13 Sep Lentil salad that goes with everything and a life update

Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans

I fell out of the rhythm of writing a blog post every week over the summer. The kids were home, we travelled a lot and it seemed like there was always something happening – hospital visits, summer meltdowns, travel chaos. The life that happens when you’re busy making other plans. Then, at the end of summer my beloved uncle Kazik died and I just lost track of all space and time. Kazik has been a part of my life ever since I was born, my mother and him were very close and lived near one another in Poland. Though he often came to the UK too. He was a warm, grounding presence. The most easy going, tolerant and handy person I knew. He was the kind of person who would remember specifically which ham I liked and get me some for when I arrived in Poland. The kind of person that’s always there…. until they’re not. And you didn’t even realise how much you loved them until they’re gone. I still can’t quite get my head around it.

Back to the lentil salad and back to life

I’m back at home now after the holidays, after the funeral, head still spinning. I’m looking forward to the stability of daily routines and thinking about what food I made this summer and what would be a useful recipe to share, I keep coming back to this lentil salad. I still remember how it tasted on our first day in Ibiza. It was hot and I was tired. I was craving something nourishing yet refreshing. This lentil salad was created out of the simple things I could find in the local mini marker and really hit the spot. We ate it for 3 days and it worked with everything. We also added extra bits to it, as you do with leftovers, but the beauty of it is it’s simplicity.

A recipe for a very versatile lentil salad

Like all useful recipes, this lentil salad is very versatile. The important thing here is to soak the onion, so that it doesn’t overpower everything.