the lunch stash

I do not really eat lunch.

I eat a late breakfast, and then sometime around 2 PM I grab chips and guacamole or vegetables and ranch. If there are leftovers, I might eat actual food. If there are not, I do not suddenly become a person who makes herself lunch.

The chips have never won on merit. They win because the bag is open and nothing else is ready. They’re technically vegan and come with a fruit I have chosen to count as a vegetable, so they have had a very good run.

But when something more substantial is already in the fridge, I eat it. I would like to tell you this is discipline. It is proximity. 

So that is this week’s win. One thing in the fridge that can compete with the chips.

three options. pick one.

thai salad with peanut sauce is the high effort option. Thirty minutes. Most of that is chopping cabbage and making the peanut sauce. It is good on day one and, unusually for a salad, still good on day four.

pepperoncini chicken salad is the medium effort option. Twenty minutes, one rotisserie chicken, one bowl, no cooking. Every bit as good, with less chopping and 10 minutes back.

a doctored bagged salad or 3-ingredient chicken salad is the low effort option. Ten minutes or less. The bagged salad gets rotisserie chicken, peanut sauce, and ranch. The chicken salad gets three ingredients and a shortcut doing most of the work.

The reward is small and it arrives at an odd time. You open the fridge on Wednesday, see the container, and feel briefly competent. That is the whole thing.

the container situation

My chicken salad goes in a deli container. I wash and reuse them, and they hold up fine on the top rack. There is no reason chicken salad needs a deli container. It makes lunch feel catered, which is generous considering I made it myself.

The thai salad gets portioned into individual containers, with the peanut sauce and ranch in their own. One big bowl of undressed cabbage is not lunch. It is a step. Portioned into a container, it is lunch.

the containers

• deli containers (chicken salad)
• glass containers (thai salad base)
• sauce jar (thai peanut)
• sauce jar (ranch dressing)

HIGH effort - 30 minutes

Most of the time goes to chopping the cabbage. The cabbage is also why the salad holds up for several days in the fridge.

The ranch is not a typo.

thai salad with peanut sauce

serves: 6 lunch portions

time: 30 minutes

ingredients

for the peanut sauce:

• ⅓ cup (85g) creamy peanut butter
• 6 tablespoons (80g) olive oil
• ¼ cup (60g) water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1½ tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated or roughly chopped, or 3 Dorot ginger cubes
• 1 garlic clove, or 1 Dorot garlic cube
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

for the salad:

• 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded, about 3 to 4 cups meat
• 4 cups purple cabbage, thinly sliced
• 3 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ¼ cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup (35g) peanuts, chopped
• lime wedges, for serving
• Optional: ranch dressing, for serving. Highly recommended.

instructions

Make the peanut sauce: Add the peanut butter (⅓ cup), olive oil (6 tablespoons), water (¼ cup), honey (2 tablespoons), lime juice (3 tablespoons), rice vinegar (2 tablespoons), soy sauce (1½ tablespoons), ginger (1 tablespoon), garlic (1 clove), red pepper flakes (½ teaspoon), and salt (¼ teaspoon) to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, blend in water 1 tablespoon at a time until it pours the way you want it to.

Prepare the salad base: In a large bowl, combine the purple cabbage (4 cups), green cabbage (3 cups), bell pepper (1), carrots (1 cup), cilantro (¼ cup), and the shredded chicken (1 rotisserie chicken). Toss gently to combine.

Serve: Divide the salad base between bowls and top with the chopped peanuts (¼ cup). Drizzle with the peanut sauce and a little ranch dressing, then finish with a squeeze of fresh lime.

worth knowing

Rotisserie chickens vary. If yours is a generous one, add another cup of cabbage so the salad does not go chicken-heavy.

The peanut sauce thickens in the fridge. Add a splash of warm water and stir.

The base holds 3 to 4 days. Keep the peanut sauce and the ranch in their own containers, and add the peanuts when you eat so they stay crunchy.

MEDIUM effort - 20 minutes

Nothing gets cooked. You pull a rotisserie chicken apart, chop it with the pepperoncini, and stir it into mayonnaise.

The pepperoncini are the whole recipe. Everything else is chicken salad.

pepperoncini chicken salad

makes: about 5 cups

time: 20 minutes

ingredients

• 1 rotisserie chicken, about 4 cups meat
• ⅔ cup (150g) mayonnaise
• ½ cup (70g) pepperoncini, drained and patted dry
• 2 teaspoons pepperoncini brine
• ¾ cup (75g) celery, finely diced
• ⅓ cup red onion, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper, more to taste

instructions

Chop the chicken and the peppers: Pull the meat from the rotisserie chicken (about 4 cups) and pile it on a large cutting board with the pepperoncini (½ cup), drained and patted dry. Chop through everything with a chef’s knife until the chicken is in small pieces and the peppers are fine. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add everything else: Add the celery (¾ cup), red onion (⅓ cup), dill (2 tablespoons), mayonnaise (⅔ cup), pepperoncini brine (2 teaspoons), Dijon (1 teaspoon), garlic powder (½ teaspoon), and black pepper (¼ teaspoon). Fold until everything is evenly coated.

Season it: Add the salt (¼ teaspoon), taste, and add more if it needs it. The chicken and the peppers are already salted, so it may not need much.

worth knowing

Drain the peppers well and pat them dry. Wet pepperoncini will thin the chicken salad out over a few days.

If it seems dry, add mayonnaise 1 tablespoon at a time. Rotisserie chickens vary in size.

LOW effort - 10 minutes

Buy an Asian chopped salad kit. Throw out the dressing packet and make the peanut sauce from the high-effort recipe above.It takes two minutes in a blender and it makes enough for the whole week. Add rotisserie chicken. Ranch, obviously.

Portion it the same way. Kit and chicken in one container, with peanut sauce and ranch separate. Keep the crunchy packets sealed until you eat, which is the one thing the kit gets right.

One kit is about two lunches, so buy three if you want the week covered.

Or make 3-ingredient chicken salad. Rotisserie chicken, garlic aioli mayo, fresh dill. The aioli is doing the work of about six ingredients.