The Working Lunch #17
Black bean quesadilla; harissa roasted squash; purple asparagus with poached egg on toast; and twice baked potato. It’s your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love.
Another brief intro from me this week as it’s a bank holiday here in the UK.
No one wants to talk about work on a bank holiday, so no need to talk about what you might be having for lunch when you take a break from work — so don’t even read this today!
Save it for later in the week, around 11 o’clock on Wednesday, might be good.
And I’ll save you some reading now, skip straight past the second one.
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, or you’ve got in.
Here, I’ve made a filling using tinned black beans, sweetcorn, red onion, chilli, some ready-made BBQ sauce for a sweet smokey flavour, coriander and, of course, lots of grated cheese. Well, in my case, a moderate amount of cheese. It turns out that when you get well into your 40s, you can’t just carry on eating all the cheese.
Make one large quesadilla using two wraps or a smaller one, by folding a wrap in half over the filling. Toast them in a dry frying pan until the cheese melts and the beans are hot.
Get ahead: Make up the filling in the morning and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to make lunch.
Simple swaps: Anything goes. Tortilla wraps + cheese with anything else and a good hit of chilli.
Make ahead…
Harissa roasted butternut squash
*Don’t make this dish* Don’t even read it, please move swiftly on to the next. Thank you.
This dish had such promise. I got organised and roasted the squash the night before. Then would assemble the salad using pre-cooked packet quinoa.
The reality, I felt really pushed for time and threw it together — too much ferocious red onion, not enough of a dressing, and the quinoa served cold was like eating cat litter. And the squash, despite a generous dusting of harissa spice mix, couldn’t compete with the outrageous onion and was too difficult to eat in a salad as I’d been too lazy to peel it before it went in the oven. 🤦♀️
I might revisit the idea. Do it as a warm salad. Take time to cut the butternut up. Hold the onion. Go heavy on the olive oil, lemon, coriander and mint. Add on some toasted seeds. I reckon it could work.
Something on toast…
Asparagus with poached egg & bacon on toast
You can’t see it now they’re cooked, but these beautiful little spears are purple asparagus. They tasted amazing!
So simple, but such a treat as they’re in season. I got this Kent asparagus from a local farm shop in Pluckley (reputedly the most haunted village in England).
To make it, I’ve just griddled the asparagus in a frying pan, along with the bacon.
Cooked a runny poached egg to go with it on some good white bread toast. Freshly ground black pepper to finish.
Simple swaps: This is still really good without bacon. The asparagus is the star!
Cook while you work…
Twice-baked potatoes with cream cheese, chives and bacon
Three small baked potatoes cooked extra from something else, revived, loaded-skins style.
To make, halve the cold baked potatoes and scoop out most of the potato.
Mash with cream cheese, snipped fresh chives, chopped cooked smoked bacon, and black pepper.
Load the potato mix back into the potato shells and top with a little grated cheese.
Bake in the oven for around 30 mins at 190, or until they’re cooked and hot.
Simple swaps: Sour cream would be good. Add more/different cheese. Ham or chorizo instead of bacon.
Why only four meals?
I know, most people work five days. I do too. Not this week….happy bank holiday.
See you next week, lunch buddies.
I’m totally gonna veganise the twice baked potato recipe! Looks so good 😍