The Working Lunch #15
Your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love. This week: houmous bowl; pork gyoza; Bombay bubble & squeak; and a cheese toastie
Morning,
I’m going to keep the intro short this week, so as not to intrude too much on your hopefully restful or funfilled Easter Monday.
And I don’t want my coffee and hot cross bun to get cold.
See you next week.
Rustle up…
Houmous bowls
There’s not a week that goes by where there’s not a tub of houmous at some point in my fridge. It used to be there just as a dip. Now it makes its way into and alongside all kinds of dishes — I particularly love it in a sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes.
This bowl rings the changes. And in just a few minutes of chopping, while the pita is toasting, lunch is ready.
To assemble, too much houmous, grated carrot, and a fridge raid to see what else to add - radishes, olives, artichokes, sprouting lentils and some toasted black sesame seeds. Arm yourself with a fork and some toasted pita to dip and scoop.
It’s lovely and fresh and crunchy. I felt very virtuous last Monday lunchtime tucking into this. Pushing the houmous round with the pita brought it all together into a creamy, crunchy bowlful.
Simple swaps: I think most salad vegetables and antipasti would work well together in this — sun-dried tomatoes, cucumber ribbons, shredded cabbage…
Get ahead: Prepare the salad ingredients in the morning or the night before, keeping them covered in the fridge until you’re ready for your lunch break. Then all you need to do is toast a pita.
Make ahead…
Gyoza
If you can get gyoza/dumpling wrappers, then making gyoza is a nice little task to get stuck into.
For these, I’ve used leftover slow-roast pork chopped up finely and mixed with some spring onions, grated fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce and some hoisin sauce.
Making them the night before and keeping them in the fridge meant that lunch was only 8 minutes of cooking, mixing some soy sauce, mirin and chilli to make a dipping sauce, and boiling a kettle to make the miso soup.
Simple swaps: Homemade gyoza are a fraction of the cost of shopbought ones, especially if you’re making a batch of them, and you can use all kinds of fillings — mushrooms, or carrot, cabbage and spring onion, or prawns, or use pork or Quorn mince, or use up roast meats such as duck, chicken or pork. The frozen ones from Itsu are good too if making your own feels a bit too much faff.
Love your leftovers…
Bombay bubble & squeak
I make no apologies for the number of leftovers being upcycled into lunches in TWL. I think it’s a very practical way of feeding yourself as it not only reduces the overall cooking effort, but it reduces the potential for food waste. It’s not just leftovers either, it could be cooking extra with the intention of using it in tumble-down meals over the next few days. There are certain flavours that are even better the next day. Leftover curry is one of them. So when we had surplus saag aloo that went with last night’s paneer masala, a Bombay bubble & squeak seemed a great idea.
To make, take the cold saag aloo and heat it up in a non-stick pan with a little oil. As it starts to warm through, gently crush the potatoes with the back of a wooden spoon.
When it starts to caramelise on one side of the potatoes, turn them over for even distribution of crispy bits.
Once it’s completely hot, put it on a plate. Then wilt some more spinach and fry an egg to go with it. Mango chutney is optional. I forgot to add some fresh coriander, that would be good too.
Simple swaps: It would still be great without the fried egg.
Just a sandwich…
The ultimate cheese toastie
‘The ultimate cheese toastie’ is a bold claim, I know. I’m very happy to be proved wrong, so do hit me up with your own versions. It’s an ongoing quest, but this is where I’m at with it right now.
2 slices of white bread
Mature cheddar cheese, grated (this is for taste)
Mozzarella, fresh or grated (this is for melty stringiness)
Branston Smooth Pickle
Butter
Flaky sea salt
To make, take the two slices of white bread.
For the filling, spread a generous layer of Branston on one slice and top that with grated cheddar (keep some grated cheese back) and some mozzarella. If you’re using fresh mozzarella, drain it well on kitchen paper first so it’s not going to make your sandwich soggy. Add the second slice of bread.
Next, butter the outside sides of the bread and stick onto the butter some of the grated cheddar and sprinkle on some flaky salt.
Then, fry the sandwich on a medium heat in a non-stick pan. Once it’s golden on one side, turn it over and repeat until the cheese on the outside has melted and crisped up and the cheese on the inside is fully melted.
Why only four meals?
I know, most people work five days. I do too. But actually not this week….
See you next week, lunch buddies.