The Working Lunch #9
Your weekly reminder to show your lunch break some love. This week: A beetroot & chilli falafel salad bowl; chorizo & manchego sandwich tostado; traybake veggie brunch; and chilli cheese toast.
If you’re new around these parts, I hope the premise (and promise) of these emails is obvious.
It’s a collection of four lunch ideas every week.
Why? Because lunch breaks are important. Sometimes we can all be a little uninspired about making the effort just for lunch and food brings people together.
I love working from home. I wouldn’t change it. That doesn’t mean I don’t miss the office lunch chat. What have you got today?
We need to take a break from work and refuel with some food. Some fresh air is good too. Are you getting out for a quick walk? Sun’s out.
We know we need a break, but it can be all too tempting to not take a proper one, grab something quick or even eat al desko while reading emails. And apparently, some people even skip lunch altogether. We’re not those people, are we?
This week there’s fresh falafel, a hands-free traybake brunch, something spicy on toast and another toasted sandwich.
Enjoy.
Rustle up…
Fresh falafel salad bowls
Making falafel from scratch is a bit of a faff for a quick lunch unless you’re organised and have made a batch at the weekend.
Using a packet falafel mix instead makes it super quick and you’ll still get that lovely freshly-cooked crispness around the edges.
I’ve used Simply Green Beetroot & Chilli falafel mix. You literally mix it with water, shape it and fry it. It takes only a few minutes. It’s so simple. They’re really good — light and crispy.
Use any bits of salad that you have. I’ve used mixed leaves, peppers, tomatoes, grated carrot, coriander and a dollop of houmous.
Simple swap: Use pre-cooked falafel instead.
Something on toast…
Chilli cheese toast
Dishoom’s Chilli Cheese Toast has been doing the rounds on Instagram. It sounded good, so I thought I’d give it a go.
I don’t have the Dishoom cookbook, but luckily the recipe is online in several places.
It’s another simple one, but it’s packed with flavour from the spring onion, cheese and chilli. The recipe uses green chilli, but I’ve used red as that’s what I had. The egg makes it that bit more substantial and rich from the lightly cooked yolk.
Technically it’s a brekkie dish, but I think it makes a great lunch.
I’m late to the party on this one. Have you tried it already?
Cook while you work…
Traybake veggie brunch
This one is one of those 'chuck it all in the oven at once and get back to work for a bit’ ones.
Using veggie/vegan sausages means it all cooks at roughly the same time or close enough that it doesn’t make too much of a difference overall if you cook them at once.
The tomatoes make the hash browns a little soggy on the bottom, but I don’t mind that. The tops are still crispy.
Hash browns, mushroom, cherry tomatoes, and two onion & rosemary sausages whacked in the oven for around 20 mins.
Simple swaps: If you’d rather use regular sausages, go for chipolatas as they’ll cook quicker.
Just a sandwich…
Chorizo & manchego sandwich tostado
Toasted sandwiches feature quite frequently on TWL. Toasting any sandwich combination just elevates it enough to make it a bit different or more interesting. It obviously adds heat to the sandwich, which is still what we need this time of year. It also adds crunch, which makes it more satisfying.
To make, layer up roasted peppers, sliced chorizo and manchego cheese into a panini roll.
Toast on each side until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melting.
I’ve added a dollop of jalapeño jam — initially for aesthetics, but it worked really well when I dunked it in!
Simple swap: I’ve cooked the pepper slices in the pan first. You could use chargrilled peppers from a jar if you’re short on time.
Get ahead: Make up the sandwich in the morning, wrap and refrigerate. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you’re ready to toast it.
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—meet up with a friend at a local coffee shop, use up some leftovers, go out for pie (it’s British Pie Week this week apparently, but any week is a good week for pie)…
See you next week, lunch buddies.
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