More the merrier…

Welcome to part two of this three part post. In the first part, we tried to give you some quick, simple recipes for breakfast, to start your day off in the right way. If you missed that post and it’s something you fancy having a look over (there’s some really tasty ideas that you really don’t wanna miss out on), then just have a click on this link https://theurbancanteen.com/simple-breakfast-ideas and check it out. In this second part, it’s all about easy lunchtime meals.

These are dishes that are simple, don’t take 20 ingredients to make and if you usually take lunch to your job, can be done the night before and taken to work with you.

Let’s jump straight in

So in this post, we have three different dishes for you that are all very simple to knock up. So we’re going to jump right in to the recipes. If you have any questions or would like to leave any comments then feel free to do so at the bottom of this post. Or get in touch via the contact page (we always like hearing from our readers, we’re a friendly bunch at The Urban Canteen you know!).

Roasted Peppers filled with Cheddar & Spinach

This is soooooooo easy to do, the great thing with this recipe is that you can obviously change up the filling to whatever your heart desires, the possibilities really are endless. They can be served hot or cold, so can be done the night before and taken to work if needed.

Ingredients

• 1 Pepper (cut in half)
• 1 cup of Spinach
• Half a Red Onion-diced
• 1 cup of grated Cheddar
• 3-4 eggs

Method

1. Pre heat the oven at 175°c. Cut the Pepper in half straight down the middle from top to bottom and deseed.
2. Fry the Red Onion off in a little Rapeseed oil for a couple of minutes, just until the onion has softened.
3. Take off the heat, put into a bowl, add the Spinach and Cheddar and give a little mix, chuck in some Salt & Pepper.
4. Fill the two halves of Pepper with this mix, beat your eggs together and pour gently over your Peppers filling them up.
5. Place on tray and bake until the egg mixture has set 20-25 mins approximately. Serve with a cheeky little salad.

Harissa Chicken with Roasted Cauliflower, Pickled Red Cabbage & Yoghurt

This is up there in the flavour ass-kickery department. Again, this is another recipe that can be done the night before and eaten cold as a salad the day after.

Ingredients

• Chicken Leg
• Harissa Spice
• 1 Cauliflower
• Red Cabbage
• ½ cup of Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tspn Cinnamon
• 1 tspn Honey
• Natural Yoghurt
• Leaves ( I used Curly Endive)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven 170°c. Rub Harissa Spice onto Chicken with a little Salt, Pepper and Rapeseed or Olive Oil. Put into oven.
2. Grate or if you’re pretty handy with a cooks knife then thinly slice the Red Cabbage, mix with the Balsamic, Honey and Cinnamon and leave to marinade.
3. Slice the Cauliflower, but rather than cut into florets, slice in to thin slices, place on baking tray, drizzle with a little oil, salt & pepper and put into the oven until it starts to colour.
4. After approximately an hour check that the juices are running clear in your chicken so that is cooked.
5. Place your leaves in a bowl, toss in your cauliflower, some Red Cabbage and then place your Chicken on top. Sprinkle with a little more Red Cabbage and drizzle with Natural Yoghurt….now enjoy.

Thai Red Vegetable and Rice Noodle Broth

So who doesn’t love some Thai food!!! So tasty, heat, flavour, variety it’s all good and this recipe does not disappoint.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• Thai Red Paste
• 1 Tin Coconut Milk
• 100g Rice Pad Thai Noodles
• 1 Bok Choi/Pak Choi
• Vegetable Bouillon 500ml
• 1 Red Onion
• 1 Pepper
• 1 Courgette
• 1 Aubergine
• Spring Onion
• Fresh Coriander
• 1 Lime (you will need the zest and juice)
• Honey

Method

1. Pre soak the Noodles in warm water and allow to soak for approximately 30 minutes.
2. Boil a kettle and cover your Bok Choi and allow to soften, should only take a couple of minutes.
3. Place a tablespoon of the Red Thai paste into a pan and cook on a medium heat for a minute.
4. Add you tin of coconut Milk and bring to the boil.
5. Now add your Vegetable Stock and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Whilst the broth is simmering, slice you Bok choi in half and place in a really hot pan to sear and colour, now take out of the pan and place to one side. Slice all your Vegetables, place in the hot pan and fry until they are just starting to soften slightly.
7. Add your broth to the vegetables, now a squeeze of honey (approx 1 tbsn), zest your lime into the broth (use a grater if you like) and squeeze in the juice.
8. Drain you pre soaked noodles, add them to the broth and allow to cook out the noodles ( this should only take 2 or 3 minutes). Season with Salt & Pepper. Pour into a bowl, place your seared Bok Choi on top, sprinkle on some sliced Spring Onion and Coriander and enjoy.

These easy lunchtime meals are supposed to be reasonably quick and simple, hence not making our own Thai paste, using fish sauce, lemon grass, kaffir leaves etc etc in the broth. All of these products can enhance this dish, but to keep things tasty, simple and not cost “an arm and leg” to produce, we have kept it simple.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about the recipes or any other you may shave seen on The Urban Canteen website, we love getting involved with our readers.