Honestly, we really look forward to lunch. Don’t you? During the week, work can be stressful or monotonous at times but the one thing we almost always have is our lunch and 10 minutes of reading The Guardian online. Maybe The New York Times if it’s Friday. It’s that short space of time that takes you away from the urgent emails and puts you in the Happy Place somewhere far away, especially if you’ve brought something wonderful in from home. (Anyone else feel like they need to start saving their money?) I mean, we all like a sandwich once in a while – it’s easy and convenient after all – but we think a truly great lunchbox has lots of different components to keep you satisfied and interested and dreaming of another place.

Take this duck salad for example: slices of duck, glazed with date and orange marmalade and cooked gently. Thrown together with crisp yellow and red mini peppers, beetroot and olives. It might be cold and rainy outside, but if you shut your eyes you could be somewhere sunny for a few moments. For a few moments, you can forget it’s just a Tuesday.

Makes two portions

2 medium free range duck breasts
1 tbsp marmalade (we used date and orange)
1 tbsp tahini
salt and black pepper
4 cooked beetroots, chopped
6 mini peppers, chopped
a handful of green olives

1. Heat a frying pan without oil (we use a cast-iron skillet).  When hot, lay the duck breasts on the pan, skin side down and cook on a low heat in order to cook off most of the fat. This should take about 10-15 minutes. Most of the fat will be in the pan and you can pour it off into a container to use in other dishes.
2. When the skin is crispy, flip the duck breasts over onto the other side and season with salt and black pepper. Cook for about 5-7 minutes for a pink middle. You can cook these longer if you prefer the meat well done.
3. In the meantime, chop the beetroot and peppers. Place these in your lunchboxes (cute ones of course!) and sprinkle the olives on top.
4. Mix the tahini and marmalade together.
5. When the duck is done, rest onto a plate or wooden board for at least 10 minutes. You will notice some juices collecting in the plate/board which you can pour onto the salad as a makeshift dressing.
6. Once the duck has rested, slice the duck meat and brush the tahini-marmalade mixture on each slice. Arrange the slices in the lunchboxes and refrigerate when cool.

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.