How to Turn Blanched Vegetables into Lunch

As a defiant response to Sad Desk Lunches, the Food52 team works to keep our midday meals both interesting and pretty. Each week, we'll be sharing our happiest desk lunches -- and we want to see yours, too.

Today: Make like Executive Editor Kristen Miglore and keep blanched vegetables in your fridge at all times -- you'll be halfway to lunch.

Over the weekend, needing to move some sacks of greenmarket produce forward in their life journey or lose them to compost, I just blanched everything in succession -- green beans then broccoli in one big pot, baby potatoes then a few eggs for dinner in another. (Or, rather, I ignored most of the rules of proper blanching, and just squeezed as many vegetables into pots of salty water as would fit, boiled them till they were just tender, then scooped them out into a colander to drain. No time for small batches when you're hungry.)

That night, I ate the 8-minute eggs and piles of warm, relaxed vegetables dipped in a really mustardy homemade mayo -- I didn't have lemon or garlic, or it might have been lemony or garlicky -- as I believe Canal House would do. All week I'm carrying the leftovers to work and pouring our nice olive oil, flaky Jacobsen salt, and spice blends over it (today was a La Boîte Moruno N. 21 day -- cumin, coriander, and saffron!). I already feel better than the days I just eat salad for lunch (and the days I just eat cake).

More: Learn all about blanching the right way here.

Tell us: What vegetables do you think make the best next-day lunches?

Photo by Marian Bull