Soul-warming one-pot dishes + 3 super restaurants for times when you don’t feel like cooking

It’s even better when you get together with friends or family to cook, and it’s an extra bonus if you can use just one pot to put delicious food on your plate. Here are 2 dish tips that are lightning quick to prepare and require hardly any washing up afterwards, leaving time for what really matters: connecting with loved ones. For those days when our cooking index is low, here are two great restaurants and a pastry shop where all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the delicious creations on your plate.

Isn’t it convenient to elegantly arrange the ingredients on a baking tray or baking dish, pop it in the oven and take out the crispy one-pot dish after a scant hour? Yes, it will look like you have been working with it for hours, and if you use the baking paper meticulously, you can even give the dish sponge a rest.

The rapid recipe is as follows: Wash and cut the potatoes into larger cubes. Peeling is unnecessary, the crispy crust will provide plenty of flavour later. Feel free to add other vegetables such as carrots, turnips, even cabbage. If you want a really juicy finish, up the ante with a few cloves of garlic and some apples, then top the vegetables with the upper or lower chicken drumsticks. A generous drizzle of some kind of fat or oil can do the trick, some salt, pepper and herbs can go on top, or a more generous splash of water can be added to the pan. Then it’s off to the oven at 180-200 degrees, from where you can conjure up a perfectly cooked, complete dinner in about 40-50 minutes. After only 10-15 minutes, the smell of baking delicacies will tell you that you are in for a feast!

Even in the winter, the region of Őrség is stunning. After a full day of wandering – especially if you are lucky enough to have the freshly fallen snow to provide the crunch – you could do with a few special snacks; something you don’t have to prepare.  When visiting Őriszentpéter (or its surroundings), the restaurant Pajta is a must, where seasonal ingredients are used to prepare the delicacies typical of the region. If you are looking for a real gastronomic adventure, the degustation menu is also worth a try!

Italian pasta dishes are hard to resist, but easy to make. Take the desired amount of ingredients – yes, the dry pasta, too! – and put it in a large saucepan or deeper pan. Then simply throw in the diced or sliced vegetables, chopped onion, a few cloves of garlic, the spices and, if you are making the tomato version, the pureed tomatoes / canned tomatoes. Pour in as much water (you can also add some white wine) as covers it and keep it on the fire for 5-7 minutes after boiling, covered of course. As the starch leaches out of the pasta, the result is a special creamy and indulgent treat.

While it’s nothing unusual to bake a pizza at home, every now and then you should leave it in the hands of a professional. Szabi the Baker, for example, makes dough so flaky that it’s heavenly just to look at. At the Szentendre unit of Panificio il Basilico, you can immerse yourself in the flavours of pizza packed with the best local and Italian ingredients, next to a babbling brook.

When the wind is blowing outside and the chills are constant, there are few pleasanter pastimes than sitting down in a patisserie, ordering a hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate and eating a cake while enjoying the warming sips. When in Szeged, the Blue Elephant Café is one of the must-see destinations.

At Hello Hungary, we are obsessed with finding the best and most atmospheric restaurants in the country. You can even search by tags on our map to make it easy to find the unit that best suits your location and taste!