30+ easy student recipes
Forget frozen ready meals, we've got quick, easy and delicious recipes that are perfect for students.
Heading off to university? Just because you're a student, it doesn't mean you have to live off beans on toast for the entire year. Whether you're navigating the kitchen for the first time or a seasoned pro looking to elevate your cooking game, our compilation of budget-friendly recipes is here to save the day for the time short student.
From one-pot wonders that use store cupboard staples minimise the mess in a shared kitchen and make-ahead options that accommodate hectic study schedules to three ingredients desserts like our unbeatable Nutella brownies, we've got every craving covered.
Frying pan pizza alla puttanesca
Skip the expensive takeaway pizzas and opt for this pan fried pizza recipe instead – it's perfect for midweek meals and weekend dinners.
Recipe: Frying pan pizza alla puttanesca
Pea and ham risotto
Once you've mastered the basic risotto recipe, experiment with different meat, fish and whatever vegetables you have to hand.
Recipe: Pea and ham risotto
Naan pizza
A shop bought naan is store cupboard staple, just waiting to be loaded up with your favourite toppings for a speedy supper!
Recipe: Naan pizza
Biscoff traybake
A biscuit, turned into a spread, transformed into a cake. Sounds crazy, but this is probably the simplest bake you’ll ever make – and it only requires three ingredients!
Recipe: Biscoff traybake
Fresh pesto pasta
This vibrant pasta dish takes less than half an hour to make, and can be prepped for midweek lunches, too.
Recipe: Fresh pesto pasta
Lasagne
Get a friend to help out in the kitchen and make a quantity of best bolognese sauce before you start this recipe.
Recipe: Lasagne
Speedy prawn peanut curry
This curry is ready in just 20 minutes and you’ll have many of the ingredients in your store cupboard already. Any nut butter can replace the peanut butter in this recipe – we particularly like it with cashew butter.
Recipe: Speedy prawn peanut curry
Bolognese sauce
For non-meat eaters use veggie mince and stock, and leave out the Worcestershire sauce.
Recipe: Best bolognese sauce
Cheat's chocolate mousse
Our mousse uses marshmallows to give it a fluffy texture, so it’s simpler to make.
Recipe: Cheat’s chocolate mousse
Tuna pasta bake
A quick and easy favourite that all your flatmates will love.
Recipe: Tuna pasta bake
Chicken fajitas
There's no need to buy pre mixed spice packets when making these easy Mexican-style fajita wraps.
Recipe: Chicken fajitas
Sunday brunch bake
Easy to throw together, this breakfast version of bread pudding is sure to be a hit with your flatmates.
Recipe: Sunday brunch bake
All-day breakfast burger
Your favourite breakfast flavours rolled into one juicy burger.
Recipe: All-day breakfast burger
Beer can chicken
This beer can chicken is an impressive recipe to try if you're hosting a dinner party with friends.
Recipe: Beer can chicken
Mini toad in the holes with onion gravy
Using water with the batter gives crispness and lift to this much-loved comfort food.
Recipe: Mini toad in the holes with onion gravy
Chicken, bacon and leek pasta bake
Crammed with chicken and crispy bacon, this comforting pasta bake is perfect for a cold winter's night.
Recipe: Chicken, bacon and leek pasta bake
Five-minute white sauce
This simple sauce recipe can be adapted to many meals, spoon it over cooked vegetables, use as a topping for a lasagne or as a tasty base for a pie filling.
Recipe: Five-minute white sauce
Midnight munchy bars
Sweet tooth satisfaction is guaranteed with these crunchy chocolate bars.
Recipe: Midnight munchy bars
Rarebit baked potato
The classic flavours of Welsh rarebit will upgrade your baked potatoes to a delicious and cost-effective dinner.
Recipe: Rarebit baked potato
Three minute chocolate pudding
Got a chocolate craving? This is the perfect molten chocolate pudding, and takes just three minutes to make!
Recipe: Three minute microwave puddings
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
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