Cooking is an integral part of everyday student life. While all of us value good (and cheap!) meals to keep us going through the day, most students also like to save some time in the kitchen. To summarise, students want to cook fresh and not spend the whole day in the kitchen doing so. While I’ve already written quite a few blogs containing easy to make student recipes (like this one), this blog will focus on some practical tips and cooking hacks to make your life in the kitchen a little easier.  

1) Slice all of your cherry tomatoes at once

I am a huge fan of cherry tomatoes, which means I add them to nearly all of my dishes in some form or another. A super-easy way to save some time on cutting your tomatoes is to simply place them between two Tupperware lids. While firmly holding the tomatoes in place with one hand, you can use a knife to horizontally cut through all of your cherry tomatoes at once. Voila! Just make sure to not press too hard from the top, or you will end up with squished up tomatoes instead of halved ones.  

2) Don’t waste your time peeling 

Peeling things is probably one of the least favourite parts you have to do while cooking. However, there are quite a few easy tricks to save some time on this. For garlic, simply crush the whole clove and remove the skin before chopping it. If you prefer to use the whole garlic instead, you can just place the clove(s) in a jar and shake them in there until the skin just falls off by itself. If you want to peel potatoes without a hassle (and peeler!), just add a slight cut into the skin before cooking them in hot water. After you are done cooking simply add the potatoes into ice water and peel the skin off with your hands. However, there are a lot of nutrients in potato and carrot skinds, so you can just scrub them and leave them unpeeled if you want to be extra healthy. 

3. Cut onions without tearing up 

Next to peeling stuff, cutting onions is probably the second worst part about cooking. To prevent yourself from tearing up, you can try to chill the onion in your fridge beforehand and cut while simultaneously holding a sip of water in your mouth. Moreover, you should use a sharp knife, in order to prevent too many cells in the onion from getting damaged. All of these tricks should help to slow down the chemical reaction which makes your eyes water. 

4. Keep your herbs fresh 

Who doesn’t love some fresh herbs in their food? While fresh basil, parsley or thyme are a great way to boost flavours, the problem that most students face is that fresh herbs are fairly expensive and don’t stay good for too long. However, there is a simple solution to keeping your herbs fresh. Just take an ice cube mould and add some olive oil, water or chicken/vegetable stock + the herbs and spices you want to include. Now, every time you are cooking you can simply add one or two of these herb cubes for some extra flavour!  

5. Make frothed milk without a frother 

Students basically run on coffee, but getting that fancy cappuccino at the coffee shop can get quite expensive over time and not everyone has a frother at home. However, there is an easy solution for this. In order to make your own cappuccino or latte at home, just add some milk into a jar and start shaking away. After a couple of minutes of shaking, you should end up with some perfect foam to top off your coffee with.   

6. Make delicious grilled cheese sandwiches without a mess

One of the best and easiest things to cook as a student are grilled cheese sandwiches. While making them is a breeze, they can leave quite a mess behind in the sandwich maker which is tedious to clean up afterwards. The solution? Just use some baking paper when placing the toasties in the sandwich maker and you’ll never have to worry about the mess again. Pro tip: for excellent (yet slightly unhealthy) toasties rub some garlic on each side of the toast and wrap the sandwich in bacon before placing it into the sandwich maker.

7. Open that tricky jar

Who hasn’t been there: you are about to eat, but for some reason, the stupid jar will not open. Before you get upset and attempt to do some crazy things with pointy objects to pry it open (we’ve all been there) try this trick. Simply place a cloth over the jar and fasten it with a rubber band right under the lid. This should create some additional friction in order for you to open the jar without a problem. 

Do you have some kitchen hacks that you would like to share? Let us know in the comments below!