So unloved by students, until now…
Life as a student is never easy. Paying your own bills, having to clean up after that 1 filthy housemate and trekking in after a long day of lectures and having to cook for yourself.
With that said, welcome back returners and good luck freshers!
It’s so easy to whack a ready meal in the oven or live off of Super Noodles for a few weeks. However, you can avoid the dreaded fresher’s 15 (the 15 pounds of weight gained during fresher’s week, caused by preparing your own meals combined with the large volumes of alcohol downed)
The beauty of the potato is that it’s filling, cheap and easy to store which means that you can divert your funds towards other things during fresher’s week! So, I have put together a few exotic yet simple recipes.
Ok, Bangers and mash may not be the most exotic of dishes but it is a hearty winter warmer.
Recipe no. 1: Mashed Potato
There’s nothing like the British classic, “Bangers & Mash”. Now, we cannot simply serve up our bangers with packet Smash, it would be an insult to our culture! We must make our grandmothers and our country proud by whipping up some fresh mash.
Simply boil the potatoes, mash together with butter or margarine (depending on what you have in the fridge), milk and lastly season to taste with some salt and pepper. Prepare some packet gravy, stick some sausages in the grill, and BISH, BASH, BOSH, job done!
If you want to be really chefy, you could add some grated cheese to the mash and give it a quick stir until it becomes all stringy!
Recipe no. 2: Spanish Tortilla
This glorified omelette dish, which uses just 4 ingredients, sounds much fancier and impressive than it actually is! The good thing about this dish is that you or your housemates probably already have these ingredients lying around in your fridge. Making a Tortilla is perfect when you’ve got eggs to use up and are sick of eggy bread!
The longest part of this dish is the prep, so begin by finely chopping 1 onion and cutting a potato into thick slices.
Next, gently fry the onions and potatoes until the onions have become golden and the potato has softened. You may want to partially cover the pan to achieve this. Then, line the bottom of the pan with the potato slices to create a base.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and season to taste. Pour the eggy mixture over the potatoes, making sure that each tatty is covered! Now treat the tortilla like an omelette and flip it when one side appears to be cooked.
Recipe no. 3: Bombay Aloo
This has got to be the most exotic recipe of them all! This rich potato dish will require a trip to Sainsbury’s because, who are we kidding, a student is probably not going to have some garam masala lying around.
You will need to buy a readymade spice mix. Use a Bombay Aloo mix or any curry-flavoured powdered spice mix.
Heat the potato for 5 minutes in the microwave. Once completely cool, peel and chop them into cubes.
In a hot pan, add some oil and a finely chopped onion. Then add your spice mix. Once the onions have become transparent and the oil and spices have combined and formed a kind of paste, add your potatoes and mix well, making sure to coat the potatoes in the curried goodness! Add a drop of boiling water and cover the pan and leave to cook for about 15 minutes. Check if the potatoes are soft and then turn off the heat – if not leave them covered for a little longer.
If you really want to impress your friends, garnish with some fresh coriander and you’ve got yourself a dish worth instagramming!
You could even switch up these recipes by using sweet potato, but bear in mind these take longer to cook. Remember ladies, you can’t go wrong with a good spud!
Happy eating!
Edited by Jayde Richards