lentil life

In the classic 1980s sitcom 'The Young Ones' one of hippy Neil's main occupations was the preparation of lentils, lentils and more lentils. As a child I associated lentils with overcooked mush mixed with hated cooked carrots. I didn't like them. Then I lived with the vegetarian Lesley at college and was introduced to her lovely lentil and apple curry. Then the 1990s explosion of ingredients brought green lentils and their nutty yumminess to the UK.

Although Nigel Slater started as a food stylist, producing mouth-watering photographs for Marie Claire, my favourite book of his is the words-only 'Real Fast Food'. It has this great recipe described as "a life-saverwhen the fridge contains nothing but the cat's milk and an old packet of Japanese soya paste"

Lentils with Tomatoes
for 2
100g lentils
2 tblsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 chopped red chilli
1 tin tomatoes

* cook the lentils in boiling, salted water for 15 minutes 'til just tender, drain
* fry the onions in the oil for about 7 minutes, add the chilli and cook for a further minute or two
* add the lentils and tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes
* season and serve ... also good served cold as a salad

I'm coming to the end of a 2 week stint at losing some weight. I'm only a wee bit overweight but, with both parents suffering from metabolic issues, I want to halt the trend of increasing weight. So I'm especially thankful for spicey lentil recipes.

There was never going to be an ideal time to follow a carefully restricted diet but it turns out that I'm really, really bad at academic writing whilst half-starving. I'm not sure if I would have been brilliant if I'd been fully caloried up but the major review report I finally submitted was woefully underpowered - and late - which does not bode well for he review meeting in a couple of weeks.

Probably best not to mention (yet) to my, rather annoyed, supervisor that I've put my name down as a labour candidate for the 2017 Highland council elections.