Three MORE easy meals all Edinburgh students can make for only £5

Because we are hungry, growing adults


Cooking for yourself can be fun, exciting, and rewarding, but even your favourite meals to make can get monotonous. So, I’ve compiled another three to add more variety to your life.

Recipe one: Sausage McMuffin (better than Maccies, I promise!)

This is my go-to post-night out/next morning meal, although one time I may have been too drunk to cook and Gordon Ramsay-style coached (read: yelled at) my flatmate to make them for us. She learned a lot of cooking techniques that night. Fat is flavour, people.

Ingredients (for one McMuffin):

  • English Muffin (if you can’t find them—as I often can’t in Tesco—I’ve used crumpets in a pinch and just sliced them in half. Virtually the same thing)
  • 2 pork chipolatas (I usually make 3 so I can have an extra on the side)
  • 1 slice of cheese (the ones that come wrapped in plastic)
  • Olive oil or butter
  • 1 egg
  • Yellow mustard
  • Optional: chilli oil for frying the egg. (Guys. Seriously. So good)

Process:

  1. Heat pan on medium high and add a small amount of olive oil or butter. Once hot, cook chipolatas until browned on all sides.
  2. Set chipolatas aside and toast your muffin in the greasy, oily pan. The bread will soak up the sausage fat and toast to flavorful perfection.
  3. Once the muffin is toasted, set aside. Add a little more butter/oil (chili oil!) to the pan and fry an egg. I like mine runny, so this doesn’t take much time, but you could fry the egg over hard, too. (Pro tip: pour a little water in the pan as it fries and cover it so the steam cooks it. You don’t even have to flip it this way).
  4. While the egg is cooking, place the slice of cheese after you’ve flipped once, and then assemble your muffin: on one side, place your chipolatas, and on the other, squeeze out some mustard (trust me!) Once the egg is done, place it on the chipolatas, cheese side up, before topping the muffin. The dreamiest drunk meal, but also a fabulous sandwich in all chemical states.

Recipe two: Dumpling Soup

Guys, this may be my new soup of the fall. Took maybe 10 minutes of prep, and then its just 30 min of throwing something in every now and then. So good. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but its mostly spices and veggies.

Ingredients:

  • 3 tbsp cooking oil
  • 3-4 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 pak choi bunches
  • 1 large carrot
  • 2-3 celery sticks
  • 1/2 white onion
  • 1 package button mushrooms
  • 3-4 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 tsp lemongrass paste
  • 1000 ml broth (2 cubes)
  • 1000 ml water
  • 2 tsp Chicken flavored seasoning
  • 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
  • 1.5 tsp ginger powder
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 3 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 package frozen dumplings
  • Optional: 1 bag frozen tofu (but HIGHLY recommended. They’re like spongey, delicious bread in the soup)

Process:

  1. Prep: dice the onion, carrot, and celery. Cut leafy part of pak choi off of the hard stem, dice and keep separated. Slice up the mushrooms, and cut frozen tofu in half.
  2. In a large pot, heat up the oil. Add in carrot, onion, pak choi stems, celery, and mushrooms. Cook for 5 min.
  3. Add in ginger and garlic paste, and cook for another 3 minutes.
  4. While the veggies are cooking down, prepare your broth (if using the cubes). Once the veggies have cooked, add in the broth and the water, cooking for another 10-15 minutes.
  5. Add in all the seasonings and soy sauce, before dropping the dumplings and the frozen tofu in. Cover the pot and cook for as long as the bag directs for boiling the dumplings.
  6. Optional: serve with green onion, chive, chili oil, or sriracha.

Recipe three: Gochujang Cream Pasta

The new Gigi Hadid vodka pasta recipe. You’ll want to make this weekly. Takes less than 20 minutes to come together and so ridiculously good. This is a take off of @lucy_and_lentils ’s recipe on Instagram with a few more ingredients and more spice.

Ingredients:

  • Half a bag of pasta (your choice. I used spaghetti, but I’ll definitely be making this with conchielle next time)
  • 3 tbsp gochujang
  • 6 tsp minced garlic
  • 5 tsp minced shallots
  • Olive oil
  • 260 ml single cream
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • Chili oil
  • Parmesan
  • Green onions
  • Optional: slice of cheese, chicken/vegetable bouillon powder

Process:

  1. Cook pasta for 1-2 min less than instructed on bag. Make sure to reserve 120ml pasta water.
  2. In a pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Once hot, add in garlic and shallots. Cook for 40 seconds before adding in gochujang. Stir, lower the heat, and let cook for 2ish minutes.
  3. Once gochujang has gotten melty, raise heat back to medium and add in single cream. Mix well. Cook down for 7-8 mins, or until the sauce has thickened. If desired, add in the slice of cheese once thickened.
  4. Once sauce has thickened, add in pasta and pasta water. Stir, before adding in soy sauce and a drizzle of chili oil and optional chicken powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir once more.
  5. Serve, topping with parmesan and sliced green onions.

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