Girl Lunch
Reminds me of being 22 but I have my own kitchen.
* I have accidentally taken August off from essay writing – honestly there have been weddings and hangovers and gatherings and an inability to time keep. I’ll be back in September with plenty of ideas, brimming with intelligence and creativity (we hope). In the meantime, I’m opening up my other newsletters to free subscribers until mid-September so everyone can get a taste of what SNOA is all about!
In the late summer of 2012, I arrived on Rivington Street. I was still living at my parents’ house and it was my first job (read: internship). In those days I didn’t bring my lunch from home, instead I merely assembled ingredients purchased at the local supermarket. I was most known for my tartines: usually a small mountain of avocado, hummus, smoked mackerel heaped onto toasted rye bread and a side of heavily salted cottage cheese. When I eventually left the creative agency, I remember the design director messaging me to say he’d eaten a tartine and thought of me, which I thought was a great way to be remembered. Ten years later, I have returned to Rivington Street, our office a less-than-three-minute walk away from the garden rooftop where I used to tuck into my tartines. These days, I’ve been known to prepare a few things in the comfort of my own kitchen, and earlier this week, what felt like would have been a bland and disappointing lunch, turned out to be pretty delicious thanks to the addition of some Sainsbury’s chilli salmon and a lime, miso and honey dressing that I’d brought in a jar that morning. I ate it at my desk (sad) but it tasted like summer (happy), and that’s all we can ask for.
For the base:
A small handful of greens: I used green beans and tenderstem broccoli
Lettuce of choice (I used a few regular lettuce leaves and a handful of shiso leaves both from my mum’s garden!)
One soy marinated egg
One fillet of salmon - either cooked yourself or bought in a pack of two from the supermarket (my ultimate hack for a good lunch). You could also use smoked mackerel or some sort of tinned fish!
Half an avocado, sliced however you like it
A Ryvita or my personal fave but I didn’t have it on the day: a Dr Karg’s pumpkin and emmental crispbread.
For the dressing:
Juice of half a lime
About the same volume of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of honey
2 tsp of white miso
Big pinch of salt
Big grind of pepper
1-2 tsp of the marinade for the soy marinated egg
1 tsp of nutritional yeast
In a jar at all your dressing ingredients, pop on the lid and aggressively shake until everything is smooth and comes together. You can always give it a little whisk with a fork. Don’t forget to taste - I like this dressing to be very acidic and fresh, so don’t be afraid to let the lime flavour be the main character. Boil some salted water in a pan, add your green beans and broccoli and cook for no more than a couple of minutes. Plunge into cold water, pat dry then slice into bite size pieces. Then all you have to do is pop the greens + washed lettuce/shiso leaves into a tupperware with the egg, fish and half an avocado. Do not under any circumstances dress the salad beforehand! Pour the dressing over just as you’re about to eat and perhaps enjoy with a squeeze of sriracha if your work/studio kitchen happens to have some. I made this the next day but I had run out of limes, instead opting for a chimichurri of sorts (chopped parsley, coriander, mint and chives with chilli flakes, salt, chopped capers, olive oil and pickle juice because I literally had no citrus left in the fridge).
