook.
Serve with rice or baked potatoes or put on nachos with cheese, sour cream etc.

My fave basic is pesto pasta:

spinach and ricotta pasta parcels, boil from fridge or frozen.
make a sauce from fat free or full fat plain yogurt, pesto and half or whole lemon.

wack the slightly cooled pasta into the sauce and eat.

adding fresh spinach to the pasta when it’s still boiling wilts it a bit and adds to the meal.