There are always those day where you just wish cooking a meal was faster. The days you impatiently wait for a pot of water to boil, for a saucepan to heat up, and feel tempted to buy instant noodles or frozen meals.
Then there are the days you barely have time to feed yourself, and suddenly remember that you have someone coming over. Fear not, your microwave just might be able to save you.
The Spoon community has got your back. No time to even decide on a good microwave recipe that seems like it’ll work? We’ve tried out some of the best microwave recipes on Spoon University and collated them all here. A complete list with options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and snacks.
My photographer and I even tried these recipes on some of our own friends. They won’t even know that it was all made within 30 minutes prior to them arriving, in a microwave.
Breakfast
1. Eggs
Reduce some dishes and cook your eggs in the microwave. Scramble, poach, or even fry an egg in your microwave. Or get creative (yet still so easy) with a fancy omelette. If you’re not into eggs, you can always opt for microwaved oatmeal or granola too.
We tried poached eggs and it tasted no different to an egg that was made in a pot on the stove. Maybe you’ll want to impress yourself or someone with an Eggs Benedict sometime soon.
2. French toast
When we saw a 2-minute microwave french toast recipe on Spoon, we knew we had to try it. It came out looking as great as the photo on the recipe, and was also another recipe people couldn’t tell it was microwaved.
Lunch/Dinner
1. Pasta
Cook and serve a pasta dish in a microwaveable mug. Once again, it’s great to be able to eat straight out of what you cooked it in. We tried making cheesy spaghetti in a mug and our friends couldn’t even tell it was a microwaved pasta dish. As easy as instant macaroni and cheese, but doesn’t look like it at all.
Microwaveable lunch dishes such as pastas are great for making specific serving sizes.
2. Cooked Vegetable
Cooking veggies in the microwave is a huge timesaver and a great dish to add to all your meals. We tried cooking carrots in the microwave and were definitely impressed. With foolproof steps on Spoon, it was a very quick process and definitely didn’t vary in taste from if we didn’t use the microwave to cook it.
Dessert
1. Mug Cakes/Cakes
In 5 minutes or less, you can make a variety of mug cakes. The internet and Spoon are abundant in mug cake recipes.
We tried a chocolate cake that was as easy as a mug cake that’s been taken out of it’s mug. If you want to get away from the mainstream mug cakes that, by now many would know are microwaved, we definitely recommend this.
Overall, these recipes are only a small portion of all the great microwave recipes that are still out there in Spoon University. We would say it’s hard to tell whether or not most foods were cooked in the microwave, unlike if it was reheated in the microwave. So don’t be afraid to use the microwave to cook on those busy days.