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Lunch

In this collection you will find all of my favorite lunch recipes including this vegan “tuna” salad recipe, made with chickpeas, these sweet potato and black bean burritos, and this one-pot favorite lentil soup recipe.

A bowl of white bean and orange salsa.

White Bean and Orange Salsa

In this campanelle dish, a warm anchovy-caper-olive oil sauce dresses the pasta first; then a splash of lemon juice and reserved cooking liquid thin out the sauce ensuring it coats the pasta nicely; finally chopped hard-boiled eggs and greens complete the dish to make an impromptu, deeply satisfying dinner. // alexandracooks.com

Campanelle with Hard-Boiled Eggs, Capers & Watercress

Folded into olive oil-fried bread, this magic peppers salad made a lovely panzanella salad but could have easily become a bruschetta or simple grain or pasta salad. Much to my delight, making this panzanella felt nothing like hard work. It was almost as though the salad assembled itself. Perhaps "hard work" is a state of mind. Hmm...deep thoughts. // alexandracooks.com

“Magic” Peppers Salad with Pine Nuts & Capers

This summer vegetable salad comes together in no time—as the shallots macerate in the vinegar for the dressing, you can prep everything else: slice the radishes, turnips, scallions, etc. With a hunk of bread on the side, the meal is complete. // alexandracooks.com

10-Minute Meal: Greens + Tuna + Shallot Vinaigrette

In these granola bars, I use oats, coconut, almonds and millet for the dry ingredients, the same makeup as the granola. For the glue, I use coconut oil or butter, maple syrup, brown rice syrup and almond butter. They hold their shape at room temperature and have thus become a lunch box staple. // alexandracooks.com

Sept. 3, 2015 | Back-to-School Granola Bars

Slow Cooker Flageolets, Gratinéed | Also, Bread Bowls

Prosciutto, Endive & Shaved Manchego Salad with Tarragon-Shallot Vinaigrette

This recipe for a blistered salsa roja, made by charring tomatoes, jalapeños, and onions in a skillet is incredibly delicious. And at only, start to finish, 25 minutes to make, you can get it on the table fast. // alexandracooks.com

Huevos Rancheros with Blistered Salsa Roja

Grilled Cheese with Curried Apple Chutney

In this kale Cesar salad, the dressing is light and lemony and the kale itself is extremely soft and tender. It's also vegan, the dressing made with vegannaise and vegan Worcestershire. The combination of curly kale, massaged till tender, quick-pickled onions, and toasted pumpkin seeds, which add so much texture and flavor, is so good. I think this is one you have to taste to believe. // alexandracooks.com

Honest Weight’s Vegan Kale Caesar Salad

The amazing recipe for a classic grilled cheese sandwich calls for crisping country white bread slices in a skillet on one side before topping them with cheese and sautéed shallots. The open-faced halves finish cooking in the oven before being pressed together into a traditional sandwich. This simple technique produces such a brilliant result: perfectly golden bread flanking perfectly melty cheese. // alexandracooks.com

The Best Grilled Cheese

Leftover Grain Bowl with Teriyaki Sauce, Quick-Pickled Carrots & Daikon and Soft-Boiled Eggs

I love the addition of grapes, apples, nuts, and dried fruit in this curried apple and egg salad — bits of crunch punctuating the creaminess, sweet counterpoints to the tangy dressings. The lemony dressing is made with Greek yogurt and grainy mustard, and although there is no mayonnaise, the salad does not suffer. It's light, fresh, and completely satisfying. // alexandracooks.com

Curried Apple & Egg Salad

This vegetable chow mein is much more than a tasty-enough weeknight meal—it is a tangle of saucy noodles and vegetables, and it’s fast becoming a family favorite. It works as well with spaghetti as with soba noodles, with asparagus as with broccoli, with or without protein. Moreover, the adaptations are endless // alexandracooks.com

Vegetable Chow Mein-ish with Asparagus

You will relish this endive and fava tartine—ricotta, pea shoots, radishes, and herbs—each spring-filled bite assuring you that you can endure a few more weeks of winter. This is the tartine to make when you’ve had your fill of comfort foods—of soups and stews and roasts and braises—and you long for something fresh and bright. // alexandracooks.com

Bread Toast Crumbs { The Trailer Part II: Toast } + Endive & Fava Salad Tartine with Herbed Ricotta

These Asian lettuce wraps are simple to prepare, stunning to serve, and exceptionally satisfying to eat. Both the slaw and the meat are incredibly flavorful and the combination of the crunchy cool slaw with the tender hot meat is so yummy. Make it. You'll be happy. I promise. // alexandracooks.com

Asian Lettuce Wraps for Almost Meatless Potluck

How to Make A Two-Egg Omelet [Video]

A bowl of Moroccan Carrot Salad.

Harissa Carrot Salad with Avocado

Beet salad on a plate.

Salt-Roasted (or Steam-Roasted) Beets with Goat Cheese & Toasted Walnuts

This goat cheese walnut tart is really fun. And different. And delicious. I can't promise a quick-and-easy dinner with this recipe — beets must be roasted; a tart shell must be baked — but with a little planning, assembly of this tart is quite simple. And it is so worth the effort. // alexandracooks.com

Gordon Hamersley’s Beet, Goat Cheese and Walnut Tart

A stack of slab sandwiches with whipped honey goat cheese, roasted red peppers, olive tapenade and greens.

Slab Sandwich with Olive Tapenade, Whipped Honey Goat Cheese, and Roasted Red Peppers

A bowl of fresh corn polenta with blistered cherry tomatoes.

Fresh Corn Polenta with Blistered Tomatoes

The custard, a ratio of 1 cup crème fraîche to 1 cup whole milk to 5 eggs, makes Tartine's Swiss chard quiche so fabulous. It's smooth with a slight tang and utterly delicious. // alexandracooks.com

Tartine’s Quiche

Raw bok choy salad.

Bok Choy Salad with Sesame-Almond Crunch

A glass bowl filled with watermelon gazpacho.

This polenta without fear is delicious. Minimal stirring is required and the addition of a little water towards the end of the cooking process is all the doctoring necessary to produce "creamy, soft, mouth-filling polenta," as described on Bitten. // alexandracooks.com

This simple pasta salad is particularly good warm, when the just-boiled shells melt the cheese, just slightly cook the tomatoes and soak up all the flavors of the olive oil and lemon juice. It can also be prepared ahead and served at room temperature — it tastes better the longer it sits in fact. // alexandracooks.com

Preserved lemons work nicely anywhere lemon and salt work nicely — so, everywhere? — and while there is something about the combination of smoked mozzarella and lemon that just can't be beat, this preserved lemon pizza is a fun combination, too: za'atar with olive oil, fresh ricotta, preserved lemon and basil. // alexandracooks.com

A collection of easy vegetarian recipes to make year-round.

More Vegetarian Recipes