The Working Lunch #25
Greek salad, brunch quesadilla, crispy nugget wrap, and a super simple smoked mackerel pâté — it’s your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love.
Morning,
What are you having for lunch today?
Let me know what you’ve got planned. Find me on Twitter or tag me on Instagram (@the.working.lunch).
As TWL is reaching the halfway point of its first year, I’d love to know if you have any feedback on it?
Maybe you think the intro section is unnecessary?
Do the recipes, cooking and prep need more detail?
Or would you like to see a recipe key to see at a glance what’s plant-based or veggie?
If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment below or hit reply.
On to this week’s lunches….
Make ahead….
Greek salad
This is a make-ahead dish, up to a point. It couldn’t be simpler.
Chopped lettuce, cucumber, tomato, olives and red onion. Crumble in Feta or Greek salad cheese and drizzle over some dressing.
I prepped it up first thing and popped it into the fridge, keeping the dressing, cheese and onions separate.
My aversion to raw onion continues, so I did some quick-pickled red onion to scatter over the top instead.
Dressings are a good opportunity to use up any dribs and drabs. Leftover oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes? Add in some vinegar (I’ve used red wine vinegar), a few oregano leaves and a pinch of salt, and give it a shake in the jar. All the leftover flavours from the tomatoey oil add to the flavour of the dressing. A ratio of 3:1 oil to vinegar as a rough guide.
Just a sandwich….
Brunch quesadilla
Some days you just can’t wait for lunch - make it brunch.
Use a non-stick frying pan that’s large enough to fit a tortilla wrap in flat.
Start with some sliced mushrooms fried off, before pouring over the beaten egg, to form a fairly thin large mushroom omelette.
Without turning the omelette, add grated cheese when it’s nearly cooked through. Then, lay the tortilla wrap over the top.
When the omelette has stuck itself to the wrap with the melting cheese, flip the wrap over so the bread side then crisps up in the pan.
Fold it over however you choose - roll it or slice on the radius to then fold it into four. Lashing of Cholula hot sauce is optional, but not optional as far as I’m concerned.
Simple swaps: Go any way you want with this. Black beans, avocado, chopped tomato, bacon…
Cook while you work….
Crispy nugget wraps
15 minutes in the oven is not much time to carry on working, but it’s just enough time to deal with that one email you’ve been putting off all morning (do it now!). Then reward yourself with some hot nuggets, fresh salad and cool mayo, served with a little sweet chilli sauce goodness and all packaged up in a soft wrap (because the pack was already opened yesterday for the quesadilla). Serve with a few tortilla chips.
Simple swaps: I’ve used Quorn crispy nuggets, but any veggie, fish or chicken nuggets or goujons would work brilliantly. You could also cook them ahead and make these with cold fillings.
Something on toast….
Super simple mackerel pâté
I looked up a couple of actual recipes for this, but then when I realised I didn’t have enough of all the correct ingredients, I went freestyle with what I had:
200g hot smoked black pepper mackerel fillets
50g cream cheese
1tbsp mayonnaise
1tsp horseradish sauce
Lemon juice
Makes 4 servings.
Remove the skin from the fish, and flake it into a bowl.
Add the cream cheese, horseradish and mayo, then mix well with a fork.
Add lemon to taste, salt if it needs it. I used peppered smoked mackerel fillets, so I didn’t need to add black pepper.
Make it in the morning and leave it in the fridge until lunchtime. Then it’s just a case of some lovely hot buttered toast to go with.
Why only four meals?
I know, most people work 5 days a week, I do too. But it’s nice to wing it one day a week—eat a bowl of cereal, invite a friend round for lunch, have the smoked mackerel pâté two days on the bounce…
See you next week, lunch buddies