Nara Smith brings homemade comfort to college students
Nara Smith serves up home-cooked comfort
Check out these four student-friendly recipes from our Tik Tok mother and cooking muse.
Nara Smith just turned 23, and as a 21-year-old college student who lives off the Trader Joe’s frozen section — which I’m sure many of you can relate to — my jaw dropped when she revealed this fact in her recent TikTok. As a mother of three, supermodel, and internet-famous amateur chef, living the Smith lifestyle can seem wildly unattainable — especially when she pops up on your For You page making cereal from scratch as you procrastinate that 80-page reading due tomorrow.
Regardless of all the ways Smith’s life feels impossible to replicate, we can’t stop trying to recreate her recipes. Perhaps it’s because we think cultivating her passion for cooking will win us our own Lucky Blue, or maybe we want to see if cooking from scratch is really as simple as she makes it seem in her videos (it’s not). But what appears to be the main reason for our obsession with recreating her home-cooked meals is the flex-factor of saying you’ve made something from scratch, like mozzarella, because who has citric acid just lying around?
Though we’ve had fun trying to replicate Smith’s craziest recipes from the safety of our parents’ kitchen this past summer, now is the time we’re beginning to crave those home-cooked meals.
As we college students settle into our new apartments and houses, I’m sure that oven has been calling your name. Maybe because the failed cooking attempts of students past are stuck to the bottom of that stove, or perhaps it’s your desire to try all those new TikTok recipes consuming your For You page. We’ll go with the latter. So now that we’re all getting excited about the stoves and ovens we’ve definitely burned ourselves on already, who better to look towards than Smith, our lifestyle guru and favorite internet chef?
Check out these four college-friendly recipes from our TikTok mother and cooking muse.
As I’ve learned, Smith isn’t too fond of measurements — but who needs those when you’re naturally skilled in the culinary arts? And since we’re working to channel our inner Smith today, let’s take the following measurements with a grain of salt, OK? OK.
Nara’s Homemade Pistachio Cranberry Granola
@naraazizasmith sweet or savory? #easyrecipes #homecooking #fypツ #breakfast #brunch
Smith’s biggest morning dilemma seems to be whether to choose sweet or savory breakfast nutrition. Today, we’ll make it easy for all of us and go the sweet route, as her granola recipe is significantly more college-friendly than activating yeast for homemade bagels.
What you’ll need:
- 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- A handful of pistachios
- A handful of dried cranberries (Crasin’s are ideal)
- A pinch of flaky sea salt
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat that south campus oven to 325 degrees.
Step 2: Throw all your ingredients into a large bowl, EXCEPT your cranberries, and mix!
Step 3: Place your mixture onto a flat baking sheet (don’t forget that parchment paper!) and flatten with a spatula (or virtually anything with a flat surface).
Step 4: Bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes.
Step 5: Sprinkle dried cranberries on your granola and let cool.
Step 6: Break up that homemade granola and enjoy!
Nara’s Homemade Pasta Sauce
@naraazizasmith yes I ended up having it for dinner… again🤤 #easyrecipe #pasta #tomatopasta #simplerecipe #pomodoro
Pasta is the easiest “home-cooked” meal for college students, but in the name of Mother Smith, this time, we will ditch the Rao’s can and venture into the produce section for an easy, breezy pasta that you can call homemade.
What you’ll need:
- 1 whole red onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 large tomatoes
Directions:
Step 1: Peel and dice your red onion as finely as possible. (It’s OK if it looks different from Smith’s.)
Step 2: Peel and thinly slice your clove of garlic.
Step 3: Grate your tomatoes.
Step 4: Add a generous amount of oil to a nonstick pan and sauté (I promise it’s easier than it sounds) your onion and garlic. (For some added flavor, throw in a tablespoon of Calabrian chili paste) Pour in your grated tomatoes; season with grated sea salt
Step 5: Add your favorite pasta to the sauce a minute or two before it’s reached al-dente. (4 or 5 minutes boiling time)
Nara’s Balsamic Tomato Salad
@naraazizasmith What’s your favorite sandwich? @Liquid I.V. #livfest #liquidivpartner #easyrecipe #homecooking #sandwich #fypツ
Listen, I get it; it’s hard to get in those fresh leafy greens when you’re away from home. We’re so worried about our next assignment that ensuring the prepackaged salad in the back of your fridge isn’t expired rarely crosses our minds. But as the saying goes, food is fuel, and you don’t want to run off of instant mac and cheese alone. This balsamic tomato salad has been modified from her focaccia sandwich recipe, but who says we can’t get a little creative in the name of convenience?
What you’ll need:
- 1 pack of cherry tomatoes
- Balsamic glaze
- Feta cheese
- Olive oil
Directions:
Step 1: Wash and slice your tomatoes into quarters; massage in olive oil.
Step 2: Place your tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle in your feta cheese.
Step 3: Drizzle with balsamic glaze and enjoy!
Nara’s Midnight Sweet Treat
@naraazizasmith It was past midnight so we kept it verryy mindful and very considerate #snacks #latenightsnack #fypツ #treat #strawberry #dessert
This recipe, reminiscent of the casual strawberries and cream snack we all know and love, feels like a mix between Amy’s hwachae and the comfort food we all know and love; strawberries and whipped cream. But in the spirit of going the extra mile like Mrs. Smith, ditch the whipped canned goodness and make your own sweetened milk to pair with this juicy treat.
What you’ll need:
- Strawberries
- Milk
- Sugar
Directions:
Step 1: Slice your strawberries into bite-size pieces and place them into your favorite bowl.
Step 2: Pour over your milk of choice. (Smith recommends whole milk.)
Step 3: Sprinkle white sugar over your strawberries and milk to your heart’s content!