The Working Lunch #33
Katsu salad, black bean empanadas and baked halloumi - it's your weekly reminder to show your lunchbreak some love.
Weekends are for resets.
I made a meal plan. Did a deep dive in the deep freeze. Did a BIG shop. Baked banana bread (thanks to the frozen bananas). Took my time over a slow-cooked ragu. Ate ragu. Ate banana bread. Went for a run. Went out for coffee and a pain aux raisins at my favourite deli…
I sometimes forget how much I’m solaced by a solitary sojourn at my stovetop. And when I slow down, the everyday is everything.
It’s easy to forget that when food becomes a task on the infinite to-do list. I don’t often see it that way, but every now and then…
I hope you find your own mindful moments in the kitchen with this week’s lunch ideas.
Summer salad…
Katsu salad
I recently had a chicken katsu salad at Wagamama. It’s completely my kind of salad. There’s heat, sweet, crunch, sour, in a beautifully balanced kokoro* bowl.
I’ve tried to recreate it, but it’s more ‘inspired by’ than a direct imitation.
Obviously, thanks to the transparency of menus, I can easily pull up a list of salad ingredients in case memory or tastebuds fail.
But what I couldn’t find was the list of ingredients for the curried salad dressing…
So here’s my version, tweaked to what I could easily find or already had, and to make it lunchtime-easy, I’ve used already breaded frozen “chicken” (an Aldi Plant Menu No-chicken Burger) rather than panéing chicken breasts with panko breadcrumbs.
For the salad:
Breaded chicken or vegetable protein equivalent, cooked.
Mixed leaves with pea shoots
Apple, sliced
Broad beans (cooked & podded), instead of edamame
Cucumber, diced
Pickled cucumber slices & sushi ginger, in place of the Japanese pickles.
Red chilli, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, a few leaves added to the salad
For the dressing:
1/2 clove garlic, finely minced
1cm piece fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy ketchup (ketjap manis)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mild curry powder, mixed with a little boiling water to make a paste
It’s better if you cook the chicken just before you make the salad so it stays crispy and the contrast of hot and cold adds to the salad. They can cook away in the oven while preparing the salad, so it’s still easily doable for a workday lunch. And how nice is it to tuck into a little kokoro bowl at home to break up the working day?
*If you need a little lunchtime reading to go with your katsu…What is kokoro? (*immediately orders ‘The Book of Tea’*)
Make ahead…
Black bean Empanadas
Ready-rolled puff pastry isn’t authentic but it does mean that these are an easy mid-week make.
For the filling:
Black beans, 1 tin drained
Spring onion, sliced
Green pepper, diced
Garlic, minced
Fresh Coriander, roughly chopped
Fresh chilli
Paprika, chilli, cumin, salt and pepper
Bbq sauce, approx 2 tbsp
Grated cheese, optional
To make:
Cook off the onions, garlic, and pepper. Then add the herbs and spices, before adding the beans and bbq sauce.
Allow the filling to cool.
Roll the puff pastry sheet out to make it a bit bigger. You’ll lose some of the laminations, so the pastry won’t be as ‘puffy’ when it bakes, but that’s fine for these.
Cut into circles. A saucer-size plate worked for me, fitting 6 from my sheet, with one made from the scrappy bits of pastry rerolled.
Add a couple of spoonfuls of bean mixture to the centre of each disc. Sprinkle in the grated cheese, if using. Brush the edges with a bit of water and crimp with a fork to seal.
Spray or brush the tops lightly with vegetable oil.
Bake for roughly 30 mins at 190c
Make and cook them the night before. Turn them into a wire rack to cool.
Once they’re cold, pop them in a plastic tub in the fridge.
When you’re famished and in need of a break, you can grab them from the fridge for an instant lunch (or snack). Serve hot or cold with some sweetcorn relish on the side.
A little note about any leftovers… I made too much filling as I used 2 tins of black beans. I fried it off to heat it back up, and served it with a fried egg and fresh ripe avocado and tomato. It would also be great as a quesadilla filling.
Cook while you work…
Baked halloumi & apricots
I saw this on Georgina Hayden’s Instagram and thought it would be a fab idea for a summery cook-while-you-work lunch. I haven’t done a cook-while-you work idea for while — on account of the heatwave — but this is delicious, so completely worth it.
I allowed 1/2 pack of halloumi per person, scored (or hedge-hogged). A few apricots halved. Some sprigs of fresh thyme. A spritz of olive oil spray.
Bake it in the oven for roughly 30 mins at 185c, until it’s golden on top.
Drizzle with some runny honey, serve with peppery salad and tuck in.
From the archives…
Just a sandwich…Black bean quesadilla
Quick and easy is what you want for lunch when you’re working from home. This version of a Mexican street food classic is just that. And the wonderful thing about quesadillas is that you can mix them up with whatever fillings take your fancy…
If you’re not feeling the lunchtime love with this week’s selection, don’t forget that you can tuck into the archives at any time.
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. I made re-fried black bean huevos rancheros (to use up the empanada filling) and a pizza toastie on the other days this week - thanks for asking!
See you next week, lunch buddies.