The Little Book of Lunch, recipes

Sometimes mid-week lunches can be so uninspiring, and frankly, rather boring. Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing have created a whole hoard of recipes to save yourself from dull lunches

Vietnamese-style rolls are crunchy and fresh tasting and easy to eat with one hand

Carrot tartlets

Serves 4
Takes 30 minutes

Carrots are the sort of thing we always have lurking in our fridge, needing to be used up before we go on holiday. Thankfully, they make delicious toppings for these little tartlets.

1 packet of puff pastry
4 large carrots
1 heaped tsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Maille wholegrain mustard
1 egg pinch of thyme
1 egg, beaten

For the salad topping

150g rocket 1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Pinch of salt and pepper

Take puff pastry out of the fridge and bring to room temperature, preheat the oven to 200C. Wash, peel and chop your carrots into segments. Place in an oven-proof dish and drizzle over 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt, pepper, and the honey. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring after few minutes to coat evenly in the melted honey.

Lay the puff pastry onto an oven tray, keeping it on the baking paper it came with. Use a pint glass to cut out circular bits of pastry, then, using a glass with a smaller circumference, make a light indent inside each circle and prick the pastry with a fork. Coat with a layer of Maille wholegrain. Place carrots onto the pastry bases, using a pastry brush coat the carrots with a little more olive oil, and sprinkle over a pinch of thyme. Finish by brushing the pastry edges with some beaten egg, then cook for 12 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.

Prepare the salad: pack your leaves in a large container and pack the dressing separately (a mini jam jar would be perfect for this). When the tartlets are cooked, wrap them in tin foil. When you are ready to eat, cover the leaves with your dressing and mix to coat evenly. Then, top each tartlet with some lovely greenery and enjoy! Eat them as you would pizza slices.

Summer vegetable lentil salad

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes

A delicious salad that will keep you going on those long car journeys... Rather than popping the lot in a large container and messily dishing out in picnic bowls as your partner hurtles down the M4, for ease and general car-zen-ness, consider decanting into individual kilner jars. This way, when you’ve all finished eating, you can just close them again and not worry about washing up until you have reached your destination.

250g cherry tomatoes
200g lentils
1 knorr vegetable stock cube
250g halloumi
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon 
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 courgette, peeled into ribbons

Preheat the oven to 160C. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and place in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle over pepper and olive oil, then cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Cook the lentils a saucepan in 600ml of water. Bring to the boil then add the Knorr stock cube. Leave to fast-simmer uncovered, stirring with a wooden spoon until the lentils are cooked and the water has been almost completely absorbed.

Place a griddle pan on a high heat. Slice your halloumi into 0.5cm thick slices and griddle until a little charred and soft. Mix the cooked ingredients together with the olive oil, garlic and lemon juice – add salt and pepper if necessary. Assemble the salad into four kilner jars and top with the pumpkin seeds and courgette ribbons. When you are ready to eat, stir the courgette and seeds into the lentils to coat in the dressing. Enjoy

Spicy prawn mayo summer rolls

Makes 8 rolls
Preparation time: 30 minutes

These Vietnamese-style rolls tick all the boxes for a meal on the go: crunchy and fresh tasting and easy to eat with one hand. Instead of a traditional dipping sauce on the side, we like to mix our prawns with mayo and chilli sauce before rolling. They also happen to be gluten and wheat free.

40g dried vermicelli rice noodles
140g cooked, peeled tiger or king prawns, cut in half lengthways
1 tbsp Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise
1 tsp chilli sauce
1/8 (around 70g) iceberg lettuce, finely shredded
4 radishes, topped and tailed, halved then sliced into thin half moons
A small handful of mint leaves
8 rice paper pancakes
2 tbsp crushed salted peanuts 

Add noodles to a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to sit for around five minutes, or until cooked, then drain.

In a small bowl, mix together the halved prawns, mayonnaise and chilli sauce. Prepare all the other ingredients ready to roll. Pour some hot water into a large wide bowl. Dip a pancake in it briefly, so it gets completely wet, then quickly place on a clean plate or chopping board. Put a small pinch of lettuce 4cm up from the bottom of the pancake (leave at least 3cm space to the left and right) then top with a pinch of noodles, 3 prawn halves, a few slices of radish, mint and a sprinkle of crushed peanuts. Don’t overfill it!

Like a parcel, fold the left and right sides over the filling, fold the bottom over as far as you can. Wrap the top of the pancake over to seal the whole thing. Try and keep it as tight as possible. The pancakes are delicate so it might take a few goes to get it right. Line a large Tupperware with greaseproof paper then lay the finished rolls in it (you can do two layers by separating them with another piece of paper). Store in a coolbag or a cool spot

Caroline and Sophie have created three recipes for Hellmann’s, Knorr and Maille that can be prepared easily at home and enjoyed on the road. All are a fun take on the usual fare from the service station to fit that holiday mood.

The Little Book of Lunch: Recipes and Ideas for the Office Packed Lunch. By Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing. Photography by David Loftus