The Working Lunch #12
Your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love. This week: cook-while-you-work calzone; quinoa & halloumi bowl; oven-baked ratatouille; and meat-free meatball subs.
Last week I was eating lunch in the garden every day. It was glorious. Not just because the sun was shining, but stepping outside for lunch created an occasion of it, a real break in the day.
Today, the view from my front window is a right pea-souper.
Where’s the sun gone?
I hope you’re finding some sunshine today and giving yourself a break in the day to make and eat a delicious lunch.
Cook while you work…
Calzone
If you get the timings right with this one, it’s minimal effort for maximum lunch. One to share.
To make it quick and easy I’ve used pre-rolled fresh pizza base dough, a jar of tomato sauce, then simply added some fresh mozzarella, a little crumble of goat’s cheese and a few basil leaves from the freezer.
Take the dough and cheese out of the fridge, and get the oven on to warm up.
Assemble the calzone by layering in the ingredients. Fold the dough and crimp the edges together.
15 mins in a hot oven.
This is the first time I’d used this type of fresh pizza dough, and it worked so well to fold into a calzone.
Rustle up…
Quinoa & courgette bowl with halloumi
Packets of pre-cooked grains really are a quick lunch saviour. Here, I’ve teamed up some pre-cooked quinoa with some fried onions, courgettes, cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley, and topped it off with some halloumi — all in one pan and one bowl in 10 minutes.
Everything is better with halloumi, but you could easily ring the changes with the principles of this one. Use different vegetables — broccoli or peppers would work well. Or bacon or chicken instead of the halloumi.
To make, slice and cook the halloumi in a little oil in a non-stick frying pan.
While that’s cooking, dice the onions and courgette, and halve a few cherry tomatoes.
Once the halloumi is cooked, put to one side.
Fry off the onion and courgette, adding a pinch of salt and loads of black pepper (can you have too much black pepper with fried courgette?)
Add in the cherry tomatoes as these need barely any cooking. Then, the quinoa. You can usually microwave these packs but I’ve added it to the pan to heat through.
Stir in freshly chopped parsley and some lemon juice to finish.
Optional salad on the side if you have any kicking around.
Simple swaps: Any grains + any veg + any protein. The possibilities are endless.
Get ahead: Wash and chop the veg in advance and keep it covered in the fridge until you’re ready to cook.
Make ahead…
Oven-roasted ratatouille
Making something the night before that can be eaten cold is such a mid-week win. I cooked this lot on Tuesday night, as I had the oven on for other things. Then ate the ratatouille cold over a few days.
You can eat it hot, so it would be a good one to cook while you work, as you can pop it in the oven for an hour. But I think the flavours are really good when it’s cold. It was really good!
This ratatouille dish is based on a recipe from Roasting Pan Vegan - Katy Beskow, just making a few adjustments based on what I had. Essentially, it’s a tomato base with herbs, with the sliced vegetables — aubergine, courgette, onions and tomatoes — arranged on top and all cooked in the oven in one pan.
Serve with some lovely bread. I’ve gone for homemade focaccia, but crusty baguette or ciabatta would be equally excellent.
Just a sandwich…
Meatball subs
This is a cheat version adapted to make it easy to fit for lunchtime by using frozen plant-based meatballs, bake-at-home baguettes and just a jar of tomato sauce (the rest of the jar from the calzone).
It takes about 25 mins all in once the oven is up to temperature, with a bit of time in between where you pop back to your desk if you need.
Oven on. Cook the meatballs from frozen (approx 18 mins). Cook the baguettes at the same time (approx 8-10 mins) (you could obviously use sub rolls — I just prefer crusty bread).
Once the meatballs are cooked, stir in the tomato sauce, return it to the oven to heat through.
Add cheese if you so desire.
Simple swaps: Use regular meatballs for the classic version.
Why only four meals?
I know, most people work five days. I do too. But it’s nice to wing it one day a week. Or get organised and make enough of one thing to eat over a few days….
See you next week, lunch buddies.
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I’m definitely going to try the meat-free meatball sub idea with the vegan meatballs sitting in my freezer !! Thanks for the idea 😀