Easy cheese, onion and potato rosti recipe

Fancying something a little exotic for dinner, but don't fancy blowing your weekly food budget on one meal? Us neither. So why not try our easy cheese and onion rosti recipe? 

Credit: MariaKovaleva – Shutterstock

Our cheese, potato and onion rosti recipe is a surefire way to show off your culinary skills – even if you don't have any. This awesomely easy (but still incredibly tasty) dish takes just 20 minutes to make and costs less than a coffee. What's not to love?

Often being compared to our breakfast favourite, the hash brown, the rosti is a potato-based food to which we've added cheese and onion. However, if you're feeling extra adventurous, you can add meats such as ham, sausage or even salmon to your rosti.

And the beauty of this recipe is that most of the ingredients are items you might very well have in your cupboards already. Prepare to spend the next 20 minutes of your time cooking up a tasty dish that'll convert you into the Jamie Oliver of your student flat.

Tasty cheese and onion rosti recipe

Ingredients

Serves: 4 | Costs: £2.33* (£0.58 per serving) | Time taken: 20 mins

• 350g potatoes (£0.25)
• 2 red onions (£0.16)
• 120g grated cheese (£0.81)
• 2 eggs (£0.30)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil (£0.05)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (£0.06)
• 1 whole lettuce – we'd suggest going with iceberg lettuce, but any type is fine (£0.70).

Method

1. Rinse your potatoes and onions in a sieve over the sink. Then finely grate them into a bowl.
2. Squeeze any excess water out of the potatoes and onions. We'd recommend also doing this over the sink in a sieve, by repeatedly squeezing and tossing the ingredients until they feel drained.
3. Grate your cheese into a bowl. Or, if you've bought pre-grated cheese (be warned: it's more expensive), you can skip this step completely.
4. Crack two eggs into a bowl and beat them.
5. Mix together your grated cheese, potatoes and onions with a teaspoon of basil and your beaten eggs. Stir until you're satisfied.
6. Make 4 rosti 'cakes' with your mixture. We'd recommend doing this by separating the mixture into 4 equal parts, then rolling each cake in the palm of your hand and flattening it until it looks a bit like a burger patty.
7. Heat a splash of olive oil in a hot pan until it sizzles. Remember to keep the pan away from your body to avoid the oil 'spitting' at you.
8. Once the oil is hot, add your cakes to the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side. Top tip: if you have the time, we'd recommend doing 1 or 2 rosti cakes at a time. This will give them plenty of room to fry and turn golden. However, if you're in a rush, adding all 4 to the pan is fine as long as you give them some room to breathe.
9. Wait until your cheese, potato and onion rosti cakes are golden brown. Then remove them from the pan using kitchen tongs, and place them on a piece of kitchen towel to drain out any excess oil.
10. Season to taste with salt.
11. Along with a side salad of some lettuce, serve the rostis on a plate for yourself and your friends (or just you – we won't judge!).

The charming cousin of the hash brown, this cheese, potato and onion rosti recipe costs just over £2 and takes less time to make than watching a single episode of your favourite Netflix show. It'll feed up to four people and (oh, did we not mention?) tastes delicious.

Whether you're pondering over what to make for dinner, or you're in need of a tasty lunch to bring to uni, our rostis are perfect for any situation that might have your belly rumbling.

Every recipe cooks better when you've got the right gear. Check out our guide to the best kitchen gadgets and get kitted out.

* Prices were correct at the time of writing (using Tesco.com, Asda.com and Sainsburys.co.uk prices as guidelines).