[Photo by Anja Pritchard. Image Alt Text: In the background - a bottle of olive oil and an orange netting bage of onions. In the foreground - potatoes and stock cubes] Student Staples for a Uni Kitchen By Anja Pritchard – 31st March 2024 So, you’re a student – welcome to the wonderful world of cooking your own dinner every night, I do mean that. While cooking your own dinner has its ups and downs, it can be amazing. Now, despite your best efforts, it is very unlikely that you’ll be interested in cooking a three-course-meal every night. Let me make it easy for you – you don’t have to! It’s okay to have a night or two where your dinner is a frozen pizza, but you should probably have a little variety for the sake of your sanity and health. Here are some non-perishable/long-lasting ingredients you can pick up fairly cheaplythat you can use to make some balanced meals that taste and feel better than the everyday- value frozen pizza you might be eyeing in the store. Rice and Pasta Classic staples of every kitchen – good for a huge range of meals: chilli, pasta bake, curry, and more. The best part of these store cupboard kings, is that you can usually get a big bag – which tends to work out cheaper than smaller packs – it can last you months. Personally, I prefer basmati rice – I think it has a nice flavour – and penne pasta, but there are loads of varieties out there. Canned vegetables Tomatoes and beans especially, there are lots of other great ones too. I tend to get chopped tomatoes if I can, they work amazingly as a base for a sauce without the price tag that comes with a jar of sauce. You can get whole tomatoes in cans too – which are especially good roasted or fried with breakfast (but more on that later). Beans are a great form of protein and when cooked right can taste amazing. I like to put kidney beans in chilli – and if I make it a little spicier than planned, throwing in another can of beans brings the heat down to just the right level.  Oil Most cooking and baking use some form of oil, either to stop stuff sticking to pots and pans, or to help bind and flavour the food. My personal go-to is plain old olive oil, but there’s lots of other kinds – each with their own place.  You can buy infused oils, such as garlic or chilli, but it can be cheaper to make them yourself (just be sure to make a small batch and use it within a few weeks so it doesn’t go bad) there are lots of recipes on infusing oil online. Condiments The unsung heroes of flavour town. You would be astounded at the difference adding a squirt of ketchup can make to your pasta sauce. These sauces already have all kinds of ingredients to make their flavour bold, you may already have some in your cupboard for when you have fries, why not use it in other meals too? Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce and ketchup can add depth to tomato-based meals especially – and yellow mustard can give a kick to baked beans that you might love. Stock cubes, Herbs and Spices They have more uses than you think. I’m sure you’re worrying about the price of jars of herbs and spices – hear me out, it’s less than you think! They look expensive at first but think about it this way – you only really use a sprinkling of them per meal, and it’s not something you replace very often. So, really, one jar is spicing up countless dishes and your tastebuds will thank you later. Salt and pepper are a must, of course. Personally, I also keep stocked up on vegetable and beef stock cubes – along with mixed herbs, oregano, chilli flakes, smoked paprika and cinnamon (that last one is something any of my friends could tell you).  Flour and Sugar Useful for all kinds of meals. Flour can be used to thicken sauces – I’d advise mixing a teaspoon of it with water to create a slurry and adding that to the mixture – or make dough if you’re wanting something like pizza or puddings. Sugar can be used to, quite literally, sweeten the pot – helping to bring out other flavours in the food. You also might like sugar in your tea, unlike the black-coffee drinker that is myself. Plain flour is probably the best one to keep on hand, but if – like me – you happen to be cooking for friends with allergies, cornflour is an excellent substitute that’s cheaper than gluten-free flour. I tend to buy caster sugar over granulated – means I can use it for baking if the mood strikes and tends to combine faster if I add it to meals than granulated sugar. Frozen vegetables These are cheap and easy to keep in your freezer. You can microwave them for a few minutes until they’re piping hot and they’re good as an extra serving of vegetables or to stir into soups and stews. Personally, I tend to keep peas (petis pois are sweet) or mixed vegetables because they go with lots of meals. Potatoes Shall I compare thee to a potato? Thou art no more versatile and delicious. I love potatoes, okay – you can do so much with them: fries, wedges, mash, baked potatoes, roasties, and so much more! I am yet to find a meal that cannot be paired with some form of potato (except maybe dessert, haven’t figured that one out yet). The fact is that potatoes are a great base for a wide range of meals – though one of their best forms has got to be curly fries – enough said. Onions and Garlic Onions and garlic, they make you laugh, cry, ward vampires away, smell a little – we don’t deserve them. I put onions in practically everything – every sauce, every sandwich, every rice dish I concoct. They just work, they’re great for building the base of a meal. They’re especially good when you fry them with sausages. Garlic is something I use only a little sparingly – purely because I endured the experience of my sisters tricking me into eating a whole clove of it when I was much younger – sometimes the things that hurt us become the things we love the most. Roasted garlic is great on toast, in pasta and all kinds of other things – the roasting deepens the flavour and makes it less bitter.