load shedding lunch ideas

Cheeseboards provide a huge opportunity to be creative. Image: Unsplash

Five load shedding inspired Christmas lunch ideas

We’ll be damned if load shedding is going to ruin Christmas lunch in 2022. Here are a few easy meal ideas.

load shedding lunch ideas

Cheeseboards provide a huge opportunity to be creative. Image: Unsplash

Load shedding is now older than your annoying teenage nephew, and arguably even more annoying than him. Christmas lunch is one of the most beautiful experiences in any calendar year, and we’ll be damned if it’s going to be ruined.

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Five banging load shedding Christmas lunch ideas

Red heirloom potato salad

Parboil your potatoes before Eskom cuts you off, and finish off the rest of the salad at your leisure. All you’ll need is red onions, mayonnaise, capers, lemon juice and whatever else you regard as an essential in a potato salad. Vinaigrettes are easy to make too if you want to stick to a classic green leafy salad and run the risk of staining your crisp white Christmas lunch shirt. Up to you really, bro.

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Panzanella

The fact that South African Christmas takes place at the height of summer does make the load shedding element of it slightly more palatable. Cold soups and cold salads are the best, especially if it’s 32 degrees outside. For bread and tomato lovers, there’s no better better salads than panzanella. It’s so easy to make as well, just get yourself some high-quality tomatoes and it’s critical to use stale ciabatta/sourdough bread. The only pre-planning you’ll need is toasting the squares of bread in the oven before load shedding hits. Croutons, basically.

LOOK: PANZANELLA recipe via BBC


Tender stem broccoli salad

You can blanche broccoli florets in boiling water over a gas hob if you’re lucky enough to have one. If not, blanche them while there’s still power and then toss them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Then the rest of the salad can be made later and seasoned with sesame seeds and sesame oil for a delicious Asian take.

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Braai for Christmas lunch

This is not exactly a groundbreaking suggestion, but it obviously ticks a lot of boxes. Should you be lucky enough to have an outdoors area with a braai, throw a sirloin steak on there and slice it up served with a delicious pepper sauce or as is, just remember to rest it after cooking or put a capable braai-master in charge and you’re good to go. What’s better than a chicken cooked on a Weber? Not many things.

load shedding christmas lunch
Perfectly cooked steak. Image: UnSplash via Emerson Vieira

Charcuterie and cheeseboard

The wonderful thing about a cheeseboard is that it can contain literally anything you want it to. A classic savoury cheeseboard will contain cheese, charcuterie, nuts and bread, but nothing is stopping you from including figs, grapes and chocolate. Turn your cheeseboard into a dessert, and all it requires is premium ingredients and a bit of an artistic touch. Critically, electricity is not a prerequisite.


So, that’s an entire Christmas lunch feast and none of it is affected by load shedding. If you don’t feel like regarding the first few suggestions here, just have a braai and throw together a cheeseboard and everyone should be happy enough. They’ll be drunk anyway.

Merry Christmas!


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