Food for survival: Recipes for your first term at university

Food is the comfort blanket we all need when life gets a bit bleak, and your first term at university can often be the chilliest time of your life. Sadly, we’re at that point in the term where takeaway every night isn’t feasible, so instead you’ll need a strong repertoire of recipes on stand-by to beat those first term blues.

Get ready to be the real MVP with your flatmates with these recipes. Move over meal deal.

Basic Tomato Sauce

Contrary to its name, this sauce isn’t basic; it’s versatile. Fry up some garlic and onion in a little olive oil, add two cans of tomatoes and boiling water – throw in a little salt, pepper, sugar and a handful of basil – stir, then bring to the boil before letting it simmer. Once your sauce has reduced, you will have the blue-print for virtually any tomato-based dish. Pasta bake is a resourceful way of using this sauce and also means that you’ve got your mid-week meals in the bag.

Add minced beef, chilli powder and a can of kidney beans for a hearty chilli con carne. Or, throw in some slices of bacon, chopped celery and carrot in with the garlic and onion for an Italian bolognese. Say goodbye to Dolmio and Loyd Grossman, you just don’t need ’em.

Cookies

“You can be miserable before you eat a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie but you can’t be miserable while you are eating a cookie” – Barefoot Contessa.

Never were truer words spoken, and the combination of butter, brown sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, plain flour and chocolate chips along with a good brew is pretty unbeatable.

All you need is Sorted Food’s recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies – they’ve got your back.

Couscous

So good they named it twice. Honestly, couscous doesn’t even really count as cooking, as all you need to do is pour over the same amount of boiling water as there is couscous, cover and leave to steam for 5 minutes. Before-hand, heat up some garlic, onion, sliced tomato, mixed herbs and fry gently before mixing it through your couscous. Crumbled feta cheese and chopped coriander go very well with this too, as does pita, naan or even focaccia bread.

Pancakes

A universally-loved student staple, pancakes combine sweet and savoury. Crêpes are alright, but a stack of the thick, fluffy, syrup-drenched diner ones are far superior. Many Sheffield establishments serve them (The Lucky Fox, Alyssum Cafe, Vittles, the list goes on) but why not rustle up a Sunday brunch for your housemates the morning after the night before – you just need 135g plain flour, 1tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, 2tbsp caster sugar, 130 ml milk, 1 egg, 2tbsp melted butter and the toppings of your choice.

Soup

Probably the best thing since sliced bread (also goes really well with sliced bread), soup is your autumnal remedy. Everyone’s favourite Queen of Cakes, Mary Berry, has a 10 minute tomato soup that will give Heinz a run for their money. With a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, 3 tins of chopped tomatoes, 500ml veg stock, sugar, milk, salt, pepper, some basil pesto or Greek yogurt to serve on top and a hand-blender, you’re ready to go.

Holy Guacamole

Avocado can be breakfast, lunch and/or dinner, and it can always be delicious. Mashing two avocados with a crushed clove of garlic, some salt, lime juice, chopped scallions and coriander creates something so divine. Eat this with nachos for a snack, spread on toast for Nigella’s insane ‘avocado on toast’, or use it in a full blown Mexican feast. Alternatively, just spoon the good green stuff straight into your mouth – we won’t judge.

Eggs

Nobody cares if the chicken came before the egg, or the egg before the chicken, all we care about is if we can have our eggs fried sunny-side up, poached, scrambled, or hard-boiled with soldiers (try asparagus soldiers for a twist) Brunch, however, is the egg’s shining moment – scrambled on top of a cream cheese bagel with smoked salmon slices and avocado, you can’t really go wrong with this.

The Chip Butty

As an Irishman, the potato has to feature somewhere here, and a chip butty is about as good as it gets when it comes to potato modification. I think I speak for all students when I say that chips and bread have been a sort of life-line at some point. Method: butter your bread, load up your chips, cover in the cheese and condiment of your choice and in one efficient, swift step, apply to face. You could get this from your local pub but why bother when you can have as many as you want in your own kitchen?

Pizza

Pizza, like chips, is probably the most popular default. Takeaway is over-priced, even if it is full of greasy goodness, but with 600g strong white bread flour, 1tbsp quick instant yeast, 1tsp salt, 1tbsp sugar, 100ml olive oil and 300ml of warm water you can have your own pizza dough at hand, ready to roll. Add warm water and oil to the dry ingredients and mix until combined – leave in a big, oiled bowl somewhere bright and warmish, make it before your lecture and then dinner is pretty much already made. Ta daa.