Features
12 cookbooks every student needs
by Lottie Huckle
published on 3 January 2024, last updated on 5 December 2025
Know someone heading off to university this September? Skip the tins of beans and equip them with a stack of these student-friendly cookbooks instead. From an indispensable guide to corner shop cooking to a collection of accessible vegan recipes, these books will help see students through to the end of term. So, scroll on to check out our top cookbooks for students.
Sam Holland’s Kitchen Kickstart
With recipes designed for beginner cooks, Sam Holland’s Kitchen Kickstart is the perfect guide for students new to cooking for themselves. From quick curries and pasta dishes, to fun cocktails (and even hangover cures), you’ll find everything you need to build confidence in the kitchen.
115 ultra-tasty and fresh recipes all using just 6 ingredients.
Fuss-free lunches and dinners, easy desserts, and crowd-pleasing feasts.
Simple, easy dishes for levelling up your weeknight cooking.
Mob 6
Whether you’re looking to impress with a grown-up dinner party or just need to feed yourself through an essay crisis, these easy (and genius) six-ingredient recipes developed by Mob have got you covered.
Easy, flavour-packed recipes to take the stress out of meal times.
Feed your family and friends for just £1.25 per portion!
From soups and salads to one-pot wonders and weeknight winners.
Beat The Budget
Mimi Harrison started Beat the Budget after growing tired of cheap yet unhealthy food options when she was at university, so the recipes in this book (all of which come in at under £1.25 per portion) surefire solutions to any student’s cooking and budgeting woes.
Discover Mimi’s top tips for cooking on a budget.
Simple, delicious meals for one, made in a single pot, pan or tray
Minimise food waste and keep costs down with recipes designed to be cooked in a single portion
Discover plenty of dinner ideas alongside irresistible desserts for one
One Pot, One Portion
If you’d rather not eat your way through the same batch-cooked meal for a week, or rely on your flatmates to help with dinner every evening, Eleanor Wilkinson is here to help with her clever one-pot meals for one . From hearty breakfasts to nourishing dinners and satisfying bakes, the recipes in this book are inventive and feature tips on which recipe you can make next to use any leftover fresh produce.
The perfect companion for any student learning to cook
Quick meals for dining solo or sharing with friends
Genius tips for cooking on a budget
Student Eats
Straight from the pen (and kitchen) of food writer and self-taught cook, Rachel Phipps, this is the ultimate guide to quick and easy meals that also happen to be healthy and good for the brain. They respect a student budget too – Rachel herself recently graduated from the University of London, so she understands the importance of thrift.
75 fast and simple one dish recipes to revolutionise the way you cook
Leave the hard work to the oven with minimal prep and less washing up
From fast dinners to simple desserts
The Quick Roasting Tin
We could have recommended any of the books from Rukmini Iyer’s Roasting Tin series ; their focus on flavour and their chuck-it-all-in approach make them ideal for students and novice cooks. But, with its focus on speed, The Quick Roasting Tin is our top pick.
A Girl Called Jack
A Girl Called Jack is all about shopping smart, reducing food waste, and creating nourishing and exciting food on a very tight budget. Expect the likes of vegetable masala for 30p per portion and nostalgic jam sponge for 23p per portion.
Tasty recipes to cook using store cupboard staples and cornershop bits.
With quick midweek meals, effortless dishes for entertaining friends, and inventive desserts.
The perfect book for time-pressed cooks and thrifty food lovers.
The Cornershop Cookbook
If the location of halls is painfully far from the nearest supermarket, this cookbook will be a saviour. It’s crammed with quick, flavoursome dinners and snacks, all made using ingredients that can be picked up at most corner shops. It will also come in handy for those bed-ridden with the dreaded fresher’s flu.
It only takes 5 ingredients and less than 30 minutes
All the recipes from the TV series
Simple, step-by-step recipes
5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food
Jamie Oliver ‘s clever and practical cookbook, 5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food , suits the student lifestyle and budget perfectly. Each using only five ingredients, these recipes will not only save you from having to head to the supermarket with a lengthy (and costly) shopping list, but they also happen to be accessible and easy to follow for new cooks. With many of them taking less than 15 minutes to make, 5 Ingredients will save you time too, which you can of course spend studying instead . . . Alright, partying then.
Do Yourself a Flavour
From puff pastry pizzas to quick and easy veg curries, and even a selection of hangover-friendly dishes, the 75 recipes in this cookbook penned by food writer Fliss Freeborn will have you winning over even the most passive-aggressive flatmates.
Good Food: Easy Student Dinners: Triple-tested Recipes
A must-have for any new student. This Good Food guide covers everything from Brainy Breakfasts to Express Dinners, and whilst it’s loaded with dishes for one, it also features a chapter of hearty Food for Friends that won’t break the bank.
Delia’s Complete Cookery Course
The classic. The manifesto. The book that every aspiring cook, every student, every person should have to hand. Delia’s Complete Cookery Course is exactly what the title suggests, covering everything from how to boil an egg to how to make your own taramasalata. Grab this 30th anniversary edition and embark on a lifetime of culinary enjoyment.
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