Back-to-college meals: Healthy eating is simply academic

As third-level students get ready to start or go back to college, how can they make healthy food choices?

For many students starting college, it will be their first experience having to fend for themselves in the kitchen.

WHEN I studied at University College Cork (UCC) during the 1990s, there were few vegetables, few vegetarians and certainly no vegans in the student houses I frequented. 

My roommates and I were fortunate to have access to a local butcher — he happened to be our landlord — who was always happy to sell enough mince to make bolognese for one, or a couple of rashers, both of which were staples of our college diet. Along with supermarkets in the city centre, we also had access to the English Market, a great place to buy instant noodles, inexpensive chicken thighs and super cheap basmati rice.

With six of us in the house, we had to stagger mealtimes but if we didn’t cook, we didn’t eat. Takeaway and ready meals were just too expensive, and a student could only eat buttery toast crusts for a certain length of time.

We started off clueless, testing pasta by throwing it at the ceiling (not recommended) and burning rice to the bottom of the one decent saucepan in the kitchen. But we learned, and we learned quickly.

Leaving home is a big life change for most teens. Many adjustments have to be made, with students often coming from a house where food is always available and family meals just arriving on the table. Now, it’s all about independent living, managing a budget and figuring out what to cook.

While there wasn’t so much of a focus on a good diet when I was in college, we now know that lack of adequate nutrition impacts academic performance, whether at primary, secondary or third level. When kids are still in school and living at home, parents play a major role in ensuring they get the best range of nutritious food — learning to manage hearty breakfasts, filling lunchboxes, healthy snacks and non-boring family dinners over the 14-plus years of school time. Then, it all changes. Newly grown-up young adults throwing strops over getting the wrong pasta shape in their lunchbox just a few years ago are now heading off into shared accommodation and fending for themselves. Parents can worry if they are ready. But there are ways to make this transition easier, at least when it comes to food.

Cook in versus take out

Food writer and Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate Charlotte Pike wrote a series of student cookery books shortly after graduating from university. While The Hungry Student Cookbook, The Hungry Student Vegetarian Cookbook and The Hungry Student Easy Baking Cookbook were published over 10 years ago, their advice on healthy eating is timeless.

“The key is to eat as much homemade food as you can,” says Pike, who is based in southwest England. “It need not be complicated but cooking from scratch wherever possible makes a huge difference. When you leave home for the first time, it’s a big change — you’re busy, enjoying a new social life, and it’s easy to rely on takeaways and bought-in food, but something simple from fresh ingredients is always best. It can be really straightforward — a stir fry, pasta or salad. Fresh and homemade will always be so much better for your health and budget.”

A food budget. Now, there’s a student challenge. While many believe homemade food will cost them more money, that’s not the case, especially if something like takeaway pizza starts at €17.50. As Pike points out, if the student in your life has two of those delivered a week that will put a quick end to their food budget.

Alternatively, that €35 will go a long way towards basic supplies at the supermarket. This is also where it’s important to have the right recipe on hand. While many students will get their recipes from social media like TikTok or Instagram, cookbooks like The Hungry Student’s mix of simple and more complex dishes (cheesy baked aubergines) are still a good, reputable and tested resource for basic ideas.

Recipes with a long list of ingredients can be immediately off-putting to students, especially if they have to go out and put together a store cupboard from scratch.

Food writer and Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate Charlotte Pike

Pike recommends asking for assistance from parents or family to put some key ingredients together, especially if they’re looking for off-to-college gift ideas. Things like spices, dried herbs, flour and sugar can all be decanted into smaller jars from what’s already in your home, and a store cupboard stash that includes tins of beans, fish, tomatoes, olive oil, pasta and rice is an investment in your child’s future health.

Kitchen apparatus and equipment can also be a challenge. The house I lived in for four years while in UCC had an old gas cooker with dodgy burners, a random selection of saucepans, and a constantly iced-up freezer tucked into the top of the battered under-counter fridge. As Pike points out in her books, you don’t need fancy kitchen equipment to cook great food — but a good solid frying pan can make a significant difference.

She recommends shopping around and finding the best value for students starting from scratch. A big sack of rice from an Asian supermarket will often work out cheaper than a 1kg bag — but only as long as it’s all eaten. Similarly, there’s no point in buying a supermarket bag of three peppers if only one will be used in a stir fry and the other two get thrown away. Learning to avoid food waste at college is key to a lifetime of sustainable cooking.

As a parent, there are ways you can arm your child for the world outside your own kitchen. Teach them the value of looking closely at prices while shopping rather than being sucked into the BOGOF (buy one, get one free) mindset, as many of the products being promoted are ultra-processed foodstuffs. Show them how to read labels so they can be mindful of their food choices and explain why they should opt for products with the least amount of ingredients. Simply put, fewer ingredients means fewer additives, which means less processing.

Encouraging first-time college students to work out their favourite recipes and letting them loose in the kitchen will pay dividends.

“Use what’s left of the holidays to build a repertoire and to practice,” says Pike. “Eating good quality food and getting decent nutrition helps your brain, your energy, your skin and your long-term health.”

Charlotte Pike’s top five student dinners

• Omelette: “Being able to make a good omelette with just salt, pepper and a knob of butter is essential. You can always add mushrooms and spinach or cheese and chopped tomatoes. Simple, but delicious and really nourishing.”
• Pasta: “It’s always useful to have a couple of pasta recipes in your repertoire and to be able to make a nice pasta dish from scratch.”
• Stir-fry: “This is a lovely quick meal. If you’re shopping for one, you can buy pre-prepared vegetables in packs, which saves you a lot of chopping and shopping but still gives you a variety of vegetables. You can always add in noodles, rice, protein, eggs or vegetables as you wish.”
• Soup: “Being able to make a good soup is essential, especially something like minestrone with pasta and beans. It’s filling and you can keep it in the fridge.”
• Veggie options: “Lots of students are vegetarians, and a bean chilli is very popular. It’s a good way to fill up on lots of protein and it’s very cheap to make.

The Hungry Student Cookbook, The Hungry Student Vegetarian Cookbook and The Hungry Student Easy Baking Cookbook (Quercus) are available from www.charlottepike.co.uk, from Irish bookshops, libraries and on Kindle