It has abruptly turned cold out and, just like that, not only are your socks too thin and your trousers too short, but your shop-bought BLT or leafy salad is decidedly not as warm and comforting as you need it to be. Office tea points being what they are, even a microwave might be too much to expect. But with a bowl with a lid, a bit of home prep – not more than you might for a standard, cold lunchbox – and a kettle, there is a wealth of hot grub you can make at work.
First things first, invest in a good, lidded, heatproof container. A metal camping pot, an ovenproof glass bowl, even an extra-large travel mug will do the trick.
Next, for food safety reasons, make sure anything you take to work is cool before you pack it. And, if you put it in the fridge when you get there, be sure to take it out ahead of time to come back up to room temperature before you use it. Any modicum of comfort from a swig of hot soup will be ruined if you chew on something cold.
Last, be bold and try new things. The recipes below are suggestions; they can be easily modified to suit what is in your fridge and store cupboard (they also have been given a smell factor, in case you are worried you might upset your colleagues). Quickly rehydrated noodles sit well in almost any soup, as does a bowlful of cooked pasta, rice or other grain. And soup bases come in many stripes: miso paste goes just as well with chilli (harissa, gochujang, sriracha, hot sauce, aleppo chilli flakes) as it does with tahini. The soft-boiled onsen tamago egg technique here is Japanese, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work in all sorts of other contexts: as an improvised eggs benedict, atop the bowl of chorizo couscous or indeed any of the soups and soup noodle bowlfuls below.
It’s best to let each bowlful sit a few minutes before eating, to allow the flavours to meld. And remember that garnishes, as always, are your friend: a slow-cooked stew is obviously going to be more satisfying than something rustled up in minutes at the office sink, but a sprinkling of crunch, spice or zest will go a long way to making up for what is lost in the haste. And besides, isn’t eating anything warm in the cold always a joy?
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