Love Your Lunch Cookbook Review with Recipe Excerpt

If you find yourself in Amsterdam looking for a fun place to have lunch, head for Small World, Sean Wainer’s popular café. However, if you’re like me, you’re more likely to enjoy Wainer’s creations in the comfort of your own home, thanks to his new cookbook, Love Your Lunch, which features 60 favorite recipes from the café.

The book’s tagline says “The amazing sandwiches, soups, salads and sweets in this book can be eaten at any time of day (or night).” The sumptuous recipes nearly all require more extensive prep and/or cooking time than most of us have for our midday meal, so the tagline is apt, giving us permission to prepare these recipes when we can. In his introduction, Wainer describes Love Your Lunch as “a book about home-cooked comfort food served with an elegant twist…delicious lunches using the best ingredients and the simplest techniques.”

The first chapter, “Sauces, Spreads, and Other Stuff You’ll Need,” sets the foundation for many of the following recipes. It includes recipes such as Lemon Olive Oil, Wasabi Mayo, Balsamic Onions, and Oven-Roasted Tomatoes, which are used as ingredients throughout the book. The Roasted Chicken Thighs, Roasted Turkey Breast, and Classic Meatloaf could well be used on their own as the center of a nice meal.

Given that Wainer was raised in Australia and traveled throughout Europe before settling in the Netherlands, it’s no surprise that Small World reflects a multicultural approach to food. This is reflected in the wide variety of ingredients, flavors, and styles found in Love Your Lunch. You won’t be bored preparing and eating these recipes! Let me tempt you:

• Carpaccio with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Parmesan Shavings (sandwich)
• Mediterranean Couscous Salad with Fresh Herbs
• Black Bean, Orange, and Chilli Soup
• Hearty Lamb Burrito
• Chicken Fillet in a Mustard Cream Sauce
• Our Legendary Carrot Cake

Here’s a recipe for an unusual salad that would make a great lunch or light dinner (thanks to the publisher, Murdoch Books, an imprint of Quarto Knows.

Roasted Fennel, Feta and Kalamata Salad Recipe

In this simple salad, the salty olives are well set-off by the sweetness of the roasted fennel, and the garlic and parsley give it all an extra kick.

4 fennel bulbs, rinsed well in cold water, and thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and black pepper
100 g (3 1/2 oz) Kalamata olives
3 tablespoons parsley
100 g (3 1/2 oz) feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper and spread over the sliced fennel. Sprinkle evenly with garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the oven and bake 30 minutes; give the tray a shake halfway through the cooking time. Set aside for 10 minutes, to cool.

Meanwhile, chop the olives and parsley and crumble the feta. In a bowl, gently mix together all the ingredients, and you are ready to serve.

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