School Lunch
35 recipes found
Spinach, Artichoke and Yogurt Dip
The essential features of a spinach and artichoke dip are fixed: tender spinach, textural artichokes plus something rich and creamy to unite the two. In this take, full-fat Greek yogurt is the binder, supported by an extra boost from shallots, garlic and scallions. The preparation is uncomplicated, especially if opting for store-bought chopped frozen spinach, which eliminates the need to wash and chop the greens. The dip is best served chilled or at room temperature, allowing the cool tang of the yogurt to shine. Eat with foods strong enough to support the weight of the dip, like crunchy vegetables, seeded crackers or slices of crusty bread.
Bibimbap-Style Soba Noodle Salad
In this meal-prep friendly twist on bibimbap, the kaleidoscopic Korean mixed rice dish, simple vegetable sides seasoned with sesame oil or soy sauce (called namul) are served with nutty soba noodles, and lavishly tossed in a spicy-sweet gochujang dressing. Blanching is a great way to lock in the vibrant hues, distinct textures and fresh flavors of vegetables. While it’s a very simple process, it does require some precision to ensure optimal results: Season the blanching water generously, cook the vegetables briefly, and, after cooking, expel as much water as possible. The different vegetables and noodles are prepared separately, so they can be easily packed away individually, ready for assembling a quick weekday lunch or a future dinner. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand. (Carrots, daikon, broccoli, kale and corn would also work well.) For extra heartiness, top with a fried egg.
Honeynut Pumpkin Muffins With Cornmeal
Honeynuts are no longer the new squash on the block, but their sweet, custardy flavor is still one of my favorites for baking. This classic pumpkin muffin turns not-so-classic when you swap canned pumpkin for homemade honeynut purée, but either will work just fine. The fun part of this recipe is the light, crispy brown butter cornmeal crumble, which gives the muffins a toasty nostalgic note. There’s a good ratio of crumble-to-muffin here (and by good, I mean high).
Sanshoku-don (Three-Color Rice Bowls)
Sanshoku-don is a classic Japanese comfort food that is equally delicious served hot and fresh or at room temperature, making it a hugely popular choice for bento-style school lunches. The base recipe combines ground chicken (other meats or vegetarian alternatives like ground tofu or plant-based ground meat work just fine) seasoned with the classic Japanese savory-sweet combination of soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar, and vigorously scrambled eggs served on top of Japanese short-grain rice. Add a simple green vegetable – frozen peas, steamed slivered snap peas or green beans, or simply sautéed spinach or kale – and you’ve got a full meal in a bowl.
Pasta Salad
This pasta salad has everything you could want in the bowl: loads of ripe tomatoes, chunks of mozzarella, sliced olives, salami and plenty of fresh green herbs, all tossed in a garlicky, oregano-spiked red wine vinaigrette. Serve it the same day it’s made for the brightest flavor and best texture.
Chicken Ragù Hand Pies
Leftover chicken ragù — or really any savory filling that is not too liquid — can be tucked inside this tender dough to make baked hand pies. They can be frozen before or after baking, then tucked into lunches and eaten at room temperature. A couple of rounds of prepared pie dough from the grocery store would make a quick and easy substitution.
Konbi’s Egg Salad Sandwich
This famous egg salad sandwich comes from Konbi, the tiny Los Angeles cafe run by the co-chefs Akira Akuto and Nick Montgomery. It’s not always the case that sensational, Instagram-famous dishes are carefully calibrated to taste so good, but this one breaks the mold: It’s as pretty as it is delicious. The egg salad is brightened with a touch of rice wine vinegar and mustard and bound with Kewpie mayonnaise. When making it at home, be careful not to undercook the eggs or you’ll cross that fine line between jammy and runny. At the heart of the sandwich is a perfect hard-boiled egg, and we suggest cooking a couple extra in case they break or you have trouble peeling them. Extra eggs, still warm, with a touch of salt and pepper, make for a great snack while you're assembling.
Pimento Cheese
A decidedly Southern spread with Northern roots, pimento cheese is a simple mix of Cheddar, red bell pepper and mayonnaise that can be found at work sites and garden parties across the 16 states below the Mason-Dixon line. This recipe came to The Times from the Charleston, S.C.-bred cookbook authors Matt Lee and Ted Lee. Serve with crackers, or for a Masters pimento cheese sandwich, spread it between two pieces of soft white bread.
Rice Krispies Treats With Chocolate and Pretzels
Marshmallow treats can skew saccharine, but this slightly more sophisticated version embraces the salty as much as it does the sugary. Sweet marshmallows and chocolate are balanced by plenty of salt: in the butter, on the pretzels and in the flaky sea salt finish. Butter-flavored pretzels (“butter snaps”) have a delicate crunch and a creamy note that work well in this recipe, but any small, thin pretzels are also good. You'll want to use chopped chocolate here instead of chips: They melt faster, so you end up with smeared chocolate bits instead of distinctive chunks.
Baked Bean and Cheese Quesadillas
These quesadillas have little in common with fast-food varieties, which are made with flour tortillas and a lot more cheese. A Taco Bell cheese quesadilla has 480 calories and 1,000 milligrams of sodium; if you order cheese quesadillas at Baja Fresh, you’re asking for 1,200 calories and 2,140 milligrams of sodium. I make a meal out of quesadillas by including beans or vegetables with the cheese, and I use corn tortillas rather than flour. Another plus: Quesadillas make a great destination for leftovers. Beans in a thick sauce make a delicious and comforting quesadilla filling.
Classic Tuna Salad Sandwich
Here is Craig Claiborne’s version of the classic lunchbox staple. Celery, red onion and red bell pepper add crunch; capers and lemon juice lend a little tang.
Turkey and Apple Sandwiches With Maple Mayonnaise
Here’s a new fall classic for a young student’s lunch box: a fresh sandwich of turkey and apple, bound together with mayonnaise spiked with maple syrup. For a kick, swirl a little Sriracha sauce into the mayonnaise.
Cowboy Caviar
Depending on where you’re from, this simple dip is known as cowboy caviar or Texas caviar, and it’s a favorite at tailgates and potlucks all over the South. Its creator, Helen Corbitt, a dietitian from New York, had never heard of black-eyed peas when she moved to Texas in 1931. The exact details are fuzzy, but at some point in her 40 years working in restaurants there, she combined black-eyed peas with a simple vinaigrette, and it was a big hit. The recipe has evolved over the years, and you can find a number of variations online. Some contain corn and black beans (as this one does), and others avocado. Some call for bottled Italian salad dressing, others homemade. No matter how you tweak it, it’s always good with a pile of tortilla chips.
Ham and Jam Sandwich
Nothing can compare to jambon-beurre, the iconic Parisian sandwich, which is really just a baguette with salted European butter and unsmoked ham. This rendition expands on that perfect trinity with a few additional pantry ingredients: Jam plays well with ham (like in a Monte Cristo), and Dijon and black pepper bring spice and spirit. Smoked ham adds yet another layer of savoriness, but any thinly sliced ham will work. The result is a hearty, complex but still delicate meal, appetizer or pick-me-up. While ham and jam sandwich doesn’t roll off the tongue quite like jambon-beurre, you have permission to call it a ham-jam-sam, if you like.
Cold Noodle Salad With Spicy Peanut Sauce
Soba, Japanese buckwheat noodles, are ideal for salads because they taste particularly great when served cold. Crunchy vegetables are highlighted here, adding lots of crisp, fresh texture. Substitute with any raw vegetables you have on hand, such as cabbage, carrot, fennel, asparagus, broccoli or cauliflower. The spicy peanut sauce is very adaptable: If you don’t want to use peanut butter, you can use any nut or seed butter, like cashew, almond, sunflower or even tahini. Both the soba and the peanut sauce can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge overnight, but wait to combine them until you are ready to eat for the best texture and consistency. The peanut sauce thickens as it sits, so add a tablespoon or two of water to loosen it up, if necessary.
Tomato Sandwiches
You may not really need a recipe for a tomato sandwich, but sometimes varying it can be nice, especially if you tend to get stuck in a habit as the summer progresses. This version, based on pan con tomate, involves rubbing the guts of a ripe tomato all over garlicky toasted bread. More tomato slices are added on top, along with slivers of onion and mayonnaise, and bacon if you'd like. It’s a supremely messy sandwich best munched over the sink, or with plenty of napkins nearby.
Chickpea Salad With Fresh Herbs and Scallions
A lighter, easier take on classic American potato salad, this version uses canned chickpeas in place of potatoes and favors Greek yogurt over mayonnaise. The trick to achieving the creamy texture of traditional potato salad is to mash some of the chickpeas lightly with a fork. It travels well, so it deserves a spot at your next picnic or desk lunch.
Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl
This homey dish takes comforting canned tuna to richer, silkier heights. Mayonnaise helps to hold the tuna together and toasted sesame oil lends incomparable nuttiness. You can adjust the seasonings to your taste: Use as much or as little soy sauce as you’d like for a savory accent. You can lean into the nuttiness of this rice bowl by sowing the top with toasted sesame seeds, or amp up the savoriness with furikake or scallions. A staple of home cooking in Hawaii and South Korea (where it is sometimes called deopbap), this simple meal is a workday workhorse.
Extra-Crispy BLT
Using wavy, thin-cut bacon in a BLT is kind of like putting potato chips in your sandwich: It adds salt and a satisfying crunch when you take a bite. Cook the bacon in the oven (the fastest way to evenly cook a batch), then layer the slices irregularly for more air and optimal texture. Use equal portions of bacon and tomato for a nice balance of crisp and soft, salty and sweet. Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce goes in between the two for freshness and even more crunch, and it helps keep the tomatoes from dampening the bacon. While these steps seem small, together they are the keys to the BLT of your summertime dreams.
5-Minute Hummus
Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook of the Philadelphia restaurant Zahav found success with their hummus recipe, but in their second book, “Israeli Soul,” the two came up with this smart version, done in a fraction of the time of the original. It’s just as satisfying, and packed with tahini flavor, a given since it calls for a whole 16-ounce jar. The end result is nutty and smooth, and topped with roasted vegetables, a worthy weeknight meal.
Best Chicken Salad
The secret to this chicken salad recipe isn’t in the seasonings (though the tarragon and sour cream make it pretty wonderful) but in the texture of the chicken, described as “plush” by the chef Barbara Tropp in her “China Moon” cookbook. She incorporated Chinese methods and flavors to her cooking, including this foolproof method for poaching chicken breasts without overcooking. It makes a chicken salad that’s perfect for sandwiches (especially on dark rye or sourdough breads) or scooped onto a lettuce-lined plate with sliced radishes, tomatoes, crackers, grapes or all of the above. The chicken breasts used here must be bone-in, but you can remove the skin if you prefer. The skin and bones flavor the cooking liquid, providing a bonus of several pints of chicken stock.
Ham Omelet Sandwich
This breakfast sandwich is sold in bakeries, convenience stores and train stations in Japan, Hong Kong and throughout Asia. A thin, flat omelet layered with even thinner slices of ham is stacked between slices of buttered soft white bread, then cut into triangles. You can, of course, add cheese, but its beauty is in its simplicity. And, besides, going without cheese makes the sandwich as tasty at room temperature as it is when warm.
Cheddar Scallion Dip
A cousin to pimento cheese but without those potentially child-deflecting red peppers, this cream cheese based dip is mild and slightly sweet from a splash of fresh orange juice. Pack it in a lunchbox with celery and crackers for your kids. Or, zip it up with a dash or two of Tabasco and some mashed garlic, spoon it into a bowl surrounded by good potato chips and serve it with cocktails to the adults. It will keep for at least five days in the fridge.
Vegetables-and-Dip Pita Pocket
Children can enjoy the fun combination in these pita pocket sandwiches. Each bite delivers the crunch of vegetables and the creaminess of dip. Sweet pickles add a little excitement to each bite. You can swap the standard pairing of carrots and celery for other crunchy vegetables you enjoy raw, like fennel, cucumber or peppers.