Park benches are suddenly as desirable a piece of real estate as Mayfair on the Monopoly board, with sun-starved workers reduced to fighting over patches of grass the size of a tissue. When you’re sitting in your hard-won spot, pins and needles kicking in, make sure you have something fresh-tasting and fuss-free to enjoy.
• Lightly toast a few slices of sourdough first thing, then pack delicious “wet” toppings to spoon on top come your lunch hour: tomato salsa with lime and avocado; tuna with mayonnaise, cherry tomatoes, capers and black pepper; borlotti beans with tomato, basil, olive oil, crushed garlic, salt and pepper.
• Go extravagant and leftfield in your salads, with roasted and raw ingredients: braise fennel in olive oil until tender and mix with shaved courgette, fresh peas, mint and feta; or artichoke hearts, pasta, pecorino, and basil.
• Go down the spicy route with a fruity Thai-inspired salad: chop a wedge of watermelon and a quarter of a cucumber into 3cm cubes and pack both in a plastic container. Separately pack a handful of roughly chopped roasted peanuts, and a handful of basil and mint leaves. Make a dressing in a clean jam jar by combining the juice of a lime with a chopped red chilli (use more or less depending on how hot it is) and a splash of fish sauce. Adjust quantities to taste: you want it to be sharp, spicy and a little bit salty. At lunchtime, shake up the dressing, pour over the watermelon and cucumber, and throw over the nuts and herbs.
• Potato salad is a picnic failsafe. Buy the smallest potatoes you can, boil until tender, then dress immediately while still warm. At the moment, we’re enjoying the pungent combo of olive oil, red wine vinegar, crushed garlic, finely chopped red onion, parsley and capers, but you could also fry some lardons or small pieces of bacon until crisp, then mix together with mayo and dijon mustard. Either way, liberal seasoning is mandatory. An almost-hard-boiled egg (6½ minutes in boiling water) is the icing on the potato salad cake.
• No need for cutlery on the office “lawn” if you use veg as scoops: make a feta, tomato and bulgur salad, and use chicory or iceberg as a vessel. Chicory can be bitter, so sweeter salads with such ingredients as roasted beetroot or Boursin cheese (yes, we go there) work well.
• Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing are authors of The Little Book of Lunch (Square Peg)
