Uni cooking 101: Five easy meals for under £5

So, freshers, you’ve just moved into self-catered halls, you’ve used up all your free Pot Noodles and Domino’s vouchers, and now you have to face one of the most daunting aspects of university life: learning how to cook without getting food poisoning or burning down the kitchen.

These recipes use a variety of student staples that you probably already have or can find in Lidl – things like pasta, sweet chilli sauce, onions and soy sauce. Buying the individual ingredients for each dish might total up to more than £5 per portion, but these meals shouldn’t cost more than £2 per person, and you’ll be able to get multiple dinners out of them.

1. Sweet chilli halloumi burgers – £1.50 per portion

Ingredients:

• Half a block of halloumi – £1
• A burger bun – 20p
• One to two tbsp sweet chilli sauce – 2p
• One tbsp olive oil – 5p
• A few drops lemon juice – 10p
• One tbsp honey – 10p
• Pinch of salt, pepper and thyme
• Optional: mayo, lettuce, avocado, and any veggies on the side

Process:

1. Pour sweet chilli sauce, honey, olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper and herbs into a bowl and combine. Cut the halloumi into 1cm slices and add to the bowl, and make sure all slices are coated in the sauce before covering them in clingfilm. Marinate in the fridge for about half an hour.
2. Heat up about a tablespoon of oil in a pan, can be any kind. While the oil is heating, you can add some optional veggies to fry alongside the halloumi, like courgette, tomatoes, red peppers, whatever you have lying around in the fridge.
3. Place halloumi and any veg in the frying pan and fry for one to two minutes on each side until golden brown (make sure you don’t burn it, it’s gross). Keep the remaining sauce mix to one side.
4. While the halloumi is frying, mix in about a tablespoon of mayo into the sauce mix to make your sweet chilli mayo.
5. Put the burger together in whatever order you like, I personally put it in this order from the bottom up: lettuce, halloumi, avocado, sweet chilli mayo. If you’ve prepared any veggies these can either go in the burger or on the side.

2. Sweet chilli sesame chicken noodles – £1.80 per portion

Ingredients:

• One to two chicken thighs or breasts, whichever you prefer – 80p
• One tbsp ketchup – 5p
• One tbsp soy sauce – 2p
• Two tbsp sweet chilli sauce – 5p
• One tsp chopped garlic – 10p
• One tsp sesame seeds or more to taste (optional) – 5p
• One tbsp oil – sunflower tastes the most neutral but any will do
• One nest egg noodles – 20p
• Optional: any veg – tender stem broccoli works really well with this – 50p

Process:

1. Add the ketchup, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and garlic to a bowl and combine. Dice the chicken and add to the bowl. Cover this in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to marinate.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium heat along with your oil of choice, then add the chicken to the pan. Cook for about five minutes before flipping over (and be careful, the oil can spit and it hurts) and cook for a further five minutes. Add vegetables at this stage if you like.
3. Meanwhile, boil a saucepan of water and add your noodles, then reduce the heat so it’s simmering. I used Blue Dragon medium egg noodles which only need about two minutes, separating them with a fork as they start to soften.
4. Drain the noodles, add to a bowl and then the chicken on top. I topped mine with sesame seeds and added broccoli on the side.

3. Chicken fajitas – £1.45 per portion

Ingredients:

• One to two chicken thigh fillets or just normal thighs if you fancy skinning and de-boning some raw chicken to save some money – 80p
• Half a yellow or red onion – 10p
• Two or three mini tortillas – 25p
• Optional: a handful of grated cheddar – 20p
• For the marinade: one tbsp of olive oil, one crushed garlic clove, paprika and cajun, a pinch of salt and pepper, a splash of lemon juice,  and two tbsp sweet chilli sauce (between 5p-10p each)

Process:

1. Combine all your marinade ingredients in a bowl. For this stage, my personal technique is to measure with the heart – if it smells too much like olive oil, for example, I put a bit more sweet chilli sauce or lemon juice in it.
2. Chop the onion and peppers into long strips and dice the chicken, and add to the marinade. Leave this in the fridge for 15-30 mins (optional, dependent on how hungry you are).
3. Heat some oil in a frying pan on a fairly high heat and add the chicken and vegetables, cooking for around five to six minutes before turning the chicken over. Towards the end, you can start stirring to ensure the bottom doesn’t get burnt – it will probably look slightly black but that tends to be just the sauce crisping up and it will still taste good. Remove from heat and check the chicken is cooked by cutting a big piece in half and making sure the insides are not pink.
4. Heat a few tortillas in the microwave for about 15 seconds, then add the fajita filling. At this point I added sweetcorn as well, you can substitute for any extra veg if you want. Add grated cheese on top if you like.

4. One pan sausage pasta – £1.40 per portion

Ingredients:

• One tbsp olive oil – 2p
• Two Cumberland pork sausages – 40p
• Half a yellow onion – 10p
• One crushed garlic clove – 2p
• One tsp paprika
• One tsp chilli powder or chilli flakes
• 225ml chicken stock – 7p
• 200g tinned chopped tomatoes – 45p
• One tbsp tomato puree – 2p
• 80g short pasta – I used penne, but rigatoni is the best pasta shape for sausages – 15p
• Two heaped tbsp cream cheese – 15p

Process:

1. Heat up the oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat, and while you wait cut up the sausages into chunky pieces. Add these to the saucepan and cook until golden brown all over. Add the onions and cook until softened.
2. Turn down the heat a bit and add the garlic, paprika and chilli, and stir for around two minutes so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan – it’s really hard to clean off.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and stock to the saucepan and bring it to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and add the dried pasta. Cover the saucepan with a lid and allow the pasta to cook for about 11 minutes.
4. Once the pasta is cooked, take off the heat and stir in the cream cheese. You can add any sides you want, I went for garlic bread and tender stem broccoli (again) and added grated cheese on top.

5. Vegan roasted pepper pasta with veggies – £1.47 per portion

Ingredients:

• One red pepper – 48p
• Olive oil – 2p
• One crushed garlic glove – 2p
• One small yellow onion – 20p
• 25 ml vegetable stock – 10p
• Whatever veggies you want – I used spinach and courgette – around 50p if it’s fresh veg
• Penne (or whatever shape you have to hand) – I measure by filling a bowl with uncooked pasta and then taking out a handful as it expands as it cooks – 15p

Process:

1. Heat oven to 180°C fan, halve the pepper and discard all the seeds and gross bits, and place face-down on a baking tray. Roast in the oven until the skin is blackened, around 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and roughly cut into chunks.
2. Boil a pot of water, add either salt or a tablespoon of oil and cook the pasta for around 11 mins – stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick.
3. Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat, and roughly chop the onion. Add to the pan and sweat for a few mins until softened, and add any extra vegetables now to cook until soft as well. Add the roasted peppers for another two minutes, stirring continuously.
4. Add the vegetable stock and keep the heat on high until it boils, then reduce the heat for a few minutes as the sauce thickens up, you can blend the sauce if you would prefer it thinner.
5. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, stirring to combine. This recipe is actually vegan, but I added cheese to mine at this stage.

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