Leftover cooked buckwheat — into tomorrow’s salad

The cutlet is already eaten — and the buckwheat cools in a heap in the pot, dark, nutty. Easy: the lid on overnight “as it is”, by morning a lump and the smell of the pot. I spread it in a thin layer in a bowl, cool it, into the fridge — tomorrow with cucumber and oil, not reheated “again as a side”.

Leftover cooked buckwheat — into tomorrow’s salad. How I cook buckwheat on the hob is another note; barley into a lunch box, quinoa into a bowl are other tips. Here it is cold buckwheat as a salad base: crunch of vegetable, acid, grains separate — not a second reheating of a side.

One or two days cold is enough. If it smells sour or feels slimy between grains — bin, I don’t mask it with sour cream. I cut cucumber, spring onion, a spoon of oil and a pinch of salt straight into the bowl with the buckwheat. Raw meat never shares the shelf beside it.

I don’t need buckwheat that cools as a lump until Wednesday. I need a cold salad where the grains still click on the tooth. At yours is yesterday’s buckwheat eaten cold with a vegetable — or heated again “just as a side”?