Eco Lunch Box Three-in-One #101

 

Here we have a fun packed lunch of wedges of homemade naan from my freezer, an improvisational apple-carrot slaw in a lemony Vegenaise-based dressing, dill pickle hummus (recipe from Cadry's Kitchen) and raw zucchini salad (recipe loosely based on one I found on a non-vegan site).

For many reasons, I decided to skip my usual physical trip to the store this time around, and just see what I could come up with for a while based on what I already had. I have a love/hate relationship with clearing the decks. But this meal is one of the ones that reminds me why I love it: I make all sorts of new discoveries when I start from the ingredients rather than starting from the recipes--i.e., "I have this so what do I do with it" rather than "I want this so what do I buy."

A co-worker had given me some fresh dill, and I had half a can of chickpeas in the fridge, so hummus was a no-brainer. I had heard of dill pickle hummus but hadn't tried it and knew I would love it. I was right. I tried it and love it! It goes well with the naan.

I knew the apple-carrot slaw would be good because I've made many different versions of carrot salads in mayo dressings, and apple salads in mayo dressings, and I had part of an apple waiting in the fridge, plus I pretty well always have carrots. It was delicious, of course! I just mixed some fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, and Vegenaise for the dressing.

I also had half a raw zucchini that needed eating and since I've been putting raw zucchini in salads recently, I figured, why not just make a salad out of raw zucchini? The original recipe was much larger than this, so I cut it way down, and also the original recipe called for Parmesan. The author said that vegans could leave out the cheese, but I used Violife Parmesan instead, and I think it did add a nice depth of flavor. I really enjoyed this salad and I would definitely make it again. It's a really nice change of pace from cucumber salad, though it looks very similar and hits some of the same notes.

The meals coming up will be heavy on the starting-with-the-ingredients side, but I'm excited about them, so stay tuned! Apparently this challenge was just the thing I needed to regain my waning inspiration.