Easy student recipes
Student recipes needn’t be boring. We’ve selected easy recipes that are cheap, quick and tasty, to help you eat well as you study or if you’re heading off to university for the first time. Some of our favourite cheap student meals include tuna and broccoli pasta bake, spaghetti bolognese and a warming veggie chilli.
Get some basic student recipes under your belt, including a classic tomato sauce, smashed avocado on toast and traditional pancakes for Shrove Tuesday – plus chocolate cookies to share with new friends.
With a few ingredients, you can transform cheap student meal staples like rice, pasta and eggs into dishes like sausage, fennel and mascarpone orzo, smoky jollof or turmeric eggs with spinach. Lentils are another great option – try our red lentil dal or coconut dal – and you can swap the packaged stuff for the real deal with our easy chicken ramen bowls.
Lucky enough to have an air fryer at university? Our air fryer chicken breast salad is a must-make, along with a speedy marinated air fryer salmon.
If you need to stretch that student budget, check out the rest of our budget recipes and cheap healthy ideas, too.
Showing 1-16 of 138 recipes
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Healthy breakfasts
Base overnight oats recipe (ratio), with flavour ideas
This is the only base recipe you need for overnight oats – once you know the ratio, customise the toppings and flavour depending on your mood.
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Easy
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Homemade dressings and sauces
Andrew Wong’s black bean sauce
Andrew Wong shares his recipe for Chinese black bean sauce. Serve as relish, folded into fried rice or loosen to use as a stir-fry sauce.
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Easy
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Sandwiches
Calum Harris’ green and mean vegan sandos
Calum Harris' vegan sandos are piled high with greens, herbs and tempeh. A creamy tahini dressing helps bring this epic sando together.
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Easy
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Easy vegan
Calum Harris’ kinda-carbonara vegan noodles
Vegan noodles inspired by carbonara? Yes, please. This filling vegan dinner from Calum Harris packed with protein, fibre and flavour.
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Easy
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Cauliflower
Easy cauliflower curry
This filling and fragrant cauliflower curry needs just 15 minutes prep before you leave it to simmer. An easy vegan dish for busy nights.
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Easy
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Noodles
Mushroom stroganoff ramen
It's a delicious mash-up of two beloved dishes: Japanese ramen and Russian stroganoff. The perfect vegan comfort food for chilly nights.
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Medium
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Batch cooking
Masala baked beans with coriander chutney
Looking for a vegan batch cook recipe? Make and freeze these warming masala baked beans, then enjoy with rice, jacket potatoes or on toast.
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Medium
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Houmous
Ultimate instant houmous
Make your best ever homemade houmous with chef Helen Graham's recipe. This instant houmous is creamy, silky and ready in minutes.
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Easy
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Macaroni cheese
Vegan celeriac mac and cheese
Puréed celeriac makes a rich, silky sauce for this vegan mac and cheese, topped with a porcini crumb. Vegan comfort food at its best.
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Easy
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Tomato pastas
Pasta pomodoro
Pasta pomodoro is the original – and best – tomato pasta. This recipe is quick and easy but uses a few tricks to really amp up the flavour.
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Easy
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Italian pastas
Classic pasta puttanesca
One of the most famous classic pasta dishes of all time, pasta puttanesca includes anchovies, garlic, capers, olives and tomatoes.
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Easy
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Creamy pasta
Chicken alfredo
Creamy and rich with a hint of garlic and dried herbs, this easy chicken alfredo pasta is the ultimate in Italian-American comfort food.
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Easy
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Tofu
Nori-wrapped tofu
Crisp nuggets of tofu are coated in a spicy soy dressing, but the real pop of flavour comes from the strip of nori wrapped around each one.
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Easy
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Beetroot
Beetroot houmous
This beautiful pink dip offers up everything we love about houmous but with a sweet earthiness from beetroot. And it takes minutes to make!
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Easy
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Tinned beans
Butter bean cacio e pepe
Cacio e pepe is one of those classic pasta dishes that combines just a couple of ingredients but results in a meal that's so much greater than the sum of its parts. Here, we've added creamy butter beans for extra fibre and goodness.
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Easy
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Tuna
Sicilian tuna pasta
This quick and easy tuna pasta is ready in under half an hour and brings the fresh, vibrant flavours of the southern Italian coastline right into your kitchen.
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Easy
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