Cheeses for lunch
Sandwiches, salads, ploughman's plates and the midday meal.
Lunch is where cheese meets bread most often. The British ploughman's lunch of cheddar, pickle and bread, the French baguette with Comté or ham and butter, the Italian panino with mozzarella, the Greek salad with its slab of feta, the Indian paneer roll and the American grilled cheese all build a midday meal on cheese. It is food that travels well in a box or a pocket.
Bread and cheese
The simplest lunch in many countries is bread and cheese, and many have given it a name. The ploughman's lunch, made popular in English pubs in the 1950s and 1960s, sets cheddar or Stilton beside crusty bread, butter, pickle, apple and raw onion. In France, a casse-croûte might be a baguette with Comté or Camembert, and in Spain a bocadillo de queso. In Georgia, a slice of khachapuri and a plate of fresh cheese with herbs makes a working lunch.
Salads
Greek horiatiki salad sets a slab of feta on tomato, cucumber, onion and olives. Bulgaria's shopska salad is buried under grated sirene. Italy's insalata caprese layers mozzarella with tomato and basil in the colours of the national flag. In the Levant, halloumi is grilled and laid over leaves and herbs, and in Mexico, salads of nopales, the tender pads of the prickly pear cactus, are finished with crumbled queso fresco.
Hot lunches
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup are an American lunch pairing. Welsh rarebit, cheese melted with mustard and ale and poured over toast, is a British pub lunch. Indian kathi rolls and Mumbai frankies wrap spiced paneer in paratha for busy streets and office canteens. Mexican quesadillas fold cheese into a tortilla, and in Italy, a slice of pizza or a toasted panino with mozzarella fills the lunch hour.
Worth knowing
- Ploughman's lunch: Cheddar, bread, pickle and apple
- Greek salad: Horiatiki with a slab of feta
- Shopska salad: Bulgarian salad under grated sirene
- Caprese salad: Mozzarella, tomato and basil
- Grilled cheese: Melted cheese between toasted bread
- Welsh rarebit: Cheese sauce with mustard and ale on toast
- Quesadilla: Tortilla folded over cheese
- Kathi roll: Paratha wrapped round spiced paneer
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Lunch on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇲🇹 MaltaĠbejna
A small Maltese sheep's-milk cheese shaped in reed hurdles and sold fresh, dried, or peppered.Sheep · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇲🇽 MexicoPanela cheeseQueso panela
A fresh, white Mexican cow's-milk cheese that holds its shape when fried.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreRicotta
A fresh Italian whey cheese made by reheating leftover proteins from other cheesemaking batches.Sheep · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇳 India and 4 morePaneer
A fresh, non-melting acid-set cheese made from cow or buffalo milk in South Asia.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 ItalyBurrata
A fresh Italian cheese with a solid mozzarella pouch filled with cream and stracciatella.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇺🇸 United States and 2 moreCottage cheese
A fresh, unaged curd cheese made from skimmed milk and dressed with cream.Cow · Fresh · Tangy and lactic
🇫🇷 FranceBrocciu
A fresh Corsican cheese made from sheep milk and whey, drained in rush baskets.Sheep · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 Italy and 5 moreBuffalo mozzarellamozzarella di bufala
A fresh, soft pasta filata cheese made from Italian Mediterranean buffalo milk.Buffalo · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇨🇦 Canada and 1 moreCheese curds
Fresh, squeaky pieces of cheddar-style curd eaten in North America.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreMizithraμυζήθρα
A fresh Greek whey cheese made from sheep or goat milk, eaten soft or dried for grating.Sheep · Fresh · Sweet and caramel
🇨🇳 ChinaRubing乳饼
A firm, acid-set fresh goat cheese from Yunnan that holds its shape when cooked.Goat · Fresh · Salty
🇬🇷 GreeceKatiki DomokouΚατίκι Δομοκού
A fresh, soft goat and sheep milk cheese from central Greece.Goat · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 ItalyStracciata
A fresh, tattered cow's-milk pasta filata cheese from the Molise region of Italy.Cow · Stretched curd · Milky and fresh
🇷🇴 Romania and 1 moreBrânză de vaci
A fresh, crumbly cow's-milk cheese from Romania and Moldova, similar to quark.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇹 ItalyProvatura
A fresh pasta filata cheese from Lazio, shaped like an egg and made from cow or buffalo milk.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Brocciu: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Buffalo mozzarella: Luigi Versaggi, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Paneer: Sonja Pauen - Stanhopea, CC BY 2.0 de, source
- Mizithra: grongar, CC BY 2.0, source
- Ricotta: 8w9d, CC0, source
- Ġbejna: Chattacha, CC BY 3.0, source
- Cheese curds: Jonathunder, GFDL 1.2, source
- Cottage cheese: F ASTILY (T ALK ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Burrata: Popo le Chien, CC0, source
- Katiki Domokou: C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Rubing: Pratyeka, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Stracciata: Desipere, Public domain, source
- Panela cheese: Pyb, CC BY-SA 4.0, source