Lunch recipes: 30 easy ideas for every day

What to cook for lunch today? A quick guide by available time

The midday question is rarely "which recipe do I feel like?" but "how much time do I have?". This table sorts the 15 recipes in this guide by real total time — the one each recipe card declares, not an optimistic estimate — so you can choose in 10 seconds.

Healthy, high-protein lunches (meal prep)

These recipes are designed to cook once and eat several times: oven traybakes that yield 4 portions, egg muffins that work cold and a green side dish that pairs with any protein. Every recipe card includes its own storage advice.

Lemon chicken traybake

Everything on one oven tray: chicken, potatoes and vegetables with lemon, 40 minutes in total and 4 portions that keep for 3-4 days refrigerated. It is the anchor meal-prep recipe of this guide. See the lemon chicken traybake.

Baked egg muffins

Egg, spinach and cheese baked in muffin tins: protein ready for the week that can be eaten cold or reheated in 30 seconds. The whole batch bakes at once in 35 minutes. See the baked egg muffins.

Baked salmon with lemon and butter

An omega-3-rich oily fish that practically cooks itself: 25 minutes in total, with the juicy centre guaranteed by the right temperature. With rice or salad it makes an effortless healthy lunch. See the baked salmon.

Creamed Swiss chard as a side dish

The green side that completes the plate: blanched chard in a creamy sauce, ready in 35 minutes and free of bitterness thanks to the 2-minute blanching step. It pairs with the chicken, the salmon or the pork chops from this same guide. See the creamed Swiss chard.

To finish lunch with something sweet but light, the Greek yoghurt and berry pots take 15 minutes and can also be prepared ahead.

Hearty Chilean lunches (for the weekend)

These mains take over an hour, but they yield 4-6 portions and taste even better the next day: cook on Saturday and you also have Monday's lunch. They are the oven and one-pot dishes of the Chilean table, with their technique explained step by step.

Chilean corn pie (pastel de choclo)

Beef and chicken pino under a creamy ground-corn and basil topping with a golden sugar crust: 1 h 30 min and 6 portions. The quintessential Chilean Sunday lunch. See the Chilean corn pie.

Baked Chilean beef empanadas

Crispy pastry and juicy pino of beef, onion, hard-boiled egg and olive: 1 h 10 min for 12 empanadas. Making the filling the day before spreads the work and improves the flavour. See the baked beef empanadas.

Chilean ajiaco

The soup that makes the most of leftover grilled steak: potatoes, onion and an egg poached in the hot broth, in 1 hour. If there was a barbecue at the weekend, ajiaco is the logical next-day lunch. See the Chilean ajiaco.

Juicy pan-seared pork chops

Cooked in a pan with the sear and the rest done properly, in 30 minutes: the fastest main in this section, with oven and sauce variations for the weekend. See the juicy pork chops.

Juicy roast chicken pieces

Eight skin-on chicken pieces rubbed with ají de color, oregano, garlic and lemon, roasted at 200 °C over onion wedges: 50 minutes, 4 portions, and the oven does the work while you make the salad. Done at 74 °C in the thigh, with 5 minutes of resting. See the juicy roast chicken pieces.

The sides: pebre and ensalada chilena

No Chilean main is complete without its sides: Chilean pebre takes 15 minutes to prepare (plus 30 of resting) and ensalada chilena, the tomato and onion salad, takes 20 minutes. Both go with everything else in this section.

One-pot lunch recipes that stretch to two days

Stews are the home lunch par excellence: made in one pot, four servings, and better the next day. Five lunch recipes to cook the day before and reheat in 10 minutes.

Cazuela de vacuno

Clear beef-shank broth with potato, pumpkin, corn and rice: 1 h 45 min, 4 servings and the trick that keeps the broth clear. Made the day before, it is tomorrow's lunch with no work. See the cazuela de vacuno.

Porotos con rienda

Beans with pumpkin, a paprika sofrito and spaghetti cooked in the same stew, in 1 h 15 min (plus soaking). Filling, cheap, with a 45-minute canned-bean version. See the porotos con rienda.

Pollo arvejado

The Chilean chicken stew with peas and carrot, in 45 minutes with rice on the side: one of the most requested home lunches and one of the best freezers. See the pollo arvejado.

Ají de gallina

Shredded chicken in a cream of yellow chili, bread and walnuts over boiled potato and rice: 1 hour and 4 servings of the Peruvian stew that has become home cooking in Chile. See the ají de gallina.

Chilean humitas

Ground corn with onion and basil, wrapped in its husk and simmered: 1 h 30 min for 8 humitas eaten sweet or savoury with ensalada chilena. Simmer them the day before and reheat in water. See the Chilean humitas.

Lunch recipes with pasta, rice and dough

When lunch is built from the pantry: two pasta sauces made while the water boils, a 40-minute risotto and two quick griddle doughs that feed several.

Homemade tomato sauce for pasta

Tomato, garlic, olive oil and basil cooked for 25 minutes: the base of a pasta lunch in 35 minutes, with sauce left over for the next day. See the tomato sauce for pasta.

White sauce (bechamel) without lumps

Butter, flour and milk in 20 minutes, in the order that avoids lumps. For pasta, lasagne or gratinated vegetables at midday. See the white sauce for pasta.

Mushroom risotto

Arborio rice, mushrooms and stock added a little at a time: 40 minutes of attention and a creamy one-bowl lunch for 4. The weekend lunch that needs no oven. See the mushroom risotto.

Al pastor tacos

Pork marinated in achiote and pineapple, seared on the griddle and served in tortillas: 45 minutes for 12 tacos, a lunch to share with onion, cilantro and lime. See the al pastor tacos.

Venezuelan arepas

Precooked cornmeal, water and salt, on the griddle in 35 minutes: 6 arepas to fill with cheese, shredded chicken or avocado. The super-easy lunch of the list. See the Venezuelan arepas.

How to plan the week's lunches (meal prep in 4 steps)

After several weeks of cooking this way, the method that works best is simple: cooking once yields 4-5 lunches if you choose recipes that scale well. These are the four steps, with the numbers that actually hold up.

• 1. Choose 2-3 base recipes with good yield: one lemon chicken traybake (4 portions), one batch of egg muffins and one lentil salad cover most of the week with a single cooking session.
• 2. Cook in one block: while the tray is in the oven (40 min), the salad is assembled and the muffins bake. A 60-90 minute session sorts out the whole week.
• 3. Cool before refrigerating: the most common mistake is storing food while it is still hot; the condensed steam makes everything soggy and shortens its shelf life. Cool at room temperature (1 hour at most) and then refrigerate in airtight containers: 3-4 days is the safe range.
• 4. Freeze what you will not eat within 4 days and dress at the last moment: stews and traybakes keep for up to 3 months frozen; salads do not freeze and should be dressed just before eating — a salad dressed the night before arrives limp and watery the next day.

One final common mistake: repeating the same recipe five days in a row. Alternating two different bases (one cold, one hot) keeps the system sustainable; the palate plans ahead too.

Planner: a two-week lunch menu

Two sample weeks using the recipes in this guide, designed for little weekday cooking: a traybake or a stew covers two days and the salads come together in 20-25 minutes. Times are those of each recipe.

Weekends are for the mains that need the oven or a long simmer: pastel de choclo (1 h 30 min, serves 6) or cazuela de vacuno (1 h 45 min).

Once the menu is set, open each recipe and press "Add all to my list": the shopping list gathers the ingredients of every recipe of the week and can be sent by WhatsApp. If you would rather start from what is already at home, the search by ingredients suggests recipes with what you have.

Frequently asked questions about lunches