Cooking for One Person: What Should Single People Pay Attention To?

Cooking for one person is easily managed with the right supplies and purchases. Singles who only cook for themselves do not have to consider others when choosing ingredients. Nevertheless, you should make sure that you eat as varied and diverse a diet as possible. The food pyramid can help here. Experimenting and trying out is expressly permitted. With a few basic rules, cooking for one person becomes particularly uncomplicated and relaxed.

There are certain basic foods that you should always have on hand that can easily be kept for a long time. So you always have something at home, even if you didn’t have the time or inclination to go shopping. Cereals, flour, rice, pasta, semolina or couscous, lentils, beans and various preserves, for example with peeled tomatoes or legumes, belong in the pantry. Salads can be dressed with olive oil, rapeseed oil is suitable for frying. You can store different packs of frozen vegetables and fruit in the freezer. Also, an assortment of spices, salt and pepper is useful, as well as sugar, honey, vinegar and mustard.

Singles with a well-stocked pantry only need to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and bread. They are usually well equipped to cook for just one person.

Dishes that are particularly suitable for cooking for one person are individual steaks or fillets, fried or scrambled eggs or omelettes and pasta dishes. Stews and casseroles can also be prepared in larger portions and eaten the next day or frozen in portions.

Furthermore, ingredients can be divided well for different dishes. Vegetables and potatoes that you cooked as a side dish the day before can be reused the next day for a casserole, for example. Fried potatoes, rösti, potato pancakes, Schupfnudeln, or dumplings can also be prepared from pre-cooked potatoes. A grilled chicken can be eaten in one day with a side dish of vegetables and mashed potatoes, and the rest of the meat can be used for salads or wraps. A poultry ragout like in the rice noodles recipe is also an option.