The best meal of the day?

According to the organisation Save The Student, in an article updated only last month, 63% of their student survey participants said they skip meals “at least some of the time” to save money. And as for finding the time? The truth is, some days it’s hard with back-to-back lectures and seminars as well as deadlines creeping up from every direction, demanding all our attention. Lunch is often the meal that is sacrificed first under this pressure. Ironically, even today I struggle with this, eating my lunch in the gap between a lecture and a seminar somewhere between three and four in the afternoon while sitting at my laptop composing an email and completing an online course on sustainability. The lunch in question was a sandwich cobbled together from what was left in my fridge, which promptly fell apart in one hand as the other typed. I think it’s fair to say that lunch could do with some love.

I have decided to start making my food in bulk to hopefully avoid another incident like today’s, with the added bonus points of them all being created from raw ingredients, which means by prepping ahead of time you’re saving money… I’ll let you decide if that makes me a chef.

Chickpea Salad 

First up is a chickpea salad based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food website, published by Priya Tew. It is vegetarian, high protein, and requires no cooking.

To make the dressing, combine 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp cider vinegar and the juice of half a lime.

Then, in a separate bowl, combine a 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped cucumber, two large roasted peppers chopped up, two handfuls of spinach, crumbled feta cheese and a handful of basil.

Mix it all together and pour over the dressing before portioning into tupperware. Right before I eat it I like to add a handful of lettuce on top too.

This recipe makes three portions so it can be kept in the fridge ready to just grab and go.

The best thing about a salad recipe is that it can be easily modified to suit your preferences by swapping ingredients out or adding something in.

Easy Pasta Sauce 

Next, the easiest pasta sauce with only a few ingredients. This recipe was posted on TikTok by ‘eatsbyramya’ and doesn’t even require you to lift a knife!

For one portion, place ¼ of a block of feta in the centre of an oven safe dish and surround with 10 cherry tomatoes.

Drizzle with olive oil and tuck a clove of garlic wrapped in tin foil amongst the tomatoes.

Then, add some lemon zest on top and season with salt and pepper.

Cook in the oven at 200° for around 20 minutes while you boil the pasta.

When the tomatoes and feta are ready (the tomato skins should be splitting open), squeeze out the roasted garlic from the tin foil, mixing it all together and then place it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. Now it is cooked, blend the mixture into a smooth sauce and add to the cooked, drained pasta.

To batch cook for two meals at once, simply double the tomatoes and feta to mix with two portions of pasta and keep in the fridge.

Immune Boosting Soup 

Finally, it wouldn’t be an autumnal article without an immune boosting soup. This sweet potato soup recipe makes three portions and is dairy free, gluten free and vegan, on top of being freezable so you can cook a batch to eat later. It was published on the BBC Good Food website by Rachel Phipps.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and add in one roughly chopped onion and two large peeled and chopped carrots. Cook until softened.

Stir in 4cm finely chopped fresh ginger, 1 crushed garlic clove and ½ tsp dried chili flakes and fry for two-three minutes.

Next, stir in 700g peeled and cubed sweet potato and two pints vegetable stock (though I found this resulted in a very liquid texture, so adjust to preference) before turning up the heat and bringing to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes after which the sweet potato should be soft.

Remove the pan from the heat and blend the soup with a stick blender until smooth, season to taste.

Maybe the day is chaotic, but that doesn’t mean the food has to be. Having healthy lunches ready to go which are full of flavour can make all the difference. These recipes nourish your body with the ingredients and your brain with a moment or two of silence, refuelling you for the rest of your day.