In my drive towards simplifying this year, lunches need to be simplified. Inspired by Mark's 'Two Minute' Salad, or "Big Ass" Salad, here's how I make up a really simple, nutritious and primal lunch.
It's a "stir-fry" for want of a better word, but gets nuked at work ...
I begin by shredding up a white cabbage and some greens, be it kale, green cabbage, collard, whatever, something deep green. Next, grated carrot. Next, onion, be it white or red, and then the good stuff.
Keep in the fridge in a large bowl and pick out a handful each day, placing into a Pyrex dish to be accompanied by the following ...
For variety, I use bean sprouts, rice noodles and rice; just a little.
Are bean sprouts paleo? Well, sprouted legumes and seeds are not as bad as you think, be it alfalfa or mung, sprouted, they're pretty harmless. They pass the raw principle for me - as do green beans.
Pfff! I'd be more concerned about BPA in cans or the carcinogens I've been breathing while driving to work ...
Anyway, back to my lunch.
I love pickled things, so lots of pickled and brine preserved things go in: olives, capers, pickled garlic, pickled gherkin, pickled chillies ... all good!
More greens! Asparagus, green beans.
Now, chilli sauce - either just finely slice a good hot chilli, like a Scotch Bonnet, or pour in a pre-made chilli sauce. There are so many good, organic, gluten-free, preservative-free, MSG-free and sugar-free sauces out there, just pick one you like.
That's the staple ... drop in some leftover meat, chicken, bacon, whatever if you like, but I like to concentrate on fish for lunches.
Finally, lid on ... keep overnight and grab a can of fish to accompany. Ensure your fish is in water, at worst, brine ... not vegetable or sunflower oil, olive oil is pretty good, so long as it is cold-pressed.
Oh, boil an egg, too ... but don't put it in the dish, just carry it along.
Needless to say, given a two minute nuke at work on "full fusion" the ingredients should be sub-cooked. No need to have everything fully cooked.
So, at work, just open the can of fish, sprinkle over, nuke the lot and enjoy the omega-3 goodness, the rich micronutrients in all those good vegetables, cut, slice or just eat the boiled egg alongside.
The heat cooks some liquid out, which becomes infused with the chilli and makes a hot, heady liquid in the bottom of the dish to slug down at the end. The meal is not at all soggy, nor soaked by this.
You know what this needs? More fat ... check out the video at the top: "Fat is our friend" at 3:10, or thereabouts. I'm still trying to work in how to do this, but for now, I just take along some soured cream to eat alongside, cooling and soothing from all that chilli. I like Smetana, which is an Eastern European/Russian soured cream and more creamy than a traditional soured cream.
