Dinner From the Microwave Alone

The microwave gets treated as a reheating appliance. It also cooks. On days when the stove is one step too many — standing, stirring, watching, and then a pan to scrub — a microwave dinner is a real dinner, not a lesser version of one.

This is for anyone whose cooking is limited by energy, by the equipment in the flat, or by a share kitchen where the stove is occupied, loud, or somebody else's problem tonight.

Why the microwave is the cheaper option

Cheaper in effort, not only in money:

• You don't have to stand there. You can sit down while it runs.
• Nothing burns while you're distracted. The worst case is that food goes cold.
• One bowl in, one bowl out. Washing up is a single item.
• No spitting oil, no smoke alarm, far less smell in the room afterwards.
• It stops on its own and beeps, which does the remembering for you.

The shape of a microwave dinner

Three parts, assembled in the bowl you'll eat from: a base, a protein, and something soft and green. Pick one from each list and stop there. You don't need a recipe, and you don't need all three on a hard night.

Bases

• Microwave rice pouch — 90 seconds, around $1.50 for the supermarket own-brand.
• Pasta — in a deep bowl, covered with about 3cm of water, 10 to 12 minutes. It works. It won't be restaurant pasta.
• Instant noodles — the block, the water, four minutes, covered.
• A potato or sweet potato — pricked several times, 6 to 9 minutes depending on size.

Proteins

• Egg — beaten in the bowl with a splash of water, 45 to 60 seconds, stirred halfway.
• Tinned tuna, salmon, chickpeas or lentils — no cooking at all, stirred through the hot base.
• Frozen edamame or peas, which double as the green thing.
• Pre-cooked chicken or tofu from the fridge, warmed for a minute.

Something soft and green

• Frozen spinach, peas or mixed veg — 2 minutes with a splash of water.
• Baby spinach stirred into the hot base, which wilts it without a second round in the microwave.

Three combinations, no decisions required

• Rice pouch, tinned tuna, frozen peas, a squeeze of lemon.
• Potato, tinned baked beans, grated cheese.
• Noodles, an egg stirred through, frozen spinach, a splash of soy.

If one of those works, it can be the only one you ever make. Repeating a meal is a strategy, not a shortfall.

Small things that make it better

• Use a deep bowl rather than a flat plate. Less boils over, less to wipe up.
• Cover it with a plate. Food heats more evenly and the inside stays clean.
• Stir once halfway through. This is the single biggest difference between edible and unpleasant.
• Add salt, acid or sauce at the end — lemon, soy, chilli crisp, mayonnaise, pesto. Microwaved food tends to taste flat until something sharp goes in.

Two safety notes, kept short

• Never microwave an egg in its shell, and pierce a whole yolk before heating it. Both can burst.
• Cooked rice should go into the fridge soon after cooking and be reheated only once. This is the one rule worth keeping in mind.

If tonight is a two-minute night

Frozen peas in a bowl, two minutes, a knob of butter and salt. Eaten standing up, with a spoon. That is food, and on some nights it is the correct amount of effort.

The appliance you'll actually use beats the method you're supposed to use.

Less deciding, more eating.

Related reading: "Cold, No-Cook Dinners That Still Feel Like a Meal".