Cold meat/cheese/bread alternatives please

[awkwardturtle]

On holiday in Portugal with 10 of us and I'm in charge of food! Can you share your ideas for quick and easy lunches for a crowd please. We're going to get bored with a cold deli selection but I don't want to be tied to the cooker all day and night. Thanks!

Portuguese supermarkets will sell amazing sardine pate and (if they have a deli section) carrot salad, which is a very typical local picnic/ starter/ snack combo.

Cous Cous with antipasti roasted veg/olives and feta

Pasta and pesto - can serve hot or cold. Can add olives, tuna, tomatoes, chicken, sweetcorn etc etc (not all at the same time. 😂). Toasted sandwich. Egg on toast.

Can you not just do a massive bowl of plain pasta and add bowls of things people can mix in to make their own pasta salad? Tuna mayo, chicken, ham, sweet corn, peppers, onions etc and have some different sauces like pesto, mayo, tomato. Then do some boiled eggs, homemade coleslaw/potato salad?

Really quick no-cook couscous salad www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11690/10minute-couscous-salad
Frittata www.coop.co.uk/recipes/spinach-frittata
Puff pastry tarts www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6345/courgette-mushroom-and-mozzarella-tart
Salmon and new potato salad
Open prawn cocktail sandwiches www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1507670/open-prawn-cocktail-sandwich

Just big bowls of colourful salads?
Tortilla
Pasta
Pizza

Quiche/tortilla and salads?

Lovely ideas - thanks. Would do mountains of pasta but my dad won't eat it He won't eat rice either but I will try and get couscous past him. Puff pastry tarts are a great idea. My brain has seized up with the sun (or is it the wine!) hence the request for ideas. Please keep them coming!

Ask your dad for suggestions, ruling out anything that is time consuming?

Might be easier to cater for the 9 others and give him something else.

Do you have an oven? If so, roast 2 chickens and serve with salad & crusty bed. I know they need cooking but you're not slaving over it. Potatoes too if you can be bothered.

I would never be bored of a fresh loaf and stuff. I love the routine on holiday of popping to a local bakery in the morning for the bread....(there might be someone else in your party who could do this as you are cooking....)

Yes - got an oven so can easily roast chickens. Great for leftovers too. I've been doing loads of roast veg, which everyone enjoys and have found a brilliant supermarket which has some amazing ready prepared BBQ food. Also did a Nigella shoulder of lamb with pomegranate and mint which was pretty effortless. So main meals are fine, it's more the quick and easy throw together lunches which I'm getting stuck for ideas for.

My dad, bless him, is quite a fussy eater - hates pasta, rice, couscous - anything which he considers difficult to eat with a fork - which limits me somewhat. I could make something different for him but I will test the water with a couscous salad and see how we go!

Tell your Dad to make his own and then you can make whatever you want for the normal eaters.

He's 92!

What about a chilled soup?

Gazpacho/vichyssoise/ajo blanco for example.

Better done the day before and put in the fridge overnight but all pretty easy to make (assuming you have a blender for the latter two but Gazpacho can be made without) so super quick for lunch.

Tortilla is lovely with some salad on the side and easy to make.

Quesadillas? Tortillas in a dry pan, add fillings of your choice eg ham/cheese/chicken/retried beans/chilli - whatever you fancy add another tortilla in top. Cooks 3/4 mins each side and can be kept warm in a low oven. Then cut in to quarters and serve with side salads.

Lovely idea DeRigueur - thanks.

Supermarket pizza bases with bought tomato sauce, variety of fillings, cheese topping.

Raid the supermarket fish counter for a fish platter, prawns in mayonnaise or tomato sauce, smoked fish, fish pate etc.

Does the supermarket do cartons or bottles of ready made soup? Ready cooked chicken?

Have a look at the tinned fish section in the supermarket, there will be some interesting things there, peppers stuffed with cod for instance.

@AdaColeman haven't found cooked chickens but it's easy enough to pop a couple in the oven. I have seen some ready made soup and I'll investigate again tomorrow. We're 11 this weekend so will be visiting the supermarket regularly (daily)!

Maybe a bit off piste (forgive the pun) but what about fondue?

You don't really need a fondue set it can be made in a pan and served in multiple bowls with forks and won't go cold as long as everyone tucks in sharpish.

It's just a spin on your deli food as you can serve bread, cured ham, cold meats and cold new potatoes to dip in, green salad along side but mixes it up a bit.

Only takes 10 mins to make - without a fondue set you'd just have to be a bit organised and have everything else on the table ready with people sitting down when you bring out multiple bowls of the fondue to lay down the table for everyone to reach.

tell your dad he Won't Like It, my pasta hating Dad went mad for cous cous years back after being told that!

Parents were visiting, and I did Chicken, lemon herb cous cous and then your straight forward Chicken roast with all the accompaniments, guess who had roast chicken, all the vegs, gravy, yorkshires and roasties with a good side helping of cous cous just to see if he liked it :o

Blackened Salmon is lovely with cous cous too....esp if you can get a big side/fillet and griddle it, really quick to do too if you make sure the fish is not fridge cold.

I'd go poke about the supermarkets, I love a forrin shop :o ...maybe a lunch of little ovenable things...empanadas?? Maybe to go with DeRigeur's quesadillas

Gosh what a job you've got for yourself awkwardturtle cooking for eleven. I hope they all muck in and help. You'll need a proper holiday after this!

Thought of another.

Shakshuka - basically a quick sauce made with onions, peppers and tinned tomatoes. Just fry off the veg in olive oil, add the tomatoes and cumin and chilli to taste. Season. Alternatively to make easier use peppers from a jar of you can get them.

Then put in oven dishes. Make little wells in the sauce and crack and egg in per person
(or more).

Cook in the oven for 5-7 mins (eggs should be cooked with a runny yoke).

Leave to cool a bit.

Let everyone help themselves to an egg and sauce with bread to mop up. Salad on the side.

The sauce can be made in advance but takes me 10 mins to do it - it's meant to be rustic so keep the veg chunky (which also makes it quicker).

Another one is scallops with chorizo.

Chop the chorizo into coins and fry to release the oil. Throw in the scallops (the small frozen ones are fine, but fresh if you can get them) cook for 2 mins - it's really that quick. Can also be done with prawns but you need raw ones. Again lots of bread to soak up the juices.

@DeRigueurMortis such great ideas. Thanks again! And yes @AdaColeman - it's a lot of work but I really enjoy doing it - just needed a few lovely ideas to get me going. And I certainly don't get involved in the clearing up!

You're welcome - have a lovely holiday!

P.s - forgot to say add paprika to the Shakshuka (or alternatively you can use chorizo in this also to the same effect - just brown it first and sauté the veg in the oil released) and the chorizo/scallops/prawns (thinking about it you could use scallops and prawns together which might be nice and I might do next time) also benefit from a splash or so of white wine if you have any to hand to create an oily winery sauce to mop up.