What are your favourite cold main meal recipes?

[Lioncubhearted]

Looking for ideas for proper main meals, which can be eaten cold. Rephrase...which are nice to eat cold. In my mind, a pasta salad is a cold pasta bake with salad dressing instead of cheese. So it's a proper main meal even though it's cold. Does that make sense? I'm getting sick of eating it though, so what other meals fit the cold criteria?

Frittata and salad

Rice salad
salad salad 😜

We often have avocado and bacon baguettes for dinner. Love it!

Buddha bowl (which I guess is like a rice salad, but you could use bulgur wheat or quinoa?)

Apart from a million different salads 😂

Asian noodle salads are another take on pasta salad

Poached salmon and potato salad (or lentil salad)

Quiche

a huge beautiful glass bowl of sherry trifle

I like salmon fillets, with pickle salad - I make a cucumber pickle with live apple cider vinegar and thinly sliced red onions and sesame seeds.

Chicken salad wraps
cous cous with various things in it
Quiche
stir fry with noodles can be nice cold

Salad Nicoise with garlic bread
Hairy Dieters Hot Smoked Salmon salad with chickpeas
Mezze - hummus, falafel, salad, flat breads, dips etc
Tuna & white bean salad

🤣🤣 yes, but a salad salad is lots of lettuce! And therefore is not a proper main meal, it's a light meal. I'm after inspiration for a proper main meal which can be eaten cold (preferably out of a flask and preferably without too much mess).

Any good recipes or places to look? I can't prepare food unless I have specific instructions as I clearly have no innate survival instinct...

Aside from salads not much really.

I really like cold curry but my family disagree. Pies are usually just as nice cold but not so much their hot accompaniments.

I love Caesar salad. I make croutons with stale baguette and make a dressing with mayo, parmesan, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce or a mashed anchovy, tiny bit of lemon or vinegar and splash of water to loosen, and plenty of black pepper.

I actually quite like cold white pizza. My fave is mushroom, truffle, and smoked burrata!

I suppose quiche, salad and potato salad. Cold roast chicken and salad....although I would serve it with mash or hot crusty bread. Cold sausages / kebabs with salad. I'm guessing you are after packable meals.

Cold sluced gammon with a homemade potato salad. So nice

Pizza

Mine is probably Greek salad. With a lot of vinaigrette (just red wine vinegar and olive oil) to dip in some ciabatta type bread.

Gazpacho
Hummus and/or other dips, or pate, with oatcakes, breadsticks, tortilla chips, carrot/celery sticks etc
Leftover ratatouille with whatever grain you had with it, or chickpeas/beans, or both - very nice cold

How has nobody mentioned cold roast chicken and salad yet?! I like it with peppers and olives.

Cos it’s just another way of saying chicken salad. Which has been covered by ‘all kinds of salads’.

Another vote for pies here, all that whole pasty, roll continuum. Personally I even like cold baked beans on a cold jacket spud.

Out of a flask suggests work lunches to be. Depending on the flask and your lunch time I tend to go with pasta with something like leek bacon and mustard cream sauce.

Otherwise I would look at meat and veg. My local supermarket regularly have duck breast and chicken thighs on yellow sticker offer along with lots of veg suitable for roasting. I tend to tray bake them and make a salad dressing and have them cold for work lunch (cold veg may not be for everyone).

I like a cobb salad with chicken, bacon and hard boiled eggs. There are lots of recipes on line if you search. If looking at a classic recipe, I always omit avocado and use feta rather than blue cheese.

My other favourites are (all plonked on top of a big bowl of mixed leaves):
Chicken breast with roast butternut slices, nuts and seeds
Cold salmon fillet with roast beetroot, freekah, and a dressing made from sour cream, lemon juice and capers
Pasta with a tin of tuna, black olives, capers, tiny tomatoes and basil.

I guess you want a salad with lots of carbs and protein then, ingredients like beans, pasta, noodles, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pulses, grains, nuts, butternut squash. How about things like falafel, samosas, Vietnamese summer rolls, borek, sausage rolls, sushi? Ottolenghi has lots of hearty recipes. I would pick some hearty ingredients and Google salad recipes that include them bacon and chestnut salad recipe.

Tuna and beans
Panzanella
BLT potato salad

Do you have access to a kettle? Instant ramen with added finely chopped veg and frozen peas is good (they barely need cooking). You could add an egg or shredded chicken.

Panzanella is my favourite as it has dry bread left to soak up juices of the assorted tomatoes, Italian cucumbers, roast peppers and garlicky Dijon and wine vinegar sauce. I’ve been to a barbecue and eaten just that. Even better with a silky buffalo mozzarella. I’m also a fan of couscous salads like Tabbouleh (sp?).
A huge pork pie with boiled eggs running through it would be good as a main course.
Cheese board, assorted crackers or bread, apples and and grapes in meal sized-quantities would be my idea of heaven!

@KnickerFolder No access to a kettle. Needs to be able to be eaten one handed (I.e. hold pot in one hand, fork/spoon in the other) whilst standing.