The making of lunch

Lunch: A three-bean bowl that's good for the soul

A little (re)introduction: If you’re new here, hi! I’m Susanne. I love food and I work from home, so I started The Working Lunch back in January 2022.

When you’re working from home, it should be easy to make a lovely lunch, but we know it can be all too tempting to grab a quick piece of toast on the fly, shovel in a bowl of cereal, or rustle up a sandwich and eat al desko while reading endless emails.

With a bit of thought and planning, there’s no reason we should have to settle for peanut butter on toast or a pot noodle again (unless you want to; they are both excellent choices!). So this is me, sharing my thoughts about food and working from home and a lunch that I’ve eaten every week. Thanks for being here too!

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I didn’t make this week’s lunch at lunchtime. It’s one that needs to be made ahead. Sometimes, lunch starts with some planning or prep or at the weekend with batch cooking. On this occasion, however, it was a search for distraction.

An unsettled afternoon when I was struggling to concentrate on work because something was niggling me. I called it a day and closed my computer slightly earlier than usual and headed to the kitchen.

When in doubt, cook.

Comforted and captivated by the soundtrack of saucepans, spoons and sizzle, held by this familiar task, my niggle wriggled its way out and I’d batch-cooked a few portions of this wholesome bean bowl in the process, ready to reheat for a quick lunch later in the week.

Make ahead

Three-bean bowl

Make some. Eat some. Freeze some.

A comforting bowl for the soul that’s even better the next day once the flavours have deepened. The parmesan rind adds a salty richness while the light tomato sauce with fresh herbs and warm, rather than hot, chilli keeps the flavours fresh.

Ingredients:

• 1 diced onion

• Stick of celery, diced

• 1 carrot, peeled and diced

• A little drizzle of oil

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• 1 tbsp tomato purée

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes + same volume cold water

• A vegetable stock cube

• 1 tsp dried rosemary (or you could use fresh)

• Parmesan rind (optional)

• 1 tin chickpeas

• 1 tin cannellini beans

• Handful of rench beans, fresh or frozen, finely diced

• Handful of fresh basil and parsley

• 1/2 tsp crushed chillies

• Salt & pepper to taste

  

To make:

In a deep-sided pan, start by cooking off the onion, celery and carrot in a little oil and taking your time to soften the vegetables without colouring them.

Add the chopped garlic. Then, add the tomato puree. Cook out for a few minutes to avoid any bitterness.

Add the chopped tomatoes and refill the can with cold water to swish around, getting all the tomato from the tin. Add that water to the pan, too.

Crumble in a stock cube and bring it up to a low boil.

Add the dried rosemary, crushed chillies, and throw in the parmesan rind*.

Turn the heat down to a simmer and add in the drained chickpeas and cannellini beans, and the French beans.

Continue to simmer until the French beans are cooked then add in the fresh basil and parsley at the end. Save some to scatter on top for maximum freshness.

Season to taste.

Remove the parmesan rind before serving.

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A note on parmesan rinds: I have a bag of these in my freezer to throw into soups, stews or risottos for extra flavour from something that might otherwise end up in the bin. I find it really handy to have a bunch of extra bits like this in the freezer, mostly from surplus being saved from the bin — frozen fresh herbs, parmesan or grana padana cheese rinds, ice cubes of double cream and dregs of white and red wine frozen into ice cubes.

Not feeling the love with this week’s lunch?

How about slow cooker baked beans, bake-ahead baked potatoes, or minestrone soup?

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P.S. Did you catch last week’s post? Have you picked somewhere new to try? Huge thanks to Brad for contributing those amazing tips.

Take yourself out to lunch