Lunch
Caesar Salad
The original Tijuana Caesar: whole romaine leaves, a dressing built on egg yolk, anchovy and garlic, and croutons…
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All 1409 recipes
Lunch recipes
Sandwiches, salads and bowls that travel and reheat well. 120 tested recipes, ranked by what readers cook most.
Lunch recipes — all 120 recipes
Lunch
Crispy Falafel
Made only from soaked dried chickpeas — never tinned, never cooked — so the outside shatters and the inside stays…
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Lunch
Philly Cheesesteak
Thinly shaved ribeye, sweated onions and melted cheese crammed into a soft hoagie roll. The debate over Cheez Whiz…
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Lunch
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Pork shoulder rubbed, slow-roasted for seven hours until it shreds under a fork, tossed in a vinegar sauce and piled…
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Lunch
Croque Monsieur
The Parisian café sandwich raised to its proper form: ham and Gruyère between buttered pain de mie, blanketed in…
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Lunch
Quiche Lorraine
The original quiche has no cheese in it, and once you taste this custard — barely set, heavy on cream, studded with…
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Lunch
Bánh Mì
A crackling baguette filled with pâté, mayonnaise, cold cuts or grilled pork, pickled carrot and daikon, cucumber…
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Lunch
Pav Bhaji
Mumbai's great street dish: a mash of vegetables cooked down on a giant griddle with a distinctive spice blend…
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Lunch
Mission-Style Burrito
San Francisco's contribution to world food: a steamed flour tortilla wrapped around rice, beans, meat, cheese, salsa…
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Lunch
The Perfect BLT
Three ingredients, no room for error: bacon fried to the exact point of crispness, tomatoes salted and drained, and…
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Lunch
Tortilla Española
Potatoes and onion confited slowly in olive oil, then bound in egg and cooked until the centre is barely set and…
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Lunch
Wonton Noodle Soup
Prawn and pork wontons in a clear, dried-flounder broth with springy thin egg noodles. Cantonese, and the noodles go…
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Lunch
Turkish Lentil Soup
Red lentils cooked to nothing with onion, carrot and potato, blended smooth and finished with a spoonful of chilli…
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Lunch
Kimbap
Seasoned rice and a row of cooked fillings rolled in seaweed, brushed with sesame oil and cut into coins. Korea's…
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Lunch
Pork Gyros
Marinated pork shaved off a home-built stack, wrapped in pita with tzatziki, tomato, onion and — this is not…
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Lunch
Chole Bhature
Punjab's great weekend breakfast: dark, tangy chickpeas served with balloon-like fried bread. The chana is blackened…
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Lunch
Reuben Sandwich
Corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing between rye, griddled in butter until the cheese runs and…
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Lunch
Classic Potato Salad
Waxy potatoes dressed while still warm so they drink in the vinegar, then finished cold with mayonnaise, celery, egg…
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Lunch
Maine Lobster Roll
Maine lobster, barely dressed with mayonnaise, lemon and celery, piled into a split-top bun griddled in butter on…
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Lunch
California Roll
The inside-out roll that introduced the West to sushi: crab, avocado and cucumber wrapped in seasoned rice and…
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Lunch
Vada Pav
A spiced potato fritter in a soft bun with three chutneys and fried green chillies. Mumbai's street sandwich, sold…
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Lunch
Wonton Soup
Silky wontons with a prawn and pork filling floating in a clear, restorative broth. The wrappers are so thin they…
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Lunch
New England Clam Chowder
A proper white chowder — thickened with potato starch and a light roux rather than a bucket of cream — with sweet…
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Lunch
Cuban Sandwich
Roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard pressed in Cuban bread until the cheese melts and the crust…
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Lunch
Omurice
A Japanese diner classic: ketchup-seasoned chicken rice wrapped in a thin omelette, either folded neatly or, in the…
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Lunch
Jamaican Beef Patty
A flaky turmeric-yellow pastry folded around spiced beef filling, crimped and baked until the edges are crisp and…
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Lunch
Hot and Sour Soup
Sharp with black vinegar, hot with white pepper rather than chilli, and thickened to that distinctive silky body…
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Lunch
Cornish Pasty
Beef skirt, potato, swede and onion, all raw, sealed in shortcrust and baked for nearly an hour so everything cooks…
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Lunch
Ribollita
Tuscan bread soup: cannellini beans, cavolo nero and soffritto cooked down, thickened with stale bread and then…
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Lunch
Pupusas
El Salvador's thick stuffed corn cakes, filled with cheese, beans or chicharrón and griddled until blistered, served…
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Lunch
Smørrebrød
Dense rye bread, buttered to the edges, built up with one main topping and a short list of things that agree with…
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Lunch
Sabich
Pitta stuffed with fried aubergine, boiled egg, hummus, salad, pickles, amba and a great deal of tahini…
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Lunch
Tinga Tostadas
Crisp fried tortillas topped with chicken tinga — shredded chicken in a smoky chipotle and tomato sauce — with…
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Lunch
Salade Niçoise
A composed salad, not a tossed one: each element dressed and arranged separately so every forkful is deliberate…
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Lunch
Warm German Potato Salad
Warm potatoes dressed in a bacon, vinegar and stock dressing rather than mayonnaise — sharper, lighter, and much…
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Lunch
Lángos
Deep-fried yeasted flatbread, stretched thin in the middle, rubbed with raw garlic and covered with soured cream and…
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Lunch
Kake Udon Noodle Soup
Thick, bouncy udon in a clear kake broth of dashi, soy and mirin — restorative, restrained and on the table in…
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Lunch
Zaru Soba
Buckwheat noodles rinsed in ice water and served cold on a bamboo mat with a small cup of concentrated dipping…
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Lunch
Boston Baked Beans
Navy beans baked for six hours with molasses, salt pork and mustard until the sauce is dark and thick and the beans…
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Lunch
Soto Ayam
Indonesian turmeric chicken soup with a fragrant spice paste, served over noodles and rice with sambal, fried…
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Lunch
Bunny Chow
A quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with Durban mutton curry, with the scooped-out bread on the…
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Lunch
Cullen Skink
Smoked haddock, potato and onion in a thick milk soup from the Moray coast. Four ingredients, and all of them have…
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Lunch
Salade de Chèvre Chaud
Rounds of goat cheese on toast, grilled until the surface blisters and the centre slumps, dropped onto dressed…
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Lunch
Ash Reshteh
A thick Persian soup of beans, lentils, greens and noodles, finished with fried mint oil, crisp onions and kashk.
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Lunch
Salade Lyonnaise
Bitter leaves, a hot bacon dressing poured over so they half-wilt, croutons fried in the same fat, and a poached egg…
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Lunch
Moin Moin
Peeled black-eyed beans blended with peppers and onion, seasoned and steamed in leaves or tins until it sets into a…
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Lunch
Żurek
Sour rye soup made from a fermented starter, with white sausage, potatoes, marjoram and a halved boiled egg…
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Lunch
Ploughman's Lunch
Not cooking so much as assembly: a wedge of sharp cheddar, good bread, pickled onions, chutney, apple and butter…
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Lunch
Waakye
Rice and beans cooked together with dried sorghum leaves, which turn the whole pot a deep reddish brown, served with…
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Lunch
Callaloo
Dasheen leaves cooked down with okra, coconut milk and crab or salt meat until they collapse into a thick, dark…
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Lunch
Tuna and White Bean Salad
Tinned tuna and cannellini beans dressed with lemon, olive oil and red onion — the Tuscan store-cupboard lunch, and…
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Lunch
Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup
Tomatoes roasted until they collapse and caramelise at the edges, blended with garlic and basil. No sugar, because…
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Lunch
Grilled Halloumi and Herb Salad
Halloumi griddled until it blisters, over a salad of herbs, cucumber and tomato with lemon and olive oil —…
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Lunch
Chicken Caesar Lettuce Cups
Caesar without the croutons: chicken breast seared hard, tossed in an anchovy and Parmesan dressing and served in…
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Lunch
Seared Tuna Niçoise
Tuna steak seared rare, over green beans, egg, olives and tomato with an anchovy vinaigrette — the Niçoise without…
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Lunch
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Thick, orange and unapologetic, with half the broccoli blended into the base and half left in pieces. The cheese…
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Lunch
Split Pea and Ham Soup
A ham hock and a bag of split peas turned into something thick enough to stand a spoon in. No stock needed: the hock…
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Lunch
Club Sandwich
Three slices of toast, two fillings, four cocktail sticks. The architecture is the recipe: bacon and chicken get…
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Lunch
Tuna Salad Sandwich
Tuna in oil rather than brine, drained but not squeezed dry, with celery for crunch and enough lemon to keep it from…
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Lunch
Egg Salad Sandwich
Eggs boiled to a set-but-not-chalky yolk, half of them chopped and half mashed for texture, with mustard and chives…
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Lunch
Meatball Sub
Baked meatballs simmered in a quick tomato sauce, loaded into a roll that has been toasted with cheese first so it…
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Lunch
Glamorgan Sausages
Welsh sausages with no meat in them: Caerphilly, leek and breadcrumbs, rolled and fried until the crust crackles…
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Lunch
Pan con Pollo
The Salvadoran chicken sandwich: chicken braised in a relajo of toasted spices, pulled, and piled into a crusty roll…
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Lunch
Australian Meat Pie
A shortcrust base and a puff lid over a thick, dark beef filling that has been cooked and then cooled before it goes…
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Lunch
Spam Musubi
A slab of glazed Spam on a block of sushi rice, wrapped in nori. Hawaii's most-eaten snack, sold from every petrol…
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Lunch
Shorbet Ads
Red lentil soup finished with cumin, lemon and fried bread. The default first course at every Egyptian table in…
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Lunch
Kishk Masri
A thick soup of yogurt and flour cooked out slowly and poured over fried bread and onions. Sour, savoury and…
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Lunch
Kafteji
Peppers, tomato, courgette, potato and onion fried separately, then chopped together on a board with fried eggs…
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Lunch
Chorba Frik
Lamb and freekeh soup thickened by the grain itself, sharpened with harissa and finished with a great deal of…
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Lunch
Hlelem
A thick soup of hand-broken noodles, three kinds of bean and a lot of greens, red with harissa. Winter food from the…
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Lunch
Fricassé
A small fried bread roll split and packed with tuna, potato, olives, egg and harissa. Sold everywhere, eaten…
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Lunch
Vichyssoise
Leek and potato soup enriched with cream and served cold. Invented in New York by a French chef, which the French…
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Lunch
Potage Parmentier
The hot original that vichyssoise is a chilled version of: leeks, potatoes, water and butter. Julia Child called it…
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Lunch
Garbure
The Gascon soup of cabbage, beans and preserved duck, thick enough that the spoon should stand up in it. A meal, not…
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Lunch
Soupe de Poisson
Whole small fish cooked down and forced through a mouli, served with rouille, croutons and grated cheese. Not…
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Lunch
Pipérade
Peppers, tomatoes and onions cooked down to a jam with Espelette, then eggs stirred through. Basque, and often eaten…
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Lunch
Frisée aux Lardons
Curly endive with hot bacon, a vinegar-deglazed dressing and a poached egg on top. The dressing is made in the bacon…
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Lunch
Pan Bagnat
A salade niçoise pressed into a round loaf until the bread soaks up the dressing. Bagnat means bathed, and the…
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Lunch
Galettes Bretonnes
Buckwheat crêpes filled with ham, cheese and an egg, the edges folded into a square. Savoury and dark, and a…
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Lunch
Pasta e Ceci
Chickpeas and broken pasta cooked into a thick soup with rosemary. Roman, cheap, and better than the sum of its…
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Lunch
Bagnùn di Acciughe
A thin anchovy and tomato soup from the Ligurian coast, eaten by fishermen out of the pot with hard biscuit. Half an…
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Lunch
Scotch Broth
Lamb, barley and root vegetables cooked into one thick pot until a spoon stands up in it. The soup that stands in…
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Lunch
London Particular
Pea and ham soup thick enough to be named after the fog. A ham hock, a bag of split peas and almost nothing else.
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Lunch
Leek and Potato Soup
Four ingredients, twenty minutes on the stove, and better than almost anything more complicated. The soup to know by…
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Lunch
Mulligatawny Soup
Anglo-Indian curried soup, invented in Madras for officers who wanted a soup course and were given pepper water…
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Lunch
Watercress Soup
Watercress cooked for ninety seconds and blended immediately, which is what keeps it the colour of a wet lawn…
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Lunch
Coronation Chicken
Cold chicken in a curried, apricot-sweetened mayonnaise, invented for the 1953 coronation lunch. Ruined by every…
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Lunch
Cucumber Sandwiches
Thin white bread, salted cucumber, good butter, no crusts. Four ingredients, and every single one of them has to be…
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Lunch
Lo Mai Gai
Sticky rice packed around chicken, sausage and mushroom in a lotus leaf and steamed until the leaf perfumes the…
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Lunch
Rou Jia Mo
Chopped braised pork packed into a flatbread baked on a griddle. Xi'an has sold it for two thousand years and calls…
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Lunch
Liangpi
Cold wheat noodles made by washing the starch out of a dough, steamed into sheets and cut into wide slippery ribbons…
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Lunch
Hot Dry Noodles
Wuhan's breakfast: alkaline noodles blanched, oiled, cooled and then reheated to order under sesame paste, pickled…
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Lunch
Biang Biang Noodles
Belt-wide noodles pulled by hand and slapped on the counter, under chilli, garlic and a ladle of smoking oil. Named…
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Lunch
Zongzi
Glutinous rice packed with pork belly and salted egg yolk into a bamboo-leaf pyramid, tied with string and boiled…
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Lunch
West Lake Beef Soup
A thick clear soup of minced beef and egg white with a great deal of coriander. Hangzhou, and it takes twenty…
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Lunch
Egg Drop Soup
Stock thickened lightly and finished with beaten egg poured in a thread so it sets into ribbons. Ten minutes, four…
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Lunch
Winter Melon Soup
Winter melon simmered with pork ribs and dried shrimp until it turns translucent and takes on everything around it…
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Lunch
Lotus Root and Pork Rib Soup
Lotus root and pork ribs simmered for two hours until the root goes floury and pulls into starchy threads when you…
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Lunch
Onigiri
Rice pressed round a filling and wrapped in a band of nori. Japan's packed lunch, and the reason convenience stores…
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Lunch
Bún Thịt Nướng
Grilled lemongrass pork over cold rice vermicelli with herbs, pickle and nuoc cham poured over. A hot and cold bowl…
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Lunch
Sopa de Fideo
Thin noodles toasted golden in oil, then simmered in a tomato broth. Thirty minutes, and it is what Mexican children…
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Lunch
Potato Salad
Waxy potatoes dressed while still warm with mayonnaise, mustard and egg. Forty minutes, and it wants an hour in the…
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Lunch
Coleslaw
Cabbage and carrot salted, drained and dressed. Fifteen minutes of work and it is the draining that makes it good.
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Lunch
Egg Salad
Hard-boiled eggs chopped rough with mayonnaise, mustard and chives. Twenty minutes, and the texture depends entirely…
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Lunch
Tuna Salad
Tinned tuna with celery, red onion and mayonnaise. Ten minutes, and the celery is not optional.
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Lunch
Chicken Salad
Poached or leftover chicken with grapes, celery and toasted pecans in a light mayonnaise dressing. Fifteen minutes…
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Lunch
Minestrone
Whatever vegetables are about, cooked long and slow with beans and a little pasta. Under an hour, and it improves…
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Lunch
Rasam
A thin, sour, peppery broth of tamarind and tomato, drunk from a cup or poured over rice. South India's answer to…
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Lunch
Corn Chowder
Sweetcorn simmered in a thin broth with potato and finished with cream. Forty-five minutes, and the cobs go in the…
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Lunch
Chicken Caesar Wrap
Griddled chicken, cos lettuce and parmesan rolled in a warm tortilla with a proper anchovy dressing. Under half an…
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Lunch
Kookoo Sabzi
More herb than egg, dark green all the way through, studded with walnut and sour barberry. Cook it low or it turns…
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Lunch
Jamaican Beef Patties
Turmeric pastry folded round spiced minced beef and baked. The colour comes from the pastry, not the filling.
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Lunch
Shorbat Adas
Yellow lentil soup, smooth as cream, with a hard squeeze of lemon at the end. The first thing you are given in Egypt.
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Lunch
Zosui
Rice simmered in dashi with egg stirred through. Thirty minutes, and what Japanese households make from yesterday's…
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Lunch
Bún Riêu
A tomato and crab broth with floating clouds of crab and egg, over rice vermicelli. Sharper and lighter than phở.
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Lunch
Gỏi Gà
Poached chicken torn into shreds with cabbage, herbs and a sharp fish sauce dressing. Forty minutes, mostly cooling.
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Lunch
Shrimp Po Boy
Fried prawns in a light baguette with lettuce, tomato and remoulade. New Orleans, and "dressed" means all four.
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Lunch
French Dip
Thin roast beef in a roll with a cup of the roasting juices to dip it in. Forty-five minutes, and the jus is the…
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Lunch
German Potato Salad
Warm potato slices in a bacon, vinegar and stock dressing, with no mayonnaise anywhere near it.
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Lunch
Sopa de Tortilla
A chilli and tomato broth with crisp tortilla strips added at the table so they keep their crunch. Forty-five minutes.
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