Stuck for lunchbox ideas? Why not try this delicious, easy and child friendly Chickpea and Apricot Couscous Salad? It’s quick to make, full of nutrients and very easily adapted to your own family’s preferences.
Lunchboxes are tricky at the best of times, aren’t they? It’s hard to come up with good ideas each day that are easy, healthy and – crucially – that your children will actually eat! No-one wants that dreaded moment of opening the lunchbox up after school, only to find that it has hardly been touched – nor do they want the accompanying super grumpy child!!
Yet, it’s all too easy to get stuck in a rut, or else just pick things we know our kids will eat, even though they aren’t the healthiest choices, isn’t it? And it turns out most of us are falling into the trap of making unhealthy choices for our children’s lunchboxes. A recent study conducted by the University of Leeds in partnership with Flora discovered that only 1.6% of lunches in the UK meet current nutritional guidelines. In other words over 98% of the lunchboxes they studied were unhealthy. I find this statistic shocking and very sad. But it gets worse: the study also found that only 17% of children’s lunches contained any kind of vegetables or salad; while 52% of lunchboxes contained confectionery, such as chocolate biscuits, cakes and sweets; 46% contained sugary drinks and 60% contained crisps.
The trouble is, making a healthy balanced lunchbox is hard, especially early in the morning before the coffee has kicked in! Fortunately Flora are keen to help and have developed a website full of hints and tips, as well as a lunch box packing guide to help busy parents create interesting and healthy lunchboxes for their children. Keen to share this information with as many parents as possible, Flora got in touch and asked if I would take a look at the website and share my experiences.
Although my two mostly have school dinners, there are plenty of occasions when I need to make them a healthy packed lunch (or tea!), such as school trips, after school clubs and weekend days out. I know that my packed lunches are reasonably healthy (they do at least always contain vegetables), but they are boring! I find myself falling into the same routine every time…a sandwich (often with white bread), some vegetable sticks, an apple and maybe a treat such as a packet of crisps or a dessert of some kind. Like the standard school report – I could do better!
So I headed over to Flora’s website to get some inspiration…I found the website really helpful – especially the lunchbox builder – it enabled me to think about making my lunchbox as healthy as possible, but also gave lots of ideas about how to do that in practice. Armed with these ideas, I set about building a healthy lunch full of delicious and nutritious ingredients, that I know my two would enjoy.
And here it is:
I have adapted one of the recipes on Flora’s website to include things my kids like and created this delicious Chickpea and Apricot Couscous salad. (You can find my recipe below). To make life easier you can make the salad the day before to have for dinner, either on its own or with grilled chicken, turkey or fish. The remainder can be chilled in the fridge and eaten cold in packed lunches the next day.
This couscous salad could easily be adapted for your own family’s preferences. You could swap the chickpeas for tuna, chicken or turkey and use different vegetables, such as carrots, aubergine, tomatoes, mushrooms, sweetcorn or spinach. If your family is not keen on apricots try dates, raisins or sultanas instead, or just leave them out! You could swap the couscous for cooked pasta or rice and the parsley can be swapped for coriander or mint, or just left out if your kids are not fans of ‘yucky green bits’!
This recipe makes enough for a family of 4 for dinner, with enough left over for everyone to have a healthy lunchbox the next day. But it’s very easy to scale up or down to suit your family’s needs.
I’ve added harissa as an optional extra – for adventurous kids and/or grownups. Do leave it out if that’s not something your kids would enjoy! If you are making this for grownups too, you could take out the kids portion first and add harissa to the rest. The feta cheese, again, is optional – my kids absolutely hate it, so I left it out of their portion, but I love it, so I added it liberally to mine!
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Chickpea and Apricot Couscous Salad
Ingredients
- 300 g couscous (ideally wholewheat couscous, if you can get it)
- 450 g boiling water (or vegetable stock)
- 30 g Flora (choose dairy free Flora if you need this to be dairy free or vegan)
- 1 red onion diced finely
- 2 red peppers diced finely
- 2 small courgettes diced finely
- 2 x 400 g tin chickpeas drained
- 150 g dried apricots chopped finely
- 2 tablespoons harissa (optional, or to taste – be careful, some brands are rather fiery!)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped (optional)
- 100 g feta crumbled (optional, leave out if you need this to be dairy free or vegan)
Instructions
- Place the couscous in a large bowl and pour over the boiling water. Cover with a plate and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, melt the Flora in a frying pan and then add the onions, peppers and courgette. Fry for about 5 minutes until everything is nicely browned. Next add the chickpeas and apricots and stir everything together, then fry for 2 more minutes until the chickpeas and apricots are heated through.
- Next add the couscous and stir everything together. If you are making this for adventurous children / adults now is the time to add the harissa.
- Finally, Turn off the heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Scatter over some feta if this is something you and your kids enjoy and serve, or pack into plastic boxes and cool before putting this in the fridge until it is needed.
Notes
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
Pin Chickpea and Apricot Couscous Salad for later
More Lunchbox Inspiration
Need some more lunchbox inspiration? Here are 7 other Easy Peasy Foodie recipes that would make great healthy lunchbox fillers…
Blueberry Porridge Squares
Warm Mexican-Style Rice Salad with Leftover Turkey
So how about you? How difficult do you find it to pack a healthy lunchbox for your child? (Or yourself for that matter!?)
Have you got any good ideas for making healthy lunchboxes? If so please do share them in the comment below – I’m sure we could all benefit!
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Disclosure
This post was produced in collaboration with Flora for the #FloraLunchbox Challenge. I was gifted the Flora and lunchbox for this challenge and I was compensated for my time.
Every Flora tub contains plant oils, such as sunflower, rapeseed and linseed oils. Flora is lower in saturated fats than butter and provides a source of healthy Omega 3 and 6. These essential fats contribute to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels and are also needed for normal growth and to support the development of children. Flora also recently launched Flora Freedom. This is a 100% dairy free product, which is free of preservatives, artificial colours and flavours, and like the rest of the Flora range is approved by The Vegetarian Society.
Louise Fairweather says
This looks lovely. I would never get my boys to eat it at the moment unfortunately but I might make it for me! #cookblogshare
Eb Gargano says
Ah shame! But glad you like it!! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Corina says
What a yummy lunchbox salad! It would definitely make a great easy meal one night with leftovers for the next day. I do struggle with adding variety to my kids’ lunchboxes. I think they’re quite healthy but just not varied enough so the lunchbox builder on the Flora website sounds like a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Corina. Yes it’s a great ‘make the night before for dinner and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day’ kind of a meal. I just love anything like that – makes my life so much easier! Lunchboxes are hard, aren’t they? Especially to make them interesting! I really did find the lunchbox builder helpful – lots of ideas for varying the different elements of a lunchbox, so they don’t get to boring! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Mandy says
This looks delicious – I love a good meal that you can cook the night before and have for lunch the next day too. I’m very envious of how well your kids eat! I haven’t offered them cous cous for a while though so must try it again. Thanks for linking up to #CookBlogShare
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Mandy – totally agree!! I am a huge fan of anything that can be eaten again for lunch the next day – anything that saves me time and hassle!! My two do eat well, I have to admit – they even occasionally admit to liking my cooking now too!! I do wish I knew what I’d done right because I could make a fortune if only I knew the secret!! I think it’s probably mostly because I am more stubborn than them – and because I am too lazy to make two meals!!! Good luck with the couscous 🙂 Eb x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Delicious! I would love this for lunch, whether the kids would I am not sure but they often surprise me! It is so hard to get a good variety of lunch ideas x #CookBlogShare
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kirsty 🙂 It’s funny how kids do that, isn’t it? Sometimes I give mine things I am totally convinced they will moan about and they wolf it down without a peep! Eb x
Angela / Only Crumbs Remain says
Wow Eb, I’m shocked that Leeds Uni & Flora found only 1.6% of lunch boxes met national guidelines! I make Mr E a packed lunch every workday and I have to agree it’s oh so easy to fall into that rut of having the same sandwiches, fruit and drink. Love the idea of a couscous salad as a lunchbox meal Eb, it looks so delicious and packed with colours…..and of course feta..yum!
Angela x
Eb Gargano says
It is quite shocking, isn’t it? And very sad. I think it is all too easy to go with what you know they will eat (kids or husbands!! 😉 ) and not what is nutritionaly balanced. Given how lovely your recipes are, I can quite imagine Mr E must be the envy of his colleages at lunchtime!! Thanks for your kind comments on my salad 🙂 Eb x
Morgan Prince says
I tried out the Pasta and tuna salad recipe from the Flora website the other day and really enjoyed it. I’ll be doing that one (for me) in the future. As for the boys it’s always difficult when they won’t eat fruit or vegetables, I end up having to hide them in the sandwiches! Great recipe. 🙂
#FloraLunchbox
Eb Gargano says
It’s hard isn’t it? Mine don’t eat mayonnaise, so that rules out a lot of lovely pasta salads and sandwich fillers. I am lucky though, in that they are pretty happy to eat vegetables!! Fruit is a different matter…! Eb x
Carol Cameleon says
Mmmm yummy pictures, I could eat them all! Our daughter doesn’t like couscous but it’s one of my favourite foods. There are plenty of options available on the Flora website that I’m going to try. Again, amazing pics! #FloraLunchbox challenge.
Eb Gargano says
Glad you like it, Carol. Shame your daughter doesn’t eat couscous – but I think this salad would work really well with pasta or rice too, maybe she would prefer that? Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
Now that’s my kind of lunch….. I often take a similar rice-based lunch box to work….. but I do like your addition of apricots… delicious! x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kate. It’s a super tasty one – the apricots work so well 🙂 Eb x
Kate Holmes says
That looks to tempting. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part.
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kate 🙂
Nico @ yumsome says
Wow, I am totally shocked by those lunchbox statistics – it’s not a good start for the kids, is it?
The last school I worked at (I left in 2004) introduced a blanket ban on all confectionery, crisps, etc. not just in lunchboxes but also for playtime snacks. Most of the parents were really supportive but a few of them… my goodness, you’d have thought they’d been told that their children were to starve!
One parent actually got herself banned from the school, due to storming into her child’s classroom to deliver sweets. And then she got banned from the perimeter because she tried to climb over the fence, and into the playground, in order to offload her contraband! She was a bit obsessed!
Your salad looks really scrummy – although I’d sub a tahini dressing for the harissa because I am such a wuss! LOL!
Eb Gargano says
I know, it’s pretty scary, huh? Your old school sounds really good – so much better if all the kids are not allowed to bring things like that in…otherwise no one wants to be the mean Mummy. Can’t believe some parents were cross – how is banning unhealthy food from school ever a bad thing? Reminds me of that time when some mums objected to Jamie Oliver’s school dinners campaign and were filmed pushing fish and chips through the school fence!!! Thanks for your kind comments about my salad – a tahini dressing sounds amazing! Must try that next time 🙂 Eb x