Smart cooking: Tips for students
Your budget is tight and you’re looking for solutions to save money in the student kitchen? No problem! We’ll show you how to use simple tricks to prepare food cheaply without sacrificing taste. If you follow our tips, you can reduce your expenses in the long run.
Buy a kettle
We know that being a student is all about avoiding unnecessary expenses. But buying a kettle is proven to be a worthwhile investment. With this practical everyday helper, you not only heat water faster than on the stove, you can also prepare eggs, pasta, etc. much more cheaply. Kettles use around 50 percent less electricity than stoves. They are therefore recommended to reduce energy costs and save a lot of time every day.
Using the example of cooking pasta, this is how you do it:
- Fill the kettle with the required amount of water and switch it on.
- Fill the saucepan with a little water, maximum two centimeters, add salt and place on the stove with the lid closed.
- About 60 seconds before the water boils in the kettle, turn the stove on to the highest level.
- Pour the boiling water from the kettle into the pot.
- Close the pot lid.
- The water in the pot is ready and you can put pasta in it.When choosing the kettle, you should make sure that the relationship between the number of watts and the filling volume makes sense. A device with 3,000 watts and a capacity of one liter would be nonsense, for example. Instead, a device with 2,000 watts and a capacity of around 1.7 liters would be much more appropriate. The general rule: The more watts a kettle has, the faster the water will reach the boiling point.
Use pressure cooker
In addition to the kettle, students can use a pressure cooker. While the kettle provides hot water cheaply and quickly, a pressure cooker speeds up the actual cooking process. The special cooking pots save up to 50 percent energy and even up to 70 percent of the time required.
The special thing about a pressure cooker is the lid, which can be hermetically sealed. This keeps the heat in the pot and the contents cook much faster. In addition, an overpressure is created inside, which allows a higher cooking and cooking temperature. Furthermore, cooking with a pressure cooker is healthier because the food does not have to be cooked for as long and many valuable vitamins and nutrients are retained.
Using the oven properly
When using the oven you can make many mistakes that cost a lot of electricity. For example, the door should only be opened when absolutely necessary. You can check the food just as well through the viewing window, so there is no point in constantly opening the door.
A lot of heat escapes, which the device has to compensate for. Especially when baking casseroles or bread rolls: Use residual heat and switch off the oven a few minutes earlier. In addition, it is worth using the air recirculation function more often. The heat is generated faster and cheaper. Even preheating often makes no sense. The only exception are cookies, because they need the exact heat right from the start.
The right pot makes all the difference
Many people do not pay attention to the choice of pots when cooking. It is extremely important that the cooking accessories are optimally suited to the size of the stovetop. If this is not the case and the pot is smaller than the heat zone, you will lose a lot of energy. If necessary, get suitable pots to use energy efficiently. Ideally, the pot will be a bit larger than the cooking zone. Also worth considering: The lid should fit and be used at all times to prevent heat from escaping.
Unfortunately, many students throw away far too much food. Keep in mind that the best–before date is not an expiry date. Many products are still edible after the best-before date. Don’t throw them away right away, just try them. If they taste normal, don’t be afraid to use them. You can also save a lot of money with leftovers. If you are lacking ideas for using leftovers, you will find many useful tips and suggestions online.
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