Making your own lunch might sound like a time-consuming hassle but let’s face it, queuing up during your lunch break in a busy supermarket or deli isn’t that quick or much fun anyway. It’s more a case of how and where you spend your time. Why not start with making just one or two lunches a week – even that will help to cut down on packaging, and you might find you start to prefer it.

Making your own lunch, even just once a week, will help reduce the tidal wave of single-use packaging. We get through mountains of sandwich packets, salad boxes, soup pots and snack wrappers every single day in the UK. Most of it is not, or cannot, be recycled and is transported to other countries or incinerated. We simply have to use less. Taking a lunch box to work is one way to reduce the amount of single-use plastic you buy.

Do you prefer to buy seasonal and local produce? Well, most mass-produced lunches just don’t have that flexibility. Manufacturers churn out the same salads and sandwiches, whatever the season, flying in ingredients, when we often have good alternatives closer to home. Mass-produced lunches also rarely contain high-welfare meat, fish and animal products. The mark-up on mass-produced lunches means that you get better value for money making your own, too. You get to choose better quality ingredients and have more control over what you’re eating – a plant-based lunch is also a great way to incorporate healthier choices into your diet.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with lunch and eat the same thing every week, whether you eat at work or at home. My new book contains 60 easy, delicious, plant-based recipes, from summer salads to warming winter soups and hotpots, flavour-packed wraps and sandwiches, and snacks to keep you going between meetings. Whether you’re eating at home or out and about, these recipes will save you time and money, and help reduce your impact on the planet  

Pour-over soups are practical for taking to work as you don’t add the liquid until lunchtime, making them light to carry and leak-proof. You can get so many different types of noodles: wholegrain, soybean, rice, soba, udon, spelt... just choose very thin noodles so they cook quickly in boiling water. Ideally, choose noodles sold in cardboard boxes, which are easier to recycle than plastic.

Beetroot makes a great sandwich filling. Try to avoid those sold in plastic packaging; the ones sold in glass jars are very good and often cheaper (rinse them first to get rid of some of the vinegar and sugar). Roasting your own is easy too; the key is to prep and roast them when you are cooking something else to save on effort and energy. Use a few chopped walnuts instead of the pumpkin seeds in this tasty sandwich if you prefer.

It can take hours to make a traditional Sicilian caponata, but this one is quick and, thanks to the capers and olives, it’s still full of flavour. I like it piled onto hot sourdough toast or with focaccia. It will keep in the fridge for about three days.

The Green Lunch Box by Becky Alexander is published on 18th January. Pre-order a copy at Waterstones.com

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