When you live away from home, balancing studies and social life will give you plenty to do. But you still need to find time to cook and eat.
As a student, it’s easy to fall into a diet that’s 90% toast or ramen, or to succumb to the questionable pleasures of fast food, which isn’t good for your budget or your health.
But with minimal effort and investment, you can eat well. Here are our top tips.
Stock up on spices and seasonings
What makes other people’s cooking so good? The answer is spices and seasonings. Whether you’re cooking meat, vegetables, fish, rice, pasta, or stews, adding a little pinch of something while you’re cooking makes all the difference.
You can buy a few spices or seasonings for £10/$10 and it will transform just about any cheap-to-prepare dish, from pasta to baked potatoes, stews and chili.
In addition to the basics (salt and pepper), here are some essentials to try:
- Smoked Paprika (UK: Morrisons, £1.15 / US: Whole Foods, $2.49)
- Garlic Granules (UK: Schwartz, £2.15/US: Whole Foods, $2.51)
- Chilli Powder (UK: Morrisons, £1.15 / US: Amazon $0.99)
- Cumin (UK: Schwartz £1.90/US: McCormick, $2.69)
- Basil (UK: Morrisons: £4.48 / US: Amazon, $1.99)
- Oregano (UK: Morrisons: £1.15 / US: Amazon, $1.29)
Batch cooking
Cooking in bulk is faster and cheaper than starting from scratch every time you get hungry. Each time you cook, you’ll be able to eat multiple times. And it means you always have something to heat up when it’s late and you’re tempted to stop for something fried and served in a paper bag.
All you need is a few Tupperware containers to store your food, and they’re inexpensive to buy. You can get a set of 3 BPA-free airtight containers from Amazon Basics for £8.76, or, in the US, a set of 10 for $12.99.
Invest in an air fryer or multicooker
A shared kitchen can mean competing for time at the stove. It probably also means cleaning off burnt crust before you do it. But if you bring your own stove with you, you’ll have much more freedom to cook and eat whenever you want.
There are several options you can choose from, depending on the type of food you cook most often.
Air Fryer
An air fryer will give you a range of cooking possibilities: you can roast meat and vegetables, reheat leftovers, and cook frozen foods. You can even make cheese toast in an air fryer. It’s best used for dry foods, though: it’s not the best place to cook a stew, for example.
If your meals tend to consist of chicken or fish and vegetables, an air fryer is a good buy.
We have plenty of tried-and-true buying options in our roundup of the best air fryers, but for students, we recommend investing in a Cosori Single Drawer Air Fryer.
Cosori isn’t as well-known as Ninja, but its air fryers are sturdy and affordable. We tested and reviewed the mid-size Cosori TurboBlaze, which has a 6-QT/6-L capacity, without being too big to carry around.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
If you want something smaller and even more budget-friendly, Cosori has a range of air fryers on its Amazon store in the UK and US. As there’s currently a sale, prices start at £49.99/$49.99.
Another option is the even more compact Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer, which has the added benefit of connected features, allowing you to control it via an app on your phone, access recipes and receive alerts.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Multicooker
A more versatile option than an air fryer is a multi-cooker, which will give you a range of cooking options.
One of the best value options we tested is the Drew & Cole CleverChef, which you can currently buy on Amazon for under £45. Unfortunately, it’s not available in the US.
You can read our review for detailed information, but the CleverChef has 14 cooking programs and you can use it to bake, roast, steam, poach, cook rice and pasta and much more. It even has a carry handle, making it easy to transport.
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
Rachel Ogden / Foundry
A more expensive option is the Instant Pot Duo Crisp, which we also reviewed and rated very favorably. It will allow you to air fry And prepare moist foods like stews. It allows for pressure cooking, slow cooking, sautéing, as well as grilling, roasting, baking and proofing.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Jim Martin / Foundry
Jim Martin / Foundry
For more recommendations for air fryers and countertop cookers, check out our roundups of the best air fryers, best Ninja air fryers and cookers, best double drawer air fryers, and best air fryer ovens.
Table of Contents
