Batch Lunches

Thank you for creating this comm, cereta! I do a lot of batch cooking, and I'm always looking for new ideas.

I improvised two salads last night for this week's lunches, and they both seem to be successful:

Beet-Fennel Slaw

two large-ish red beets, well-scrubbed. If the peels are too thick to bruise when you press hard with a finger, peel them, too.
one large-ish bulb fennel
half a red onion
one small bunch mint

olive oil
cider vinegar
salt
lemon juice

Grate the beets coarsely into a bowl. (Or, if you really want to practice your knife skills, julienne them; I didn't have the patience.) Halve the fennel bulb and slice as thinly as possible. If you've got a lot of fennel, you may wish to reserve the stems and fronds for another use.

Dice the onion finely. Chop the mint into very thin ribbons; I wound up with about 1/2 cup, loosely packed, but you could use more. Add fennel, onion, and mint to the beets and mix thoroughly.

Make about 1/4 cup of cider vinaigrette, using whatever proportion of vinegar to oil you prefer, and about 1/2 tsp salt. Dress the slaw. Add lemon juice, starting with a tablespoon and adding more to taste.

Makes a lot of slaw.


Quinoa with Chickpeas and Olives

I didn't measure while I was working-- I know, I know, bad Ellen-- so all quantities are pretty approximate.

1/2 C quinoa (uncooked)
2 cans chickpeas, drained
about 6 oz mixed Greek olives
four picked peppadew peppers
zest of one lemon, removed with a vegetable peeler
the other half of that red onion
fennel fronds or other fresh herbs, about 2 tbsp minced

coriander, cumin, dill, allspice, turmeric, paprika
olive oil
lemon juice


Steam the quinoa until fluffy; a rice cooker is very good for this. Mince the lemon zest and peppadews into tiny tiny shards; dice the onion a little larger; mince your herbs. Toss them with the chickpeas. Add the spices and a good slug of olive oil and toss to coat. Pit the olives and chop or tear them into bite-sized pieces, or smaller if you like. Add the quinoa while it's hot and toss to combine. Add lemon juice to taste and salt if necessary.

Makes a lot of salad.


The two salads complement each other well. The chickpea salad would go well with any kind of bitter greens; I'm going to braise the beet greens later this week to go with mine. Oranges, greek yogurt, and any sort of flatbread would also be nice accompaniments.