Bulgur with Black Eyed Peas, Spinach and Dates

Yet another installment of my weekday lunch series. You can never have enough work-lunch-friendly dishes, now can you?

I work on the ninth floor of my firm's office building. There are lots of conference rooms on our floor, and when a lunch meeting yields leftovers, they usually make their way into the ninth floor kitchen, which happens to be right across from my cubicle. When we hear the clomp-clomp of high heels in the kitchen and the rustling of plastic trays and wrap paper, we know it's going to be good. Within seconds, my entire pod will have descended on the kitchen, scavenging for the best wrap, the freshest-looking corner of the spinach salad, the last piece of baklava. After poking around for ourselves, we'll shoot out an email to our friends down the hall alerting them to the free food bonanza. We're that nice.

Yesterday, there were two big trays of spinach salad in the conference room. Spinach salad = dry baby spinach, quartered artichoke hearts, shavings of parmesan cheese and dressing on the side. After everyone had a go at the salad (and the baklava and brownies), I rinsed out my lunch tupperware and filled it to the rim with dry baby spinach. That stuff is good, and not cheap -- it'd be a shame to see it go to waste.

Around 11 last night, when I got to throwing lunch together, I remembered that spinach that I'd tucked in the fridge earlier in the evening. I decided to steam it for a few minutes and fold it into a bulgur salad, along with leftover mixed mushrooms and a couple of chopped, sauteed dates (one of my latest and greatest flavor-boosters). For some protein, I added half a can of black eyed peas; for background flavor, some caramelized onions. For zing, a dash of soy sauce, a hit of sherry vinegar, and some black pepper. That was really all it needed.

Much as I've enjoyed a week straight of Greek salad for lunch, I'm relieved that today's tupperware contains no feta, tomatoes, olives, or capers. I'm kind of excited for lunch!

Bulgur with Black Eyed Peas, Spinach, Dates, and Mushrooms makes 2 servings

1 cup bulgur, cooked and fluffed according to package directions (bulgur usually takes about 15 minutes in boiling water) 2 heaping cups raw baby spinach 2 Tbsp. olive oil 1 cup mixed mushrooms, chopped 4 dates, pitted and chopped 2 Tbsp. caramelized onions 1/2 can black eyed peas, or about 2/3 cup cooked black eyed peas (other beans, such as navy or cannellini, will do just fine) 1 tsp. soy sauce 1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar fresh cracked pepper Chopped fresh parsley or mint, optional

Cook bulgur according to package directions, and set aside.

In a large pot, heat enough water to come about 2 inches up the side of the pot. Rinse spinach and place in steamer. When water is boiling, place steamer inside pot and cover with lid. Steam spinach about 6 minutes, until tender but still bright green. Remove steamer from pot and transfer spinach to medium bowl. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have given off their liquid and are fragrant. Salt to taste. Add chopped dates to the pan and cook one more minute, until dates are soft and warm. Turn off heat and transfer mushroom mixture to the bowl with the spinach. Add caramelized onions, black eyed peas and bulgur, and toss to incorporate. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper and stir to coat. Taste and adjust, adding more salt, pepper, and vinegar as desired. Serve cold or room temperature. Sprinkle with chopped herbs just before serving.

Rigatoni with Broccoli Rabe

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know by now that I'm a self proclaimed ingredient-adder. I've got issues leaving things simple: I find myself constantly tempted to tinker, to add just one more spice or sauce or vegetable or seed or something. I've been working on it, folks, really I have, but it ain't easy.

As much as I'm inclined to clean out my pantry into a recipe, there are certain recipes that are not to be futzed with. One of those recipes is Marcella Hazan's pasta with broccoli rabe. Hazan is a legendary Italian cook and cookbook author. Her directions are so very precise, her knowledge and expertise so colossal, I'd be crazy to fiddle with her ingredients or proportions.

You've probably seen broccoli rabe in the grocery store or farmers' market: it's usually a medium-sized head of greens with a couple very young broccoli florets poking out the top. It's leafy and bitter, and according to Adam, the Amateur Gourmet (who quotes Lydia Bastianich and Julia Child, who am I to disagree?), it gets more complex with every chew. Broccoli rabe -- also known as rapini -- is absolutely delicious on pasta paired with anchovies, crushed chili peppers, and parmesan cheese. I used whole wheat rigatoni (see the smoke coming out of Marcella Hazan's ears? yikes) but as she says, the "natural match" for this sauce is orecchiete, which are shaped like miniature flying saucers. She also recommends using salt-preserved anchovy fillets, preferably prepared at home. While the idea of using fresh, home-prepped anchovies makes my mouth water, their very short shelf life has always deterred me from actually doing it, and I tend to stick with the high-quality oil-packed ones. They're available at most high-end markets; these days, most every grocery store has them, usually in oil-packed jars and in squeezable tubes. (I recommend the jars, not the tubes -- anchovy toothpaste isn't the hottest idea.)

One final note about this recipe before you run out to grab that anchovy toothpaste. This one's for the anchovy-haters -- I know you're out there. If you're even still reading this, I'm impressed that you didn't see the word "anchovy" and run away. Point is, please don't hate on the anchovies. They're so, so delicious, and they really are mashed into a paste in many recipes, so you don't have to see them. And frankly, nothing can replace that unmistakable taste of anchovy. So take a big breath and give'em a try. If you hate'em, sorry, and I guess I owe you a few bucks. If you love'em, you can thank me for giving you the extra nudge.

Rigatoni with Broccoli Rabe from Marcella Hazan

1 pound dried orecchiette or other pasta 2 cups water 1 teaspoon salt 1 bunch rapini, about 1 pound, trimmed 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided 3 anchovy fillets, chopped 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/2 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions, in well-salted water; drain, reserving some of the pasta water, and set aside. Meanwhile, heat water and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add rapini; cook until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain in colander; cool under cold running water, drain, and set aside.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in anchovies, pressing lightly with a spatula to help break up the fillets. Cook 1 minute. Stir in rapini, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring constantly, until garlic softens, about 5 minutes.

3. Toss pasta with rapini mixture in a large serving bowl. If extra liquid is necessary to unclump pasta or make rapini more easily integrated, add pasta water by the 1/4 cup. Drizzle with remaining 2 Tbsp of the olive oil and cheese; toss.

Quinoa Salad with Tofu, Beets, and Avocado

This is another installment of my "weekday lunch" series, where I offer suggestions for dishes that can hang out in your tupperware til 12:30 rolls around. For other weekday lunch options, see my weekday lunch archive page.

Here's a super-easy salad that holds up very well in the tupperware container. It came together late one night when the contents of my fridge were scarce and I needed lunch for the next day. Red quinoa -- available at Whole Foods and other similar stores, both in packages and in the bulk section -- is a wholesome and nutritious grain, actually a berry, that takes about 15 minutes to steam. I cooked some quinoa (about 1 cup raw), chopped up two small beets I'd roasted earlier in the week, sliced up one avocado and one small block of teriyaki-marinated baked tofu, tossed them all together, and drizzled some rice vinaigrette over the salad (recipe below). It doesn't get much easier than that. The bonus upside to bringing quinoa for lunch is that, unlike other grains, quinoa holds its shape and crunch very well even in the fridge overnight and in tupperware, and doesn't tend to clump together or get sticky.

If you're in a rush, this is really a perfect salad to throw together. And as always, feel free to improvise my recipe, adjusting for the contents of your fridge. I could imagine adding greens, red bell peppers, edamame, perhaps some raisins, even almonds or other sliced nuts for crunch. Get to it!

Rice Wine Vinaigrette

1 tsp. finely grated ginger or 1/2 tsp. powdered ginger 4 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar 1 tsp. sugar 1 tsp. soy sauce 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice 3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 Tbsp. sesame oil

Combine all ingredients except for oil, and whisk vigorously. Add oil in a steady stream, whisking all the while, until well combined. Drizzle several Tbsp. of the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Oven-Roasted Olives

In recent years, a slew of upscale pizza places have sprouted up to sate the ever-growing yuppie appetite for $13 (or $15, or $20) pies. Just look at Manhattan and Brooklyn: they're bursting with fancy pizza points, from the old-school Lombardi's and my favorite Grimaldi's to the newer Roberta's and Co., dreamt up by the breadmaster Jim Lahey. Washington is following suit, in its own more muted way, and by now we've actually got a few great spots for the ultimate Neapolitan treat.

One such spot, Two Amys, is a standby in this house. We pop over there at least once a month, and by now we're buddy-buddy with a waitress, we know our favorite wine on the menu, and we've even found a bus that takes us, literally, from door to door.

We go to Two Amys for pizza, but two other things on the menu are just as much of a draw: the suppli -- fried balls of risotto laced with tomato sauce, with some piping hot mozzarella in the center -- and the oven-roasted olives. Granted, D has no interest in the olives (in olives of any kind, for that matter -- but I'll say, they're one of the cheapest appetizers in town. For $4.95, you get a large bowl of olives roasted with really good olive oil, spices, and maybe some garlic. The little jewels simply burst in your mouth. They even come with a couple slices of crusty bread to soak up all that olive oil deliciousness (if you've got room, between the soupli and the pizza).

After two years of snacking on these olives, I finally came to my senses and realized that, with minimal effort, I could whip some up at home. I browsed my usual cache of websites for some inspiration, but it turns out that recipes were altogether unnecessary. I simply took out a rimmed sheet pan, drizzled it with some olive oil, and into the olive oil I scattered a mix of olives -- picholine, manzanilla, and kalamata, in my case, but any will do. Overtop go any mix of fresh and dried herbs that suits your fancy. I used several sprigs of fresh thyme, some dried basil and oregano, and lots of freshly-cracked black pepper. I threw in a couple slices of lemon as well, for some much-needed acidity.

...Um, did you expect more steps? Sorry to disappoint you. Pop the whole thing in a 350-degree (or other temperature if you're cooking something else) oven for about 15ish minutes until olives are soft and bursting. Serve warm with crusty bread.