When I’m trying to decide what to make for my work lunches there are a few criteria that the food has to meet. It needs to be easily transportable, not go bad/strange after a couple of days and be healthy and filling. I realised I hadn’t done anything Japanese inspired for lunch for a while, so decided to have a play with soba noodles as they are hearty and delicious and make for a great hot or cold dish. This turned out really tasty – even if the purple carrots stained the noodles!
Mandarins have always been one of my favourite fruits – they make such a perfect snack and for that reason were always around when I was growing up. A fresh, sweet mandarin feels like something that should be around in summer rather than winter, but I’m definitely not complaining! Fruit and vegetables that are in season in winter usually call for hearty, warming meals but there’s something about citrus fruits that still feel appropriate in light, fresh meals like this salad. Luckily due to the fact I picked up a big bag of mandarins while we were down on the Bass Coast I could use them in a salad and still have plenty left to snack on!
At the moment it seems to be a tie between soups and salads as to what I’m enjoying cooking the most. I love the seemingly endless variety with both of them, with the added bonus that I can whip up a big batch that will see me through most of the working week for lunches. This salad came about after wanting to roast some cauliflower and the combination of cumin-coated cauliflower with a tahini-lemon dressing seemed too good not to try! Luckily, it turned out as delicious as I hoped and proved to be a hearty salad to get me through the afternoon at work.
Even though winter has well and truly arrived in Melbourne I can’t seem to stop making up big batches of salad to take to work for my lunch. It’s possibly because the wait for the microwave is often rather long, but also just that I really do love salads! I love how they can be as simple or elaborate as you like, and the seemingly endless combination of dressings means that there’s no need to repeat flavours very often. It’s a nice way to also use winter vegetables other than just in roasts and soups, which is how they seem to be ending up for dinner! Anyway, enough rambling, on to today’s salad!
Even though the weather has cooled down I’m still making up big salads for my work lunches as I find them super satisfying no matter what. Plus, it helps me pretend it’s slightly warmer than it really is! This salad was created because I knew I wanted to make a quinoa salad but I didn’t know what I wanted to put with it, so in the end I went with a rainbow assortment of vegetables, lots of herbs and a simple dressing of lemon juice. It turned out SO delicious and all the colour made me happy every time I ate it. Can’t ask for more than that from your lunch really!