Kitchen Confidential #4

"Lunch ideas — we work at home and are often needing to grab some lunch quickly between meetings or coming in from the garden."

Welcome to Kitchen Confidential! Our monthly dispatch where we answer your kitchen queries and concerns. Think of it as an Agony Aunt for cooking. If you have a question you would like answered, you can find us at hello@langbein.com. We love to hear from you!

Earlier editions include What to Make for New Parents and Low-Carb Meals for Weight Management.

Now, onto this month’s Kitchen Confidential —

“Lunch ideas — we work at home and are often needing to grab some lunch quickly between meetings or coming in from the garden. Some ideas for quick lunches and prep that can be done to make it easier to grab in a hurry would be great. We often have leftovers from dinner but sometimes isn’t enough for two.”

This one has come up a few times, so will likely be relevant for a lot of you. Whether you work from home or your workplace, lunchtime inspiration can be hard to find, and the allure of grab-and-go options makes it all the more challenging.

Lunch is a perfect opportunity for quick and affordable nourishment. Having a handful of go-to ideas up your sleeve makes it easy to fuel your day.

For both of us, lunch is often a hearty salad, eggs, something bread-related (tartines, toast, sandwiches, wraps), or soup in the winter months.

We recommend stocking up on pantry basics and long-life produce to have at hand so there’s always something ready to go. This may look like:

• canned beans and chickpeas

• jarred roasted red peppers, artichokes, capers, olives, sundried tomatoes, cornichons/pickles

• oil-packed tuna, anchovies, sardines etc.

• potatoes, onions, cabbage (they will keep for weeks and are great for those “what on earth can I possibly make” moments)

• vac-packed beets are fab as they are already cooked and ready to go

• frozen corn and peas to make quick fritters

• eggs!

We recommend prepping some poached chicken or salmon, and a couple of flavour fixings like Green Summer Sauce and Speedy Mayo to make things even quicker for you. We like having a jar of crispy croutons and some toasted seeds and nuts in the pantry ready to go for whenever we need some extra crunch.

If you’re feeling extra organised you can also cook some grains (e.g. quinoa, puy lentils, farro) and roast vegetables to make quick grain bowls for lunch, but this does require some forward thinking.

We have LOTS of ideas below — this is not to overwhelm you, but to give you options! We all have our own tastes and preferences, so hopefully there is something for everyone :)

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Sicilian Summer Salad, Vietnamese Chicken Salad, California Kale Salad

Super Salads

On the salad side of things, it’s important that it fills you up and isn’t just a bowl of lettuce. Otherwise a) it will be boring and you won’t be excited to eat it, and b) you will get hungry later on. Here are some of our favorites that we’ve been loving