The Working Lunch #19
Couscous, feta & mint salad; Quorn lettuce tacos; cheesy polenta chips; and Brie & red onion chutney toastie. Your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love.
Good morning!
How are you? What are you having for lunch today? I’d love to know what you’ve got planned. Find me on Twitter or tag me on Instagram (@the.working.lunch) to let me know.
I’m heading out for a pre-lunch run, well more of a jog, then I’m tucking into a…(nearly let slip there. It’s not like it’s a big secret, but it’ll be in next week’s issue).
It’s important to take a break. Get some fresh air. Break up the day.
We know we need a break, but it can be hard to take a proper one. You deserve it though. And your afternoon at work will be all the better for it.
Make ahead…
Feta & mint couscous salad
This salad is so easy and just lovely, light and fresh.
Make it ahead of time, either in the morning or the night before, and, depending on how much you make, it’ll feed a few people — at home or in pack-ups — over a couple of days.
Prepare the couscous according to the packet instructions. Then leave it to cool.
Once it’s cool, fluff it up with a fork and season well with freshly ground black pepper, salt flakes, lemon juice and a little oil.
Add in crumbled feta cheese, chopped up cucumber, black olives and fresh mint.
Simple swaps: add in spring onions for a bit more punch. Change the couscous for bulgar wheat or quinoa.
Rustle up…
Quick Quorn lettuce “tacos”
This is a cheat’s bowl of chilli using frozen Quorn mince and tinned taco beans, served with gem lettuce to scoop it up instead of tacos.
The tinned taco beans already have the smokey sweetness and a little heat, so very little work is needed on the flavour front. And using frozen mince means you can make a small amount — a perfect portion for lunch.
I’ve cooked off some onion first before adding the mince and beans, along with a touch of paprika, cumin and a splash of trusty Cholula sauce. Maybe a little water depending on how much sauce is on the beans.
Fresh coriander is thrown in at the last minute. Grated cheese and a squeeze of fresh lime to serve.
Simple swaps: this would be a great one to do with leftover vegetable or bean chilli or chilli con carne.
Cook while you work…
Cheesy polenta chips with hot tomato sauce
This is a bit of a lovechild of leftovers from earlier in the week. I made aubergine parmigiana and polenta chips one night, so I kept back some of the tomato sauce and some of the cooled polenta with a later lunch in mind.
Polenta is pretty quick to make but does need to be prepared earlier, so it has time to cool. To the mix, I’ve added in dried mixed Italian herbs to flavour the wet polenta. Once it’s set, you just cut it into chip-size pieces in advance so it’s ready to oven bake.
Add on finely chopped rosemary and sea salt before baking (for roughly 30 mins at 210c), and some grated cheese for the last few minutes. The portion of leftover sauce warms through in the oven at the same time.
Simple swaps: use a shop-bought marinara sauce as a dip. Or buy pre-prepared polenta that can be cut into pieces and shallow fried if you don’t want to put the oven on.
Just a sandwich…
Brie & caramelised red onion chutney toastie
Somerset Brie and caramelised red onion chutney on bakery white sliced bread, simply toasted in a dry non-stick pan. Look at that melty cheese!
Brie makes a great toastie as it melts so quickly. But it’s best to find a brie that’s on the riper side or the flavour can get a bit lost against the sweetness of the chutney.
Why only four meals?
I know most people work 5 days a week, I do too. It’s nice to wing it one day a week—go to the market, meet up with a friend at a local coffee shop, use up some leftovers…
See you next week, lunch buddies.
Omg, how do you manage to take such good pictures of leftover meals? :D