LUNCH! Week 9: White Beans + Smoked Salmon + Eggplant

Let’s do LUNCH!. With chapters built around three main ingredients, the LUNCH! cookbook demonstrates how to make 10 weeks of exciting lunches (50 recipes in all) with fresh ingredients and healthy variety.

Monday Grilled Eggplant and Potato Salad Bowl
Tuesday Smoked Salmon Flatbread with Fennel Salad
Wednesday Sabich Flatbread with Potato Salad
Thursday Freekeh Bowl with Smoked Salmon
Friday Babo Ghanoush with Flatbread and Chopped Salad

This week, keep your phone handy at lunchtime, because you’ll want to snap photos of these stunning bowls. Each is bursting with different colors and textures, making them worthy of the “foodporn” hashtag. Before you dismiss making your own flatbreads from scratch, please trust that they are super easy, extremely tasty, and so worth it. When you start enjoying them topped with smoked salmon, bright pink pickled onion, and crispy capers, you’ll be really happy you put in the small amount of effort. Full of protein and fiber, freekeh is a variety of wheat that’s harvested while it’s young and then toasted, and it’s an ideal base for any lunch bowl. If you can’t find it near you, feel free to substitute either of its older siblings, farro or wheat berries.

Grocery List

Pantry

¼ cup tahini
Extra virgin olive oil
Grapeseed oil
¾ cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
¼ cup capers
1 (14-ounce) can white beans (cannellini, great northern, or similar)
1 cup freekeh (or wheat berries or farro)
1 (¼-ounce) packet dry active yeast
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons sumac
4 black peppercorns (optional)

Produce

1 bunch chives
1 bunch dill
5 garlic cloves
1 small red onion
1½ pounds eggplant (about 1 large or 3 small eggplants)
1 pound baby potatoes
1 bulb fennel
2 lemons
2 (5-ounce) containers baby greens (kale, arugula, or similar)
2 Persian cucumbers

Dairy

1 egg
½ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
2 ounces feta cheese

Meat

1 (4-ounce) package smoked salmon