As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.
Today: Pick the right soup to pack. (While you're at it, pack a peck of pickled peppers.)
As I see it, we're still a good 40 lunches away from t-shirts and flip flops and RAMPS!!!. Forty lunches of food that should warm you up and, in its pleasurable flavor, give you something to think about other than gray, chilly skies or metastasizing to-do lists.
Good soup will do this for you. Pack some up in your thermos, or just use a mason jar and your friendly office microwave. Let lunch hold you close until spring lets you run free, your hair laced with pea shoot garlands.
Here are some soup-packing tips, from our office to yours:
- Greens in soup can get a little bit sad when reheated, so go for something with sturdier vegetables.
- Stay away from noodle soups. Nobody wants reheated noodle mush.
- Pick something that's packed with beans or grains or other rib-sticking foods. Or supplement with good, crusty bread.
- Avoid yogurt-based soups; they need to be reheated gently, which is a challenge in your local break room's 1987 microwave.
- Consider how your colleagues will feel if you reheat fish stew and then the entire office smells of fish stew. Just consider it.
Get started with these lunchbox-friendly recipes:
1. Start with tomato soup, whose soul-comforting abilities have already been well documented. Make this spicy Genius recipe, or improvise your own.
2. Merrill's White Bean Soup covers all your necessary bases: quick to make, filling but healthful, and just as good -- if not better -- on day two.
3. The little black dress of soups is actually orange. This Roasted Carrot Soup never fails. Learn it. Love it.
4. Butternut Squash Soup with Miso tastes creamy, but won't leave you with a 3 PM dairy hangover. And the ginger-cayenne-miso combination will keep boredom at bay. (If you're really struggling with ennui you could also keep one of those joke-of-the-day calendars at your desk.)
5. Satisfaction, thy name is cheese. Specifically, Parmesan cheese. In this Broccoli, Lemon, and Parmesan Soup. Until sweater weather subsides, this will be your trusty companion.
Tell us: What are your favorite soups to pack into your lunch box?
Written by: Marian Bull
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5 Comments
1. The protein and fibre of the beans keep you fuller for longer, so it can do as a whole meal (whereas at home I'd put out a bread basket or salad);
2. Every bite should be a bit different. I like pureed soups, but only in smaller doses, as a first course, or beside a grilled cheese sandwich. I need something to dunk in a puree; I need to add texture.
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