With students around the country heading off to university for the first time, there are plenty of companies out there trying to cash in on the big event- from duvet sales at Sainsbury’s through to a back-to-university range on Boohoo.
However, when it comes to targeting that student audience, Waitrose have massively missed the mark. Their campaign for ‘student essentials’ is based around a food cupboard, filled with the five essentials needed for the base of any meal at university- the only thing is, the ingredients add up to £13 and do not even amount to a meal.
Whilst many fresher’s out there will be opting for cheap pasta sauce, frozen vegetables, basic loaves and plenty of eggs, Waitrose essentials are cider vinegar, harissa tomato paste, bouillon powder, soy sauce and Italian seasoning. Yes, you heard that correctly, Waitrose think that harissa tomato paste is a ‘student essential’.
Now, we’re not prejudiced here at Accommodation for Students, and if you really consider these your staples, then good for you- everybody definitely looks up to you as a culinary role model.
However, with thousands of teasing tweets surfacing after the spread went viral; it’s safe to say that thousands of people don’t really count apple cider vinegar as a student cupboard essential. I thought I‘d run you through a few great essentials, including a few cheaper alternatives to what Waitrose have suggested.
Mixed herbs.
Unlike Waitrose’s £1.89 ‘Italian seasoning’, you can grab your spices from ALDI, where a tub of mixed herbs will cost you just 41p, whilst salt and pepper will both amount to under a pound. Mixed herbs can be thrown into anything, from soups through to tomato pasta sauces or on top of cheap frozen pizzas to give them a bit more flavour.
Cheap carbs.
For some bizarre reason only known to Waitrose, they failed to mention pasta or rice as student cupboard staples, which is rather ridiculous. Grabbing a large bag of wholegrain pasta, spaghetti and rice is the best thing you can do as a student, adding carbs to any meal will definitely keep you fuller for longer for pennies.
Most students tend to forget this one, but plain flour is a great staple for all student cupboards. Not only can you knock up flat breads by just mixing flour and water before dry frying, for a lovely curry side, but flour can also be blended with ingredients such as bananas, honey and milk to make breakfast pancakes. It’s also handy to have flour in the cupboard as a base for any sauce; it’s also super handy for thickening.
Utilise those tins.
Waitrose failed to involve any tinned food in their cupboard staples, too busy focusing on the bouillon powder.
Every student cupboard needs a few tinned essentials such as value tinned tomatoes, to bulk out any sauce, baked beans- to have on toast-stir into soup or to add to casseroles and pies, tinned vegetables such as peas and sweetcorn to stop rickets, and even tinned fruit to tip over yoghurt or have in your porridge in the morning.
Tinned soup is also a great idea and can be livened up with a few mixed herbs, salt and pepper and even some stir in pesto to give it a bit more flavour.
Pesto
The mothership of all student meals, pesto is a student cupboard essential, until it has been opened, then put it in the fridge.
It can be mixed into pasta for a quick meal, dropped into tomato sauces, toasted over bread, stirred into salad dressings, dribbled over frozen pizza…literally, you can do ANYTHING with pesto. Trust me.
Oats
In order to stop that mid-morning lecture stomach growl, having a large container of oats in your cupboard can be a great way to cook up simple breakfast ideas. Maybe have a jar of dried fruit in your cupboard in order to add some more fibre to the whole dish.
Tinned meats
For the added protein, you can’t go wrong with tinned meats such as tuna, and if you’ve feeling brave, SPAM… For added protein it’s always handy to have jars of peanut butter, lentils and nuts in your cupboard too- all of which can be scooped up pretty cheap from ALDI.
Sauce jars
Although dissimilar to harissa paste- it’s always handy to have staples such as curry paste in your cupboard, you can grab some at ASDA for under £1, saving you around £3.50!
Potatoes
Potatoes are best stored at the back of the cupboard out of direct sunlight. They’re incredibly cheap to pick up and can be used in a variety of dishes to add bulk. They can also stand as centre stage of course in the form of a jack potato heaped with toppings!
Stock Cubes
Stock cubes can literally be stored in your student cupboard all year long and can be used in a variety of dishes from soup through to pasta sauce. You can also drop them into Bolognese sauce; it’s really impressive how much of a difference they make!
Oil
I don’t know what Waitrose were thinking- but they didn’t think to include cooking oil as a staple, probably hoping students could cook their food in harissa paste oil… Anyway, a good staple of any student cupboard definitely has to be vegetable or sunflower oil, it doesn’t really have a flavour which means it can be used for frying, roasting and can even be dropped into cake mixes.
