These 4 easy pita recipes are great packed for healthy lunches! All are vegetarian - prep the components ahead of time for a fast, delicious midday meal.
There’s a category that’s seriously underrepresented on Love & Lemons: lunch. Lunch, for me, is the meal that happens in between all of these recipe posts. It’s usually a quick throw-together meal that utilizes a previous night’s dinner and/or an assortment of random on-hand ingredients… (ie. a half of an avocado, a few leaves of kale, leftover quinoa, an opened container of greek yogurt). I love a big lunch salad, but when I don’t have enough greens & things to make up a full meal, I take what I do have and put it in (or on) a pita.
I keep these Stonefire pitas on hand, usually in my freezer for easy access – they reheat and toast up perfectly. (And yes, they are sponsoring this post, but I’ve seriously been buying their pita and flatbread for years).
You’ll notice I haven’t included actual measurements in this ingredient list – since I’m usually “cooking” for one, my measurements are truly “a bit of this, a pinch of that.” Feel free to adapt & interchange things, using what you have. Everything here can be made ahead & stored for days in the fridge. It’s all pretty packable – just keep the pita separate and stuff it when you’re ready to eat. (A soggy pita would be a pity!)
For more lunch inspiration, check out this post that’s full of Healthy Lunch Ideas.
Easy Pita Lunch Ideas
- Kale
- Drizzle of olive oil
- A bit of Dijon mustard
- Squeezes of lemon
- Apple slices
- Avocado
- Pine nuts
- Salt & pepper
- Avocado
- Squeeze of lemon
- Sprinkle of sunflower seeds (or any seeds you like)
- Salt & pepper
- Red pepper hummus (recipe below)
- A few chickpeas
- Diced red onion
- Feta
- Pine nuts
- Parsley
- Red pepper flakes
- 1¼ cups chickpeas
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 jarred roasted red pepper (about ¼ cup worth)
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 1-2 teaspoons dry harissa seasoning
- Water, if necessary for consistency
- Salt & pepper
- Leftover cooked quinoa
- Dried currants
- Olive oil
- Squeezes of lime
- A bit of cumin
- Shaved carrot ribbons
- A few salad greens
- Greek yogurt
- A bit of curry powder
- Salt & pepper
- For the Kale & Apple Salad: Chop the kale. Massage the leaves with olive oil salt and pepper until the leaves are tender. Add a bit of dijon mustard and a good squeeze of lemon. Mix with diced avocado, sliced apples, and toasted pine nuts. Stuff in pita.
- For the Smashed Avocado & Sunflower Seeds: Slice avocado and add a bit of lemon juice, salt & pepper. Use the back of a fork to mash it into the pita. Top with seeds.
- For the Red Pepper Hummus with Chickpeas & Feta: Blend all hummus ingredients together, set aside. Drizzle pita with olive oil and grill on a grill pan. Slather with hummus and top with chickpeas, red onion, feta, pine nuts and parsley. Top with a few red pepper flakes.
- For the Carrot & Quinoa Salad: Mix quinoa with olive oil, lime juice, cumin, currants, salt & pepper. Toss with carrot ribbons and watercress. Mix yogurt with lime, curry powder, and salt. Stuff salad in pita and top with a dollop of curry yogurt.
Keep your avocado un-sliced until you're ready to use it - and if you're storing a half-avocado, keep it in a plastic bag with part of a sliced onion to slow down the browning process.
Make a big batch of the quinoa salad, serve it with a protein for dinner and reuse the leftovers for lunch all week.
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This post is sponsored by Stonefire, all opinions are our own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep us cooking!
I came across this on Pinterest, so naturally I ran to Bloglovin to comment. Not sure why but anyway.. I love this! Pita are so underestimated and lunch is always my “big” meal.
ha, thanks – glad you were inspired to comment 🙂
THANK YOU! This is exactly what I needed to plan my lunches a bit better! I am working from home and sometimes I just don’t have inspiration for lunch. Or I have too many and start cooking an over-complicated meal that will take me hours and I’ll end up eating late, not being hungry anymore, and being angry at myself for all of that… So when I feel this kind of mood I cook some pasta, that’s always a win! But sometimes I want a quick and fresh meal, someting crunchy, or creamy like hummus (that I LOVE but never know how to use…), something that I can eat in front of my computer when I have some work to do, and these ideas are just perfect for that! I’m going to fill my freezer with pita!
You’re welcome! I totally hear you… Even though it took some planning for me to put together this post, I’m actually really terrible at heading to the store and pre-planning meals. I find it’s easy to get creative when I just make sure I have some kind of green, some kind of crunchy thing, some kind of protein, and something creamy (and then in this case, pitas!).
…and then I try to limit myself to not toss in ten thousand other ingredients – which is also hard. 🙂
So funny! I picked up some pita at the store this evening and made little breakfast pitas w. gouda, turkey + tofu black bean scramble! I love when this happens. haha
Love all your stuffing ideas! So creative + delicious. Thank you–will use next time!
ha, I love those ideas that happen on the fly 🙂
Pitas and Naan are my favorite lunch breads. These ideas are awesome! I cannot wait to try a few of them out soon!
Yum! I love pitas! I will have to try these out. Thanks for sharing.
thanks Natalie! Let me know if you do 🙂
These are some excellent ideas! I actually prefer recipes without amounts, since I never measure anything unless I’m baking. It’s so much more natural to just eyeball it for me. 🙂
Thanks! me too… I think everyone likes different levels of things like curry, cumin and (especially) salt! It’s sometimes hard write recipes exact amounts that are such personal preferences 🙂
i love it! great recipes 🙂
thanks Sylvie!
Mmm all of these sound so good Jeanine! And as always, your photos are gorgeous. I have a habit of stuffing WAY too much into my pitas because I can never make up my mind when it comes to fillings, so they fall apart…. but it’s not a difficult mess to clean up. 😉
thanks Angela – I stuff mine too much too – I usually eat them over a bowl so I can scoop back in what falls out. Definitely a messy endeavour 🙂
These are all such fabulous ideas for lunch – thank you for sharing! Gorgeous photos I can’t wait to try the red pepper hummus with chickpeas and feta – I like to make one myself with regular hummus, chickpeas, feta and whatever veggies I have on hand! Healthy and quick 🙂
Hi Lousia – hope you like it – it’s our new favorite spin on hummus (we’ve been eating it for days slathered on everything 🙂
Thank you for the onion trick with storing avocado halves! I didn’t know that! I almost always have half an avocado in the fridge, so I’ll definitely be trying that.
It’s amazing! You still have to scrape off a thin layer one you’re ready to use your avocado half, but it’s by far better than any other method that I’ve tried…
Curry yogurt! Yum! Thanks for the easy lunch fix 🙂
Hi Sarah, sure thing – I’m obsessed with curry yogurt, it’s so quick and easy – hope you like!
This is awesome! All four pit as look amazing! Can’t wait to try them out! Wonderful inspiration <3
These look soooo good, definitely pinning them and trying some of them next week!
Gorgeous photos, as always! What a great solution for leftover quinoa, a frequent problem of mine.
me too 🙂 Somehow that last 1/4 cup or so never gets used (until now) 🙂
# 2 = my dinner tonight. thanks for sharing this.
ha, #2 is definitely the one that happens around here most often – breakfast, lunch, (snack), or dinner 🙂
Love your flavor combinations. Will be making these for lunch. Thanks!
I like all these ideas! So much colour for lunch!
Thanks Katrina! I’m obsessed with colorful food 🙂
This is the most artistic set up of lunch ideas I have seen to date. My fave of the bunch is the avo and sunflower seed combination; full of healthy fats that we all need in our diet.
Also I love how this idea are done one staple pita;. You have completed a week worth of thinking about lunches in one go!
Thanks Belinda! (It was a trick to get these all looking nicely in one shot) 🙂 Avo & sunflower seeds is definitely a fave of mine!
I’m always looking for easy lunches. I like the idea of using pitas. I need to stock up a few bags in my freezer. The carrot and quinoa salad sounds really yummy, especially with the yogurt.
Thanks Janel, let me know if you try it!
i love pita bread. always makes a good lunch and there is always something in the fridge to whip up and make a delicious pita sandwich.
i am definirely going to try your combos soon.
Thanks Maureen! They definitely turn barely-a-meal leftovers into quite the filling lunch!