It's no wonder the Mediterranean diet is considered to be one of the healthiest. It's brimming with plant-based foods, healthy fats, whole grains and lean protein. People who follow it tend to have lower levels of inflammation in their bodies and reduce their risk of chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. And they live longer.
The Mediterranean diet is even good for your brain, including a reduced risk of dementia and depression and improved cognitive capabilities. Plus, it's simply a delicious way to eat, since it uses many herbs and spices to add flavor to food. And those herbs and spices also have health benefits, including reduced inflammation.
From our Quinoa Salad with Feta, Olives & Tomatoes recipe to Chicken Pita Sandwiches with Harissa Sauce, pack up these Mediterranean diet lunch ideas for work and eat healthy all week long.
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Chickpea & Roasted Red Pepper Lettuce Wraps with Tahini Dressing
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A tangy, nutty tahini dressing brings together no-cook ingredients like canned chickpeas and roasted red peppers for these easy meal-prep lettuce wraps. Make these wraps ahead of time for a grab-and-go lunch or dinner. A few wedges of warm pita perfectly finish off this meal.
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Chicken Quinoa Bowl with Olives & Cucumber
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Olives, cucumber, roasted red peppers and spices come together magically in this healthy chicken quinoa bowl recipe. Serve with a squeeze of lemon.
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Charcuterie Bistro Lunch Box
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Inspired by Starbucks' bistro boxes, this packable lunch is just like a personal-size cheese plate to take on the go. This healthy, easy snack-style meal is perfect to take for lunch at work or for a light picnic date night.
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Chicken Pita Sandwiches with Harissa Sauce
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We serve these lemon-oregano chicken pitas with lots of fixings tucked in, but you could ditch the pita and serve it all over cooked bulgur, cauliflower rice or a bed of greens.
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Lentil Salad with Feta, Tomatoes, Cucumbers & Olives
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This Mediterranean lentil salad, with chopped veggies, feta cheese and a light dressing, is perfect to have on hand for a quick lunch.
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Spinach & Feta Turkey Meatballs with Herbed Quinoa
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With a variety of flavors and textures (and a whopping 30 grams of protein!), these meal-prep bowls will keep you fueled all afternoon. The spinach and feta turkey meatballs are adapted from by Hilary Meyer. Look for premade tzatziki near the specialty cheeses and dips at your grocery store or make your own.
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Quinoa Salad with Feta, Olives & Tomatoes
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This quinoa salad, which takes loose inspiration from a Greek salad, is flavorful and filling. Broiling the olives along with the other vegetables softens their flavor and adds a smoky background note. A garnish of basil brightens the dish.
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3-Ingredient Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Chickpeas
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Boxed blended soups are the perfect canvas for simple stir-ins to make them more substantial and satisfying. Here, roasted red pepper soup is jazzed up with canned chickpeas and fresh baby spinach for a fast, comforting meal.
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3-Ingredient Green Goddess White Bean Salad
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Bagged salad and slaw blends are great shortcut ingredients for adding variety without needing to wash and chop lots of different vegetables. Toss a kale-and-broccoli slaw mix with canned white beans and yogurt-based green goddess dressing for a crunchy main-dish salad in minutes.
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Cucumber, Tomato & Arugula Salad with Hummus
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Tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and feta top arugula in this quick Greek-inspired salad. Served with whole-wheat pita and prepared hummus, it makes a filling, yet healthy lunch.
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Chicken Tenders & Couscous Wrap with Fresh Herbs
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This wrap is stuffed with chicken tenders and couscous with a hit of lemon and a healthy dose of fresh herbs. Save any leftovers to wrap up for an easy lunch. Serve with a mixed green salad to round this lunch out.
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Cucumber Salad, Hummus & Pita Bento Box Lunch
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Enjoy this refreshing bento box idea on your lunch break. It combines cucumber salad, hummus, pita and more for a satisfying work lunch.
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Chicken & Cucumber Pita Sandwiches with Yogurt Sauce
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Cucumbers do double duty in this healthy Greek-inspired chicken pita recipe—they're grated to lend a refreshing flavor to the quick cucumber-yogurt sauce and sliced to provide a cool crunch tucked into the pita. Serve these sandwiches for a healthy dinner or light lunch.
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Slow-Cooker Chicken & Chickpea Soup
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The only things better than healthy dinner ideas are easy healthy dinner ideas. This set-it-and-forget-it slow-cooker soup recipe is just that. It simmers away all day so you come home to a warm and healthy dinner the whole family will love. Using bone-in chicken thighs is the key to making rich soup without adding broth. Plus, if you're also in need of healthy meals on a budget, thighs are less expensive than breasts, and dried chickpeas are a relatively inexpensive and versatile pantry item that's always good to stock up on.
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Prosciutto, Mozzarella & Melon Plate
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While we recommend this as a perfect picnic for two or a quick, romantic dinner at home, this also makes an easy, tasty lunch-to-go. If making the chocolate-dipped strawberries is too much, a couple of squares of dark chocolate is a perfect ending to even a workday lunch.
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Fiber-Packed Spicy White Bean & Spinach Salad
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In this light and refreshing salad, we season white beans with ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend that features cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, cardamom and ground black and red pepper. If you prefer a creamier texture, gently mash some of the beans as you stir everything together. The bean salad is served on a bed of lightly dressed spinach that pairs well with the beans—or with grilled chicken or steak kebabs for another meal.
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Chickpea & Quinoa Bowl with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
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Quinoa and chickpeas pack this vegetarian grain bowl with plenty of plant-based protein. Whip up a batch of these flavorful grain bowls and pack them in lidded containers to stash in the fridge for easy, healthy grab-and-go lunches all week long.
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Ravioli & Vegetable Soup
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Fresh or frozen ravioli cook in minutes and turn this light vegetable soup into a main course. Look for whole-wheat or whole-grain ravioli in the refrigerated or frozen section of the supermarket. Serve this healthy ravioli soup with a side salad.
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Pesto Chicken Quinoa Bowls
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This pesto chicken quinoa bowl is packed with herbs from the basil pesto and the Italian spice mix and gets a slight kick of heat from the red pepper. If you enjoy the flavor profile, this dish can also be made with orzo in place of quinoa.
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Tuna & Olive Spinach Salad
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This tuna salad recipe gets an upgrade with olives, feta and a tahini dressing. Served over baby spinach, this is the perfect easy and light lunch or dinner salad.
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Chopped Salad with Chickpeas, Olives & Feta
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This quick and easy chopped salad is inspired by the flavors of the Mediterranean, including chickpeas, cucumber and feta. A garlicky oil and vinegar dressing brings everything together.
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Tomato, Cucumber & White-Bean Salad with Basil Vinaigrette
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This no-cook bean salad is a delicious way to use summer's best cherry or grape tomatoes and juicy cucumbers for a light dinner or lunch. Fresh basil elevates an easy vinaigrette recipe that dresses up this simple salad into something extraordinary.
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Couscous & Chickpea Salad
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Cooked couscous and canned chickpeas come together in this quick lunch salad. The basil vinaigrette makes it taste anything but basic! When in season, we recommend adding fresh chopped tomatoes for a spin on tabbouleh.
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Meal-Prep Roasted Vegetable Bowls with Pesto
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Your co-workers will be jealous when you pull out this healthy lunch of roasted veggies and brown rice. Put together four lunches when you have time, and you will have packable lunches (or ready-to-eat dinners) for several days—just grab a container on your way out the door in the morning.
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Beet & Shrimp Winter Salad
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This healthy dinner salad recipe gets its staying power from protein-packed shrimp and fiber-rich barley. With a simple red wine vinaigrette, this quick salad makes just one serving but is easy to double or triple. Look for precooked beets with other prepared vegetables in the produce department.
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Creamy Pesto Chicken Salad with Greens
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For a healthy variation on creamy chicken salad, we've replaced half the mayonnaise with basil pesto. Serve over greens or make it into a sandwich for a healthy lunch.
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Tabbouleh, Hummus & Pita Plate
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This Mediterranean-inspired vegan picnic lunch features traditional fare like tabbouleh, hummus, olives and fresh fruit and vegetables. It's perfect to pack and take along or even to serve as an easy, healthy meal at home.
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3-Ingredient White Bean & Cherry Tomato Salad
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This three-ingredient lunch takes a packaged salad kit to the next level with the addition of two pantry staples: cherry tomatoes and white beans. The Mediterranean flavor profile works well here, but another mix will be just as simple and satisfying. Don't like the dressing that comes with the kit? Use your favorite bottled dressing or make your own.
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Fig & Goat Cheese Salad
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The sweet-and-savory combination of the figs and earthy goat cheese will surely satisfy the palate. If you can't find dried figs, try swapping in dried apricots.
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White Bean & Veggie Salad
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This meatless main dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.
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Air-Fryer Tahini-Dressed Crispy Chickpea Salad
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Chickpeas get deliciously crispy in the air fryer and provide a welcome textural contrast to the leafy greens in this salad. A quick tahini-lemon dressing adds nuttiness and brightness.
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Quinoa Chickpea Salad with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Dressing
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This hearty vegan salad is loaded with plant-based power ingredients: chickpeas, quinoa and hummus. We love the crunch of the sunflower seeds and the unexpected flavor of roasted peppers.
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Meal-Prep Falafel Bowls with Tahini Sauce
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These quick couscous bowls come together in 20 minutes thanks to healthy convenience items like frozen falafel and steam-in-bag fresh green beans. Whisk together the simple tahini sauce while the other ingredients cook. Feeling adventurous? Skip the frozen falafel and make your own.
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Rainbow Veggie Wraps
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There's definitely a sushi vibe to these kid-friendly wraps, which are stuffed with vegetables, cheese and hummus and then rolled and sliced. Serve them with store-bought green goddess, a creamy herb-filled dressing, to take it up a notch with ease—or make your own. They look impressive, but they're easy enough for kids to assemble themselves for an easy lunch or dinner.
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Herb & Garlic Chicken Wraps
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Cornichons and their pickling liquid combine with yogurt to make a tangy spread for these wraps. Don't have cornichons (which is basically, a gherkin pickle)? Use olives, pickled onions or dill pickles instead.
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Chopped Power Salad with Chicken
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Enjoy this filling and colorful salad for lunch or dinner. The dressing gets made in the same bowl that the salad is tossed in, so the greens absorb every bit of flavor.
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Green Goddess Wrap
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A soft and silky green goddess dressing blends with crunchy fresh cucumber and tender greens in this easy wrap. If you prefer, you can ditch the wrap and enjoy the filling as a salad instead. Add sliced chicken for added protein.
