Lunch

Every lunch entry in the Typed recipes library. Each one is a full page: what it does, stage by stage, and what the evidence says.

• Beef Burrito BowlEverything from a burrito, in a bowl, without the tortilla falling apart in your hands.
• Beef PhoThe broth is the entire dish. Everything else is something you drop into it at the last second.
• Beetroot & Goat Cheese SaladSweet roasted beetroot against sharp cheese — that contrast is the entire recipe.
• BibimbapFive vegetables cooked separately and arranged in wedges, then destroyed with a spoon the moment it hits the table.
• Black Bean QuesadillaCrisp on the outside, molten in the middle, and on the table in ten minutes.
• Black Bean Rice BowlA vegetarian bowl with enough protein that you won’t notice there’s no meat.
• BLT on SourdoughThree ingredients, so all three have to be good.
• BorschtThe colour alone justifies making it, and the vinegar at the end is what stops it tasting like soil.
• Caprese Pasta SaladTomato, mozzarella and basil, stretched into lunch with a handful of pasta.
• Chicken & Avocado WrapBuilt from last night’s roast chicken, in the time it takes the kettle to boil.
• Chicken Caesar SaladThe salad that is only a salad by reputation — and better for knowing that going in.
• Chicken Noodle SoupThe one everyone reaches for when the household starts sniffing.
• Chicken Shawarma BowlThe spice rub does all the work, and it is better if you make it the night before.
• Cobb SaladInvented at a Hollywood restaurant at midnight out of leftovers, and it shows in the best way.
• Coconut Laksa Noodle SoupThe richest bowl in the library, and the one most worth the calories it costs.
• Curried Chickpea SaladThe texture of a tuna sandwich filling, built entirely from a tin of chickpeas.
• Egg Salad SandwichBoiled eggs, chopped rather than mashed, so it still has texture.
• Farro & Tomato SaladChewy whole grains, ripe tomato, and enough feta to make it a meal rather than a side.
• FattoushA Levantine salad invented to use up stale bread, which is still the best reason to make it.
• Gado-GadoAn Indonesian salad of boiled vegetables under peanut sauce, which is a far better idea than boiled vegetables.
• GazpachoCold soup, which sounds like a punishment until the first genuinely hot day of the year.
• Greek SaladNo lettuce. A real Greek salad is tomato, cucumber, onion and a slab of feta on top.
• Grilled Chicken SaladA genuinely filling salad, built around real protein instead of just lettuce.
• Grilled Whiting RollA fish roll made properly: grilled rather than battered, which turns a takeaway into a decent lunch.
• HariraThe Moroccan soup eaten to break the fast in Ramadan, built to refill someone who has not eaten all day.
• Hummus & Veg PitaA pocket of bread and whatever is crunchy in the fridge, held together by hummus.
• Jacket Potato with TunaThe British office lunch. One hour of oven time, ninety seconds of assembly.
• Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw with HamKohlrabi is the vegetable nobody buys, which is a shame, because raw it is better than cabbage.
• Lemon Chicken & Rice SoupGreek avgolemono: egg and lemon whisked into hot broth, which thickens it without a drop of cream.
• Lentil & Feta SaladA tin of lentils, dressed while still at room temperature, which is when they take on flavour.
• Lentil & Walnut SaladThe lunch that survives being made on Sunday and eaten on Wednesday without complaint.
• MinestroneThe soup invented to use up whatever the week left behind.
• Miso Soup with TofuEight minutes, four ingredients, and never let it boil.
• Miso Udon with GreensA bowl of broth and thick noodles that takes twenty minutes and tastes like it took longer.
• MujadaraLentils, rice and a mountain of fried onions. Three ingredients, and one of the great cheap meals.
• Octopus & Potato SaladA Mediterranean harbour dish. The octopus needs an hour and absolutely no attention.
• OkonomiyakiA cabbage pancake, which is a much better idea than it sounds, and mostly vegetable by weight.
• PanzanellaThe other great stale-bread salad, and the one that depends entirely on the tomatoes being good.
• Pork Banh MiA French sandwich rebuilt in Vietnam, and improved beyond recognition by the pickles.
• Prawn & Avocado CocktailA 1970s starter that was always secretly a very good lunch.
• Prawn & Mango SaladSweet, sour, hot and salty in one bowl — the four notes a Thai salad is built on.
• Quinoa Chickpea SaladA make-ahead salad that actually improves after sitting in the fridge for a day.
• Quinoa TabboulehA herb salad with a little grain in it, not a grain salad with a little herb.
• RibollitaTuscan bean soup thickened with yesterday’s bread. The name means reboiled, and it is better the second time.
• Roast Cauliflower & Tahini BowlCauliflower roasted hard enough to go brown at the edges, which is the only way it is worth eating.
• Roast Pumpkin & Quinoa SaladOne tray of roast pumpkin becomes lunch for the next two days.
• Roast Pumpkin SoupRoast the pumpkin rather than boiling it, and the soup tastes like twice the ingredients.
• Roast Veg & Halloumi SaladA tray of vegetables and a pan of fried cheese, which is most of what a good lunch needs.
• Roast Veg Buddha BowlOne tray of roast vegetables, a grain, and a tahini sauce that ties the whole thing together.
• Salade NiçoiseA composed salad, which means nothing is tossed — everything is put where it goes and left there.
• Salmon & Sweet Potato BowlTwo of the site’s most-recommended foods, in one bowl.
• Salmon Sushi BowlEverything that makes a sushi roll good, without the rolling.
• Sardine & Lemon PastaA store-cupboard pasta that costs almost nothing and eats like a restaurant plate.
• Sardines on SourdoughThe cheapest omega-3 on the shelf, on toast, in under ten minutes.
• Seitan & Slaw WrapWheat protein, which sounds unappealing and behaves more like meat than anything else on the shelf.
• Simple Lentil SoupOne pot, mostly pantry staples, and it freezes well.
• Smashed Chickpea SandwichBuilt like a tuna sandwich, without the tuna, and it survives a morning in a bag better than one.
• Smoked Mackerel & Beetroot SaladOily fish against sweet beetroot and bitter leaves — a plate built on contrast.
• Smoked Mackerel Rice BowlNo cooking at all if the rice is left over, and more omega-3 than most people get in a week.
• Snapper CevicheFish cooked by acid rather than heat, which takes fifteen minutes and no equipment at all.
• Soba & Edamame BowlCold buckwheat noodles that are better on the second day than the first.
• Spanish TortillaPotato and egg, cooked slowly in far more oil than you are comfortable with, and worth every drop.
• Split Pea & Ham SoupThick enough that the spoon stands up in it, which is the traditional test and a fair one.
• Sweetcorn ChowderA thick soup that gets its body from blended potato rather than a pint of cream.
• Tempeh & Broccoli Rice BowlTempeh is fermented, which makes it both easier to digest and better tasting than tofu.
• Thai Beef SaladSteak, sliced thin across the grain, over a salad that is mostly herbs.
• Tofu Poke BowlThe poke bowl formula with tofu in the fish’s place, and no compromise on the toppings.
• Tom Yum with PrawnsHot, sour, and about 120 calories a bowl. The most flavour-per-calorie dish in the library.
• Tuna Poke BowlThe Hawaiian bowl that turned a can’t-fail combination — rice, fish, avocado — into its own genre.
• Tuna Salad SandwichA tin of tuna, treated with more respect than usual.
• Turkey & Cranberry SaladWhat to do with the leftovers, any month of the year.
• Turkey Hummus WrapA five-minute lunch that doesn’t taste like a five-minute lunch.
• Turkey LarbA Laotian minced-meat salad, eaten in lettuce cups, that is basically all protein and herbs.
• Tuscan Bean & Tuna SaladTwo tins and an onion. The best thing you can make from a cupboard in under ten minutes.
• Warm Farro & Mushroom SaladChewy grain, browned mushrooms, and enough savoury depth that nobody asks where the meat is.
• Watercress, Pear & Blue CheeseThree strong flavours that have no business working together, arranged so that they do.

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