Lunch box ideas: salad edition
Youthful Lunch by Kitchen Julie
Working for yourself means you get to binge on lovely homemade food whenever you want and a big part of being a freelancer (or just going to work really) is packed lunch. And of all things, your lunch box shouldn’t be the saddest part of your day! In fact, a well packed lunch helps to save money and maintain a healthy diet.
KitchenJulie is a blog by a supermodel and a very lovely lady Julija Steponavičiūtė [Julijə Steppnəvit∫iu:tə]. She lived in London for a long time before moving back to her hometown Vilnius. Apart from being extremely good looking, she’s also an incredible cook. We love her recipes for a few reasons: they’re healthy, they’re colorful and they’re fun and easy to make!
2 servings
INGREDIENTS:
– 350 g of butter squash or sweet potato
– 1 tbsp. of oil (olive, coconut, unrefined sunflower oil)
– a handful of nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans or pumpkin seeds) toasted on a dry pan
– a handful of dried cranberries or raisins
– 50 g (0,25 of a cup ) green, black or "le puy" lentils (uncooked weight)
– a few large kale leaves
FOR THE SAUCE:
– 1 tbsp. olive oil
– 2 tsp. of honey or maple syrup – a large sprinkle of sea salt
– lemon juice
Cook and drain the lentils. Cut the butternut squash into smaller pieces, roll around in oil and put into the oven at 180°C for 25-30 min. While the squash and lentils are cooking, toast the nuts in a dry pan. I used almond cloves but it's also a great opportunity to raid the kitchen cabinet and use whatever kind of nuts you have hidden away and mix them together, or use cashews, pecans or pumpkin seeds instead of almonds. Toast them until they turn brownish and start spreading an aroma, then take them off the heat. Wash and cut up the kale, and using your hands or a knife separate only the soft parts. Chop it up. Fresh kale leaves are hard for us to digest,
I recommend to "massage" the chopped parts of the leaves. Pour over a tbsp. of oil meant for the sauce and using your hands intensely knead the leaves until soft. In a bigger bowl mix the salad ingredients, top with honey and lemon juice, sprinkle with salt and mix well using your hands. The intensity of oil, salt and sweetness (honey, maple syrup) can be adjusted according to taste.
If you want to save time but still have quality homemade food, I recommend cooking an additional butternut squash and preparing more lentils. The next day you'll be able to easily and quickly make a nutritional butternut squash soup. In a smaller pot roast onions with garlic, place the already cooked butternut squash pieces, pour water and/or coconut milk, blend it all with a blender, squeeze lemon juice and mix in salt. You can serve the soup with a few tbsp. of lentils and a tbsp. of sour cream or yogurt.
Enjoy!
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