a stove top oven sitting inside of a bowl

Lifestyle

A guide to cooking at University

By ZahraRLA 04 Nov 2023

Everyone comes to university with different levels of cooking ability. However, don't let this stop you from learning and experimenting. Read the guide below for recipe inspiration, budgeting tips and general kitchen hacks.

Recipes

If you don't have much experience in the kitchen, my advice would be to start with a few staple recipes to build your confidence, then try a couple of new recipes a week to expand your skills. All Cardiff University Residences' kitchens will be provided with a student NOSH cookbook full of recipes to try, with easy-to-follow guides. To share a few of my meals:

Spaghetti Bolognese

The basic ingredients are minced mince, canned tomatoes and pasta, but add vegetables and herbs in the sauce if you choose.

Jacket Potato

Simple but underrated eating. People have a different preference when it comes to cooking jacket potatoes, I like to put it in the microwave for 10 minutes, and then 10 minutes in the oven.

Curry

Choose to make your own sauce or buy a jar one, depending on how confident you feel! Use vegetables and/or meat. Cooking meat can be daunting for those who haven't had much experience but make sure the heat isn't too high and that you regularly cut into it to check it's cooked before eating it.

Stir fry

Simple but very healthy school meals. There are ready-made sauces and stir frying veggie packages that you can buy if you want a very quick preparation time.

All recipes can be customized to cater to dietary preferences and needs, such as vegetarian/vegan/halal. There are many places to buy halal meat from, one of the best places is City Road where there are many shops. Check out our previous article for more information.

Budgeting tips

If you're on a budget, as most students are, be aware of where you're shopping. Lidl is the cheapest option in Cardiff for most things. My only advice would be to go in the day, not when it's really busy at 5-6pm!

Also, a good idea to save money is to stop buying those branded products; Most of the own brand products taste very similar if not the same to the branded version.

FINALLY MAKE A LIST! I know how tempting it is to buy everything in sight when you're feeling hungry but try to stick to your list as much as possible. Making a free meal plan for the week or for the next few days will help you save money as well as food waste.

Tips/Hacks

To avoid food waste, my top tip would be to use your freezer. You'll probably only have one shelf in a shared freezer but use it. Most dishes you can bulk cook and freeze the leftovers, which saves so much time when you have to reheat instead of cooking a meal from scratch another night. Buy some plastic containers for this. Most things last 3-5 days in the fridge but can then be moved to the freezer rather than thrown away. However, not everything can be frozen: some foods with a high water content, such as lettuce and some green vegetables do not freeze well, so do not freeze (unless using them for soup or smoothies).

With rice and meat in particular, you can freeze and/or reheat but make sure it's cooked and hot throughout. To be safe, thaw things in the fridge 24 hours before you plan to eat (except if it states on packaging they can be cooked from frozen freezers). Also, consider buying long-lasting food in the fridge to avoid waste. Vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and green peppers last for a long time in the fridge.

In a university kitchen, it can be difficult to know when it's best to cook. Ideally, you want it to be quiet, so you have access to work space and hobs/ovens. There is no simple solution to this, other than to see when your housemates tend to do most of their cooking routines and work around each other's schedules. On a day when you know you'll be short for time, try to plan ahead and have a quick meal that you can cook or reheat to avoid this.

My final tip would be to get inspiration online. Most of the recipes I make I was inspired by TikTok and from there, I made a notes page on my phone so whenever I needed some inspiration, I had so many things to choose to cook.