Finding meals that are both easy and affordable is hard to come by. As a university student who lives alone, I get too lazy to cook after my classes. When I find something efficient and within my budget, I stick to it until I get bored.
Who doesn’t love a good and easy home-cooked meal? That being said, here are my top four go-to meals and the twists I add to make it easier!
- Shakshuka
-
Growing up, shakshuka was a staple dish in my household. It’s a North African dish that takes less than 30 minutes to put together. It’s both easy and delicious.
As a student, I make some changes so that it’s more cost and time-efficient. Although the recipe calls for tomatoes, if you don’t have tomatoes at home, you can also use strained tomato sauce. Additionally, I like to add whatever vegetables I already have in my fridge. For example, I always have mushrooms, so I like to throw them in all my dishes.
It’s a super easy dish, so give it a try!
- Penne Pasta
-
The infamous Gigi Hadid Pasta is a go-to for every university student. You would think it’s a hard dish to make, considering how good it tastes, but it only takes 20 minutes!
As I mentioned earlier, since I always have mushrooms in my fridge, I like to incorporate them into this dish by mixing them with the onions and olive oil in the pan, giving it a nice caramelization. I also use whatever type of pasta I already have in my cupboard — there’s no need to go buy a specific type.
The sauce is the make or break in this dish; it’s the creamy tomato-based sauce that makes the dish stand out. A useful tip I learned is to always add some of the leftover pasta water into the sauce, as the starchy water will help the sauce thicken.
- Za’atar
-
If you are looking for a quick lunch or snack before a lecture, this Palestinian snack is one of the easiest to make. Za’atar, which you can find at any local Arab grocery store, is a group of herbs mixed together, but you can also make it with some of the spices you may already have!
It consists of sumac, oregano, thyme, marjoram and sesame seeds. They usually come in big packs, so they also last long. Traditionally, you mix the za’atar with olive oil and eat it with flatbread or cucumbers. It can also be sprinkled onto any meal.
I like to add it to my shakshuka and season my chicken with it, so it comes in handy for other dishes too!
- Pad Thai
-
You can never go wrong with a simple Pad Thai. This dish usually only takes me 20 minutes to make and is also customizable.
I like to add whatever I already have in my fridge. Sometimes, I add peppers, mushrooms and even chicken. I like to use rice noodles, but what makes this recipe so student-friendly is that you don’t necessarily need to use rice noodles; you can use ramen noodles or even linguine.
Since this dish is so customizable, when it comes to the sauce, I also like to add extra sriracha than what the recipe calls for some extra spice and flavour.
When I first started cooking for myself, it felt very overwhelming, but the more I cooked, the more I started to like it, and now I even look forward to it sometimes. Hopefully, these tips and recipes will help any student who doesn’t have the time or energy to cook because it’s what helped me when I was struggling!