For those who’ve grown up or lived their college life will understand the pain of not having good food around. With pangs of hunger while staying up late nights for assignments, submissions, and exam, one would have an array of limited items to resort to for hunger. Mess food has always been bad and students over generations have survived with Maggi, biscuits, etc. Now with a rise in technology, it has become easier for students to make their meals due to the availability of induction cook tops. These run on electricity and have enabled students to make delicious meals for themselves. So, for all the students out there, if you haven’t made these meals already, try these to put an end to those hunger pangs. Here are 20 Easy to Make Dishes for Students!
1.
Cheese Maggi
A friend in need is a friend indeed! Maggi is one such friend for students. There are hostel students who have survived semesters just on Maggi meals. Although, gone for about a year in between due to the faulty standards and increased lead levels, Maggi is back in the market and has already left its competition behind who were temporarily running the market during its absence. For those who have been eaten Maggi daily, it can get monotonous to taste the same dish over and over again. Not that we don’t love it! So for some not so ordinary combinations, cook Maggi with a twist. You can try cheese Maggi by just using a little milk and cheese which will make it a different dish entirely. You can also add vegetables and chicken occasionally.
2.
French Toast
There’s nothing so French about this Indian dish. French toast, one of the easiest to make breakfast items can be a fulfilling meal too. This dish can easily be made by whisking the eggs with masala and spices and then soaking the bread into it before frying it on the tawa. You can grate cheese a cubed cheese and sprinkle leftover oregano and chilli flakes from your last night pizza order to get the best results.
3.
Cheese And Vegetable Omelette
The first thing any Indian learns to make is, well, chai. The second thing a young Indian (non-vegetarian) learn to cook is the beloved omelette. But little people do know, that an exquisite meal can be prepared from the egg. Add flour, eggs, milk and vegetables and whisk them to make a batter of perfect consistency. Follow the procedure of making an omelette by greasing the pan and pouring the batter into it. Right, when it is time to fold it half, grate cheese so that the inside of this omelette is full of gooey and lovely cheese. Who knew you could prepare such a fancy dish within closed doors of your hostel room?
4.
Pancake
Pancakes are another easy-to-make dish; that can be attempted in the hostel. The procedure is same as that of an omelette, just with different proportions. Although regular pancakes need a rising agent, you can make them without it too. The batter includes flour, eggs, butter, sugar, etc.
5.
Upma
Another run-of-the-mill breakfast item is a quick serve dish for students. Made from sooji, upma is a fast and healthy breakfast item for students. Luckily, this is indeed fulfilling and can be served as a meal too. And now that ready to make upma packets are available, all you need is to boil the constituents in hot water.
6.
Poha
A simple dish that reminds us of our homes. Poha is an ordinary Indian breakfast. The washed and softened flattened rice is sautéed with masala, potato and other vegetables of choice. With the right ingredients, you’ll have this delicacy ready within minutes.
7.
Pasta
A wide array of ready to eat pasta is available in the market. If you’re bored of those, you can get raw pasta, boil them and cook them in sauces of your choice. These sauces are also readily available in the market or can be self-prepared too.
8.
Dal – Chawal
What’s a meal without the occasional dal- chawal. Although a variety of lentils exist, the moong and masur are the most approachable ones for a quick serve. The masur ki dal can even, in fact, be boiled with salt and turmeric and served along with plain rice without the roasted spices. Although the roasted spices with masala make it better. And about the rice, sure we can compromise with the rice that the mess serves. Or just cook it in a pressure cooker in less than 5 minutes.
9.
Khichdi
What’s a rainy day without khichdi? The perfect lunch for the monsoon only takes a couple of minutes to prepare khichdi and can be made with only bare necessities. Put all the ingredients in a pressure cooker and your healthy and homely food will be ready in minutes.
10.
Chicken Stew
Chicken is one of the easiest non-vegetarian items to cook with, regarding a full meal. Full of essential flavours and oil, the stock of chicken is so scrumptious; that one would not even need to cook it further. But in times of luxury cravings, so much as sautéing the boiled chicken with vegetables, spices and chicken stock will get you the perfect meal you wished.
11.
Egg Curry
A frequent on the mess food list, one would wonder how they’d mess this classic recipe. With only onion, tomatoes, potato, garlic, cumin powder, garam masala, salt, sugar and of course the boiled egg, this is undeniably one of fastest meals that can be prepared and served within half an hour. In fact, it works wonders as the under-budget perfect meal for a bulk of people.
12.
Pav Bhaji
Don’t we all crave those special Paw Bhaji dinner nights? Don’t worry for there’s a way to cheat to make this meal, if your mother hasn’t told you already. Now with ready- made paw bhaji masala available in your supermarket, it is not such a dish you can dream about for occasions. With just mashed potatoes and a few basic ingredients, all you need is the ready-to-make masala. Oh, and if you getting the paw is a problem, then you can always improvise with bread.
13.
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Some may be shocked at this one. But believe me when I say it can be done. For the easiest way, it is better to have a mini sandwich maker in the hostel which runs on electricity. It can act as a toaster and griller both. Unless you don’t have that, you can prepare the layered sandwich and grease the outside of bread and toast in on a tawa on the induction long enough to grill the outside and melt the cheese inside and voila!
14.
Potato Sandwich And French Fries
With the same procedure as the grilled sandwich, you can easily make a variety of sandwiches with different fillings, for example, a mashed potato cheese stuffing. Or a cooked vegetable salsa stuffing.
As an add-on, you can always make our very favourite French fries. Just tilt the pot to save oil for your potatoes to fry.
15.
Soybean Curry
A dish for the vegetarians. The simple soybean curry contains the goodness of protein yet the right flavours to be a good meal. Cooked like any other meat dish, the procedure includes parboiling the soybean before the start of the cooking.
16.
Wai- Wai
The surprise noodles of all. Unless we weren’t so loyal to Maggi, Wai Wai is one of the only contenders who could give a good enough competition to it. The best part of this noodles is that other than the regular tastemaker, it also contains a chilli powder packet as well as an onion flavoured oil. P.s. do not forget to try and cook it with vegetables. Yum!
17.
Noodles
Noodles/ Chow Mein is an Indian Chinese dish which is an irreplaceable part of our college life. With a little hard work, this dish is easily replicable.
18.
Custard
With a lengthy list of savoury items, there should at least be a sweet dish. Our very favourite custard requires just milk, custard powder, and sugar. Yes, it may not be cold but isn’t it so much better when served hot. For the best results, you can add fruits and cardamom.
19.
Chicken Soup
As previously discussed with chicken being one of the most flavourful meats, even just boiling the chicken in water gives a delicious broth. So if you’re bored with the ready to make soups, you may try your hand at chicken soup.
20.
Oatmeal
Oats initially came as cereal which was to be had along with milk. With its growing popularity, a lot of ready- made savoury oatmeal dishes are available. If you’re quite bored with those, you can always come up with new recipes and flavours on your own with simplistic and ordinary oatmeal.
Note: For the sceptical ones, these dishes have been tried, tested and survived colleges.
