Modern Lunch
+100 Recipes for Assembling the New Midday Meal: A Cookbook
- Publisher
- Random House Canada
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2019
- Category
- General, Quick & Easy, Brunch
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780147531001
- Publish Date
- Mar 2019
- List Price
- $29.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
From Allison Day, the acclaimed cookbook author and award-winning blogger behind Yummy Beet, comes Modern Lunch: a collection of over 100 original, plant-forward recipes that celebrate the midday meal.
TASTE CANADA AWARDS SILVER WINNER
Modern Lunch is the new lunchtime hero for time-strapped, budget-conscious, and salad-fatigued people everywhere. Focusing on healthy, quick--and, yes, Instagrammable--recipes with minimal effort, Allison takes readers on a feasting journey inspired by fresh flavors and ingredients, and her travels.
Meals in jars and adult-appropriate lunchboxes will actually make you look forward to lunch now, especially when recipes like Chicken and Cucumber Ribbon Salad with Peanut Butter Vinaigrette, Tomato Sourdough Soup with Cacio e Pepe Socca Triangles, and Walnut-Crusted Avocado, Feta, and Eggs with Pesto Rice are waiting for you. Find inspiration for delicious lunches to eat at home, too, like Greek Chopped Salad with Crispy Peppercorn Salmon, and a new take on the classic ploughman's lunch. Spend weekends with friends gathered around easy-to-assemble platters and picnic baskets, and enjoy homemade brunches that rival any restaurant's. And, if you're someone who likes to improvise, Allison shares her staple recipes and tried-and-tested strategies for mastering meal prep, as well as ideas and combinations for quick, on-the-fly lunches that encourage creativity but promise satisfaction--even if you have to dine at your desk.
With dazzling recipes and photography, and smart tips on hacking the lunchtime game, Modern Lunch proves that a delicious, exciting, and inventive lunch can be achievable for any appetite, wallet, and busy schedule--and maybe even spark a little office envy.
About the author
Allison Day, nutritionist and creator of the whole foods, vegetarian recipe blog Yummy Beet, has contributed to various food, health, and news publications such as the New York Times, Buzzfeed, and The Kitchn, developing vegetable-focused recipes that appeal to vegetarians and omnivores alike. Allison grew up in a small, country town??the place where she first developed her love of seasonal, local foods. She resides in Southern Ontario, Canada.
Excerpt: Modern Lunch: +100 Recipes for Assembling the New Midday Meal: A Cookbook (by (author) Allison Day)
From the Introduction
Life is too short to eat a bad lunch. Yet, in our culture, the midday meal is a forgotten opportunity to reinvigorate ourselves with food that makes us happy and energized. It has to be fairly quick and easy, and that often means resorting to convenience foods. There seems to be no middle ground: it’s either buy lunch or pack something sad. So I’m here to help you formulate and practice new rituals (I know some of you are already on your way!) to make homemade, balanced, and delicious lunches materialize. I’m not suggesting that you have to cook a from-scratch, freshly prepared sit-down meal every day—it can be just as special when prepped ahead (your new “leftovers”), especially with a touch more attention and creativity put into the ingredients used, presentation, and packing than what we’re used to. I promise, the reclamation of lunch is simple!
Like most kids, I found discovering what was in my packed school lunch a thrill. My parents would send me to school with sandwiches of iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise on squishy whole-wheat sandwich bread, alternating only with peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and banana (which I still really enjoy). After the main course, there was always a treat of some kind, usually a small bag of cookies or chips, and a piece of fruit. And it was all stowed away in worn (clean yet always oddly cloudy) plastic containers that circulated between my older brother, me, and finally my younger sister, until they were retired to the recycling bin when they became officially too warped to snap shut.
As my eating preferences have changed, so have my lunches. However, the midday meal continues to have a hint of delicious nostalgia for me, not simply for the food but for the community it builds. Breakfast and dinner are often family affairs, while lunch is a break in our day when most of us are connecting with friends, colleagues, or someone who happens to be enjoying their meal on the same park bench. I’ve made friends with strangers by simply asking, “What’s for lunch?”
Lunch is a meal that needs a fresh coat of paint, a meal that deserves the same respect dinner receives, while still embracing the casualness of breakfast. To me, the story of lunch as it’s enjoyed today has yet to be told. Yes, it’s a break in the day to replenish the body and mind, even if you’re devouring a cup of noodles “al desko,” an Oxford English Dictionary-defined word (you’re welcome!). It’s a way to travel and taste a range of global flavors, all without a plane ticket. A homemade lunch saves you money, helps you eat healthier (made easier still with the recipes in this book), and gives you a swift boost to reenergize your day. And it’s a meal where the lighting is just so perfect for capturing a photo to share on Instagram (I do, @allisondaycooks). But it can be more than this, too. I’d like to introduce you to the “modern lunch.”
A modern lunch is special, simple, (mostly) make-ahead, healthy, share-worthy, community building, money saving, colorful, and delicious. It culls inspiration from world cuisines, is adaptable to your personal taste and pantry, and is always satisfying. It can be enjoyed at your desk, in the lunchroom, on a bench outside, at home, on the road, on a picnic blanket, in the car, at a set table, or on your lap in front of the TV. A modern lunch can be about connectedness: it’s a time to put yourself out there, socialize, and make new friends or bond with old ones. Done with intention and meaning, the modern lunch should get you excited about a quality midday meal!
Editorial Reviews
“With a balance of aspirational beauty and real-world usefulness, Modern Lunch is both the respite from and solution to the busy-day excuse of missing a midday meal. What’s more, the book embodies a cooking ethos in line with how many of us already live, favoring vibrant, vegetable-forward meals, and building-block larder and pantry staples to enliven our everyday. Allison’s addition of sweet potato to a ramen broth is a revelation, offering depth and weight with little effort. The fried lemons from her Broccoli and Rigatoni Minestrone are now my go-to garnish for all manner of soups and salads, with their addictive char and sour-sweet brightness. And, I have no doubt the Basil Chicken Wraps will soon be in my sons’ lunchboxes. This book is full of such gems.”
—Tara O’Brady, blogger and author of Seven Spoons
“Is it possible that Allison has just made lunch—the chore of all chores for a parent like me—the most exciting meal of the day? This book is bursting with flavor, inspiration, and most of all encouragement to make the midday meal something to savor.”
—Ceri Marsh, co-author of How to Feed a Family and The School Year Survival Cookbook
“Looks like breakfast is going to have to relinquish its title: Lunch is now The Most Important Meal of the Day. Every page of Allison’s book, Modern Lunch, is so fresh, inventive and downright mouthwatering I find myself just counting down the minutes until the clock strikes noon!”
—Rosie Daykin, owner of Butter Baked Goods and author of Butter Baked Goods and Butter Celebrates!
“Allison Day’s Modern Lunch is a tome of healthful lunch ideas that are flexible enough for a seasoned cook and detailed enough for an aspiring one. It reminds us how lovely it is to be inspired by every meal, and every bite.”
—Jackie Kai Ellis, founder of Beaucoup Bakery and author of The Measure of My Powers
“Modern Lunch will not only have you totally rethink lunch, it will become the go-to cookbook you didn’t even know you were missing. Overflowing with vibrant photography, mouth-watering recipes and practical tips and advice, this truly modern cookbook will make the midday meal the one you look forward to the most. Whether you eat lunch from home, in an office or in the moments the traffic light is red, Allison has a remarkably delicious solution. Her timeless recipes are simple, practical and completely inspiring. From a California Lunch Bowl with the brightest of dressings to a Savory Vegetable Cobbler you will want to serve to your favorite guests, Allison Day’s Modern Lunch is full of inspiration, gorgeousness and soul-satisfying food that will delight you at lunch and beyond.”
—Lisa Dawn Bolton, Food Stylist and Author of On Boards
“Allison Day sees lunchtime as an opportunity to eat well, whether you’re at home or at the office.” —Julie Van Rosendaal, The Globe and Mail
