Cooking in Communal Kitchens: Cheap, Yummy Hostel Dinners

When I arrived in New Zealand, I opened up Pinterest and searched for Hostel Meals, Hostel Dinners, Hostel Cooking… Basically a bunch of combos of hostel + food. And I found 1 article that advised me to grocery shop instead of eat out and to buy my own oil and salt and pepper because a lot of hostels didn’t supply them. Good advise (that I used) but no tips on cooking in chaotic kitchens. No tips on quick, yummy meals. There are, of course, a million results if you search for quick, one-pot meals on the internet. But there was nothing catering specifically to backpackers and hostel cooking.

My observations of the people around me led me to understand that it’s basically like college cooking: ramen, pesto pasta, frozen pizzas, and microwave meals. But I didn’t just want cheap and easy. The most important factor is yummy!

I don’t have everything figured out (not by a long shot), but I thought I’d put this out there in case someone like me comes along and wants a starting place on cooking in chaotic, shared kitchens. After six months these are my go-to hostel dinners. Some take a little bit more time. Some require two pans instead of one. But all are simple, cheap, yummy, and have lots of veggies!