Until recently, many of us couldn't imagine dinner without potatoes. Doesn't a cutlet or traditional frikadelle taste great with potatoes and beetroot or a cucumber salad? Lots of people associate this kind of dinner with their family home. Now increasingly we serve groats rather than traditional cooked potatoes. The noble potato has become an ingredient of salads.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for a hot salad with potatoes. Use new potatoes if you can find them in the shops. Choose small salad potatoes which cook quickly and look very nice on a plate.

Ingredients:
1kg of small salad potatoes
200g of fresh spinach
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of butter
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tablespoons of oil
a couple of radishes
1 oscypek
2 tablespoons of nigella

During times of difficulty in Poland when the meat was rationed or there simply wasn't any at all, our mums had to be creative to prepare food for the family. In this time we ate many pancakes, cutlets with vegetables, beans or eggs.

Today I dusted off one of those recipes. I served egg cutlets in a fresh way with asparagus spears and a spicy cucumber-peppermint salsa. You can also make horseradish-, dill- or garlic sauce. They will be excellent with the cutlets.

Ingredients (for 10 cutlets)
6 eggs
50g of bulgur
2 tablespoons of semolina
half an onion
3 tablespoons of minced parsley
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
a bunch of asparagus spears
salsa:
1 cucumber
half a red pepper
half a chili pepper
3 tablespoons of chopped peppermint
3 tablespoons of chopped almonds
salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Everybody in my family likes vegetable cutlets. They are simple and every time you may prepare a new variation of this dish. Vegetable cutlets are an excellent way to persuade fussy eaters to eat their vegetables.

Today I made cutlets with red lentils. I fried them in a pan, but you can bake them in the oven and they will be great too. The cutlets are yummy hot with rice and fresh salad, or cold with yoghurt sauce or horseradish.

Ingredients:
1 cup of red lentils
2 cups of water
half a teaspoon of salt
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
10cm piece of leek
1 egg
half a chili pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
half a teaspoon of cumin
half a teaspoon of curry powder
half a teaspoon of herby pepper
salt
3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs + 3 tablespoons for coating
oil for frying

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for an absolutely classical dish. Beloved by almost all children, Spaghetti Bolognese repeatedly spares the nerves of the fussy eater's parents. There are few children (and adults) who don't like this dish. Until recently my son belonged to this small group. Instead of spaghetti he ate buckwheat groats with sauce. Now he has cottoned on to spaghetti and finally we can eat the same thing.

If you have never made Bolognese sauce yourself, you should try. It is quite an easy dish, and it's much better when you make it in your own kitchen with somebody nice.

Ingredients (for 4 people)
250g of spaghetti
500g of mincemeat
2 tins of tomato
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons of oregano
1 teaspoon of paprika
half a chili pepper
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan

Sweet dumplings with cottage cheese or fruit remind me of summer holiday dinners. Because I'm fed up with winter, warm clothes, thick shoes and salted pavements, I decided to conjure a new reality by preparing a summer dinner.

Almost everybody likes sweet dumplings, and we can tempt even the fussiest eaters with them. Today I prepared them with brewed dough, and I know that from now on I will never do them any other way. Brewed dough is malleable, easy to roll, binds perfectly and doesn't fall apart during cooking. Today I prepared a classic version of sweet dumplings with a hint of vanilla and cream. You can add fruit, chocolate or sprinkle them with cinnamon or sugar. Everybody has their own beloved type of dumplings.

Ingredients:
dough:
500g of flour
4 tablespoons of oil
250-300 ml boiling water
a pinch of salt
stuffing:
500g of cottage cheese
300g of cream
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar