Jamie Oliver uses them, and Delia Smith made a TV series showing us How to Cheat at Cooking, so it must be OK!

I absolutely encourage you to cook from scratch because it’s usually cheaper and better for you. For the most part, this is exactly what I do, but sometimes I like to make use of so-called cheat ingredients.

I prefer to see them as quick and easy kitchen hacks.

Some of my favourite cheat ingredients are Patak’s curry pastes, stock, jars of roasted peppers, tinned foods, passata, puff pastry and, of course, fish fingers. 

What are your favourite kitchen time savers?