Cheapish lunch for friends

[Chelsea26]

Having friends around for lunch on Friday - there will be 6 of us.

My tendency is to massively over cater and get/but/make ‘all the things’ to sprinkle, add, have on the side etc

We have just spanked a load of money on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday so it’s tighten our belts time so I’m looking for ideas for a cheapish lunch that I can do that is ‘complete’ so I don’t need to add other bits.

Would like it to be healthy and no red meat please. I’m a good cook and don’t mind spending some time cooking.

Any ideas?

Personally I would do something like a chicken lasagne or a seafood lasagne and serve with some green salad. Can be made in advance and any leftovers can be portioned and frozen for later meals

I love these two pasta recipes by Meera Sodha pasta 1 pasta 2 - I'm not vegan so make obvious changes such as using parmesan instead of nutritional yeast and real butter instead of vegan.

Quiche and salad? (Goats cheese or salmon quiche)

Poached salmon & salads one green one with pasta or a grain?

Nice bread. Nice butter.

Mushroom pasta or risotto with Green salad.

A hearty chicken soup and bread?

A friend of mine once made an Irish stew for a lunch - simple & delicious but it was winter and you don't want red meat!

Or you could roast a whole chicken or do chicken thighs in a lemon / herby / spicy marinade, served warm with a salad.

I'm thinking basically that you do one "dish" and serve simply with one salad and some good quality bread!

A puff pastry tart. The courgette and mint tart on the sainsburys website is gorgeous and it’s very summery.

This will some salad. You could do new potatoes on the side to bulk it out if people eat a lot or a French stick

A Facebook reel has come up where she lays sheets of filo pastry on a tin (with raised edges). She whisks eggs and adds cheese which goes on top of the pastry (but not very thick) and then she peels thin slices of courgette to go on top and drizzles with olive oil, and seasoning.

Think it then had that soft cheese which isn't mozzarella and begins with a b! put on top.

Ooo I haven’t made a tart/quiche in ages. That might be a winner.

I often make them meat and salad but I can’t seem to do a simple salad…

My best friends favourite is my chicken tikka salad (which I know she will be hoping for!) but that consists of

spinach
radishes
peppers
spring onion
cherry tomatoes
cucumber
celery
carrots
beetroot
cumin dusted roast sweet potato cubes
lentil daal
mint raita
mango chutney
papads
annnnnnnnnnnd
chicken tikka!

I would do a tart with a lovely salad or a roast chicken (served room temperature, not hot) served with new potatoes and/or garlic bread and 2 salads. These are my default easy but nice lunches in this kind of situation.

For 6, I would probably do two different tarts. Leek and pancetta with cream cheese is our favourite so that would be one, but maybe a tomato and pesto tart for the other or goats cheese and caramelised onion perhaps.

I think there's nothing easier or tastier than a homemade kebab. Flat bread, salad, spiced chicken chunks and a little sour cream and sweet chilli.

Nigella's chicken and chorizo tray bake.
Super easy, just to a salad on the side.

If she likes this and you are good at it, why not do it? it doesn't strike me as massively expensive? unless you then serve it with 500 side dishes as well?

if you like Indian style salads this Dishoom broccoli salad is a winner, everyone I have made it for has asked for the recipe. The ingredients list isn't short, but it is a lot of cupboard staples and not too many different fresh vegetables (which I guess is the issue with the other salad you mentioned). Delicious with chicken tikka on the side.

Roast chicken, Caesar salad, roasted new potatoes