What would you make for a quick lunch with a friend?

[birminghamgirls]

I have a friend coming over for lunch next week. I'm not overly used to hosting, so this is a bit out of my comfort zone. What should I make for lunch? It's only the two of us and it'll be a reasonably quick catch up as we both have to go back to work afterwards. I'm not sure a "big" dish like a lasagne is appropriate and I don't want anything too complicated. What would you make in this scenario?

@Whowhatwerewolf, I completely agree. That's important to point out.
She used to be a chef and we are in New York, so lots of good places to get the right supplies. But I definitely wouldn't fancy this made with the regular salmon from the supermarket.
What impressed me was that it was SO easy but also addictively delicious. I've made the avocado dish and eaten it over rice so many times since. It really does taste far more amazing than the sum of its parts.

Chicken caesar salad, fresh fruit.

I had a friend round for lunch the other day and had part baked baguettes (which I obviously baked before he came so they were warm) and then salad, hummus, olives, a charcuterie platter thing, and cheeses - all from M&S except the bread. For pudding I had a cheesecake and pouring cream, but we ended up with Magnums out of the freezer. I’m a pretty good cook and would do a proper meal for a dinner, but CBA for lunch!

I second a tuna Niçoise salad, we've had it a couple of times, recently, it's been lovely in this weather and is delicious. You could boil the eggs and cook the potatoes (optional) and green beans and make the dressing the night before, and then just chop up the rest of the salady bits on the day and combine with a tin of tuna in olive oil (I use the oil from the tuna in the dressing). Just make sure you take the pre-prepared stuff out of the fridge before lunch to take the chill off.

I have a bread maker so I usually make a fresh loaf and lay it out with butter, ham or chicken, cheese, carrots, houmous, cucumber, pepper, grapes and tomatoes/avocado/mozzarella.

How long is lunch ?

Myself I like an open sandwich as I find two slices too bloating , on a lovely dark rye bread

Topped with leaves, pickles, and protein of choice

Posher and more interesting then a sandwich, not so fussy as putting the ingredients of a salad out , for me its really the best of both worlds

Quiche and salad.

F

I’d make an Italian canellini and tuna salad

Chopped egg salad and crusty bread. If you have one of those chopper contraptions it takes 3 minutes. Use the big square attachment and just chop everything you want in your salad along with some roughly chopped hard boiled eggs. I’d have some good balsamic as a dressing.

Do you know what food she likes? There’s some great suggestions on here but all very risky if you go with one option and she doesn’t like it. Why don’t you just text her and say I’m going shopping later what do you fancy for lunch tomorrow? I was thinking x or y?

Ploughman's = now rebranded as charcuterie plate !

Chicken sandwiches with salad or soup or chips.

A good old Irish soup and a sandwich.

I make a courgette and coriander soup that is good chilled.

1 courgette per person, bunch of coriander, a drop of oil, salt and pepper, veg stock cube and optional crème fraiche to serve.

Slice the courgettes, place in a pan with the oil, turn down low, cover with a lid or baking paper leave to braise (I'm not sure if that is the right word) the courgettes you want them to be translucent, a little bit of brown is fine. That takes about 8-10 mins.

Add the torn coriander, stock cube, boiling water and seasoning.

Blend, I use a stick blender but you can use any type of blender. Actually you could do this in a soup maker.

It takes a max of 20 - 25 mins and I would do this the day before.

Allow to cool and then chill overnight, serve with a dollop of crème fraiche. Oh if you leave out the crème fraiche it is vegan which it is always useful to have up your sleeve.

For the sandwich part I would cut a baguette up and put small plates of smoked salmon, cream cheese, chopped tomato, some chopped herbs, olives, chutney maybe some pickles.

Ask her what she would like.

I wouldn’t like half of these. Just ask her

Greek Salad. But im having it so much at the moment in this heat. Also not sad naked feta, feta with a decent dollop of olive oil and oregano xx

I’d focus on simple, fresh, quick assembly and make ahead/shop bought.

Crackers/fresh bread (or bake in the oven baguette) with cheese, pate, pickles would be lovely. Add frozen grapes - delicious.
Frittata can be made the night before & either served cold or warmed. Serve with salad & crusty bread.
Or bagels with scrambled egg - add smoked salmon if you want to make it a bit more fancy
Smoked salmon bagels with cream cheese
Make ahead chilli & rice or salad or get wraps & add cheese Greek yoghurt & salad
Homous & rocket wraps
Soup & rolls/fresh bread

ice cream & fruit or strawberries & cream followed by coffee & a biscuit or couple of chocolates.

I’d buy cooked chicken joints and salad.

Toasted bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon

I’d make a tart using a roll of puff pastry and some toppings like pesto, peppers and mozzarella with a salad.
Or a wrap which is hummus, chicken or halloumi based with a salad. Lots of nice recipes on the Internet.
Id also offer a desert like some strawberries with ice cream or slice of cheesecake. Or just the cheesecake.
You can offer tea or coffee after lunch too.

I like baking so I would do a fresh loaf of sourdough and cook some sausages, bacon, eggs (DH would eat leftovers) and let them help themselves. I would have a sweet option, probably some croissants or chocolate twists out too.

Indian flat bread wraps? I made this the other day as a fakeaway street food thing for my teens, I brought the 2 giant thin naan from Aldi and they really are giant, tandoori spiced chicken breast or thigh in air fryer, sliced, then into the naans and wrapped, can also add any salady bits mint raita etc, that was a surprising hit, easy and not too expensive

Avocado on toast
Or
Ploughman's with some nice bread

A supermarket quiche, homemade potato salad, coleslaw (Lidl's low-fat one is creamy, delicious and looks homemade), a small side salad, fresh farmhouse loaf. For drinks, traditional lemonade (the type you can buy from a big garden centre).