Collection

What to cook for lunch

Seventy lunches with a price per serving and time: twenty-five soups, from borscht and shchi to lentil and pumpkin cream soup, thirty-four mains and eleven bowls. Six weeks of lunches: classic, quick, chicken, meat-free, for children, on a budget.

70recipes
$0.74–$4.13per portion
15 min – 1 h 30 minto cook
220–946kcal per portion

Plan a week from this collection

Seventy lunches, each with a price per serving and time. Twenty-five soups: borscht, shchi, rassolnik, solyanka, pea, mushroom with barley, chicken noodle and chicken rice, meatball, cheese, pumpkin and broccoli cream soups, lentil, lean borscht, fish soup, okroshka, ramen. Thirty-four mains: navy pasta, bolognese, buckwheat with mince, plov, chicken with vegetables, curries, cutlets, goulash, braised pork, lazy cabbage rolls, lasagna, lobio, dal, lentils. Eleven bowls with chicken, turkey, meatballs, tuna, chickpeas and falafel.

The quickest are pelmeni with sour cream in 15 minutes, pelmeni soup and pesto spaghetti in 20; the cheapest are lentil soup and pea purée soup, the priciest are chicken and quinoa bowls. Below are six weeks of lunches: seven dishes for seven days, the total per person for the week and the total time at the stove; a two-day soup counts once.

Ready menus

Recipes in this collection 70

Chicken Beetroot Soup (Borscht) Lunch1 h 10 min546 kcal≈ $1.62

Fresh Cabbage Pork Soup (Russian-Style) Lunch1 h602 kcal≈ $2.05

Rassolnik with Pearl Barley Lunch1 h 15 min595 kcal≈ $1.52

Assorted Meat Solyanka Lunch1 h564 kcal≈ $2.22

Pea Soup with Potatoes and Sausages Lunch1 h526 kcal≈ $1.02

Mushroom Soup with Pearl Barley Lunch1 h393 kcal≈ $1.81

Chicken Leg Confit with Noodles Lunch45 min514 kcal≈ $1.21

Chicken and Rice Soup with Egg Ribbons Lunch40 min489 kcal≈ $1.25

Chicken Broth with Egg and Herbs Lunch40 min478 kcal≈ $1.54

Light Chicken & Vegetable Soup (No Potatoes) Lunch35 min221 kcal≈ $2.32

Turkey Meatball Soup with Vegetables Lunch40 min351 kcal≈ $2.43

Meatball Soup Lunch40 min549 kcal≈ $1.99

Cheesy Chicken Soup Lunch40 min553 kcal≈ $2.40

Creamy Roasted Pumpkin and Chicken Soup Lunch40 min387 kcal≈ $2.20

Creamy Pumpkin Soup Lunch35 min448 kcal≈ $1.76

Cream of broccoli soup Lunch30 min459 kcal≈ $2.28

Red Lentil Soup Lunch35 min407 kcal≈ $0.85

Quick Canned Lentil Soup Lunch20 min311 kcal≈ $1.05

Creamy Split Pea and Potato Soup with Crispy Croutons Lunch1 h501 kcal≈ $0.74

Lentil-Free Beet Borscht Lunch50 min422 kcal≈ $1.30

Broccoli and Green Pea Vegetable Soup Lunch30 min259 kcal≈ $1.26

Pink Salmon Ukha with Millet Lunch40 min398 kcal≈ $2.30

Kefir Okroshka Lunch45 min442 kcal≈ $2.47

Homemade Ramen with Soft-Boiled Egg Lunch35 min603 kcal≈ $1.54

Pelmeni Soup (Russian Dumpling Soup) Lunch25 min467 kcal≈ $1.65

Macaroni à la Flottille Lunch30 min819 kcal≈ $2.12

Pasta with Meat Sauce Lunch40 min807 kcal≈ $2.74

Merchant's Buckwheat Lunch40 min705 kcal≈ $1.71

Buckwheat with chicken and mushrooms in sour cream Lunch35 min543 kcal≈ $2.44

Chicken Pilaf Lunch55 min750 kcal≈ $1.11

Multicooker Chicken & Bulgur with Vegetables Lunch55 min623 kcal≈ $1.54

Turkey Bulgur Pilaf Lunch40 min550 kcal≈ $2.09

One-Pan Chicken Thighs with Vegetables Lunch45 min643 kcal≈ $1.86

Chicken with Braised Cabbage Lunch1 h473 kcal≈ $1.43

Chicken Curry with Rice Lunch35 min713 kcal≈ $2.15

Chicken and Chickpea Curry Lunch35 min805 kcal≈ $2.69

Chopped Chicken Patties with Cucumber-Tomato Salad Lunch30 min430 kcal≈ $2.66

Steamed Chicken Cutlets with Vegetables Lunch40 min379 kcal≈ $2.01

Fish cutlets with mashed potatoes Lunch45 min638 kcal≈ $2.46

Steamed Cod with Rice and Vegetables Lunch35 min457 kcal≈ $3.54

Zander baked with vegetables Lunch35 min291 kcal≈ $4.13

Beef Liver à la Stroganoff with Buckwheat Lunch30 min634 kcal≈ $1.75

Beef Goulash with Buckwheat Lunch1 h 30 min654 kcal≈ $3.36

Pork and Potato Stew Lunch1 h680 kcal≈ $1.82

Pork braised with cabbage and potatoes Lunch1 h 10 min671 kcal≈ $2.12

Lazy Cabbage Rolls (Stuffed Cabbage Casserole) Lunch50 min729 kcal≈ $2.51

Stufted Cabbage with Sausages Lunch40 min481 kcal≈ $1.71

Chakokhbili (Georgian Chicken Stew) Lunch1 h487 kcal≈ $1.92

Beef Ragù Lasagna Lunch1 h 10 min946 kcal≈ $3.31

Baked Macaroni with Chicken and Cheese Lunch45 min782 kcal≈ $2.31

Spaghetti with Pesto and Chicken Lunch20 min670 kcal≈ $1.66

Pasta with Tuna in Tomato Sauce Lunch25 min557 kcal≈ $2.17

Dumplings with Sour Cream Lunch15 min724 kcal≈ $2.65

Red bean lobio Lunch30 min459 kcal≈ $1.47

Split Pea Curry with Turmeric and Rice Lunch40 min615 kcal≈ $1.05

Green Lentils with Chicken and Vegetables Lunch40 min586 kcal≈ $1.40

Vegetable Lentil Curry Lunch35 min738 kcal≈ $2.70

Red Lentil Coconut Curry with Rice Lunch35 min754 kcal≈ $2.29

Ratatouille with Rice Lunch50 min458 kcal≈ $2.83

Honey-Soy Chicken & Rice Bowl Lunch30 min605 kcal≈ $1.99

Garlic-Lemon Yogurt Chicken with Broccoli and Brown Rice Lunch55 min535 kcal≈ $2.74

Turkey with Buckwheat and Vegetables Lunch30 min531 kcal≈ $2.61

Bulgur Bowl with Meatballs Lunch40 min753 kcal≈ $3.96

Chicken, Rice, and Bean Burrito Bowl Lunch40 min779 kcal≈ $3.28

Tuna and White Bean Bowl Lunch25 min598 kcal≈ $3.57

Buckwheat Bowl with Poached Egg and Vegetables Lunch25 min467 kcal≈ $1.99

Bulgur with Chickpeas and Vegetables Lunch30 min611 kcal≈ $1.81

Chicken Couscous with Zucchini and Peppers Lunch25 min567 kcal≈ $2.88

Rice Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables Lunch25 min563 kcal≈ $2.43

Falafel Bowl with Hummus Lunch40 min758 kcal≈ $2.61

How to use it

“Plan a week from this collection” puts these dishes on lunches; Racion fills in breakfasts and dinners. Soups in a plan are marked “cooked for two days”: a four-serving pot is made once, the second day costs no time, and the shopping list counts it once.

A weekday lunch lives by the clock: if you eat at home, soups and stews are best cooked the evening before and reheated; if you take lunch with you, bowls, plov, buckwheat with mince and pasta hold up and look fine by noon. Add the sour cream and herbs on the spot, not in the container.

Plan a week from this collection

Questions

What can I cook for lunch quickly?

Pelmeni soup in 20 minutes, spaghetti with pesto and chicken, canned lentil soup, couscous with chicken and vegetables, rice noodles with chicken, tuna pasta in tomato sauce, kefir okroshka. The quick-lunch week above is built from dishes under 25 minutes.

What to cook for lunch with chicken?

Chicken noodle or rice soup, buckwheat with chicken and mushrooms, chicken curry with rice, pumpkin soup with chicken, chicken with vegetables, bulgur with chicken, a chicken rice bowl. The collection has twenty-eight chicken lunches, seven of them in the chicken week.

What to cook for lunch without meat?

Lentil soup, lobio, lean borscht with beans, mung dal, vegetable curry with chickpeas, coconut lentil curry, pumpkin and broccoli cream soups, bulgur with chickpeas, a falafel bowl. The protein comes from legumes and cheese.

What to cook for a child's lunch?

Chicken rice soup with egg, navy pasta, pumpkin cream soup, lazy cabbage rolls, fish cutlets with potatoes, chicken pasta bake, chicken plov. All carry the “for children” mark, and the planner picks them for families with kids.

What to cook for lunch on a budget?

Pea purée soup and lentil soup, buckwheat with mince, chicken rice soup, stewed cabbage with sausages, lean borscht, chicken plov. The budget week above shows the total for seven lunches per person.

Which soup to make for lunch?

For two days with no fuss: borscht, shchi, pea soup, rassolnik with barley, chicken noodle. In 30 minutes: pumpkin or broccoli cream soup, lentil, turkey meatball soup. Okroshka in summer, solyanka and fish soup in winter.