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Lentils

  • 200 g Dry Lentils
  • 600 g Water or Vegetable Stock
  • 1/2 t Medium-Grain Salt (optional)

Yields 400 g cooked lentils.

  1. Rinse lentils to remove any dust or debris.
  2. Cook. Add lentils and cooking liquid to a large saucepan. Bring to boil, cover tightly, reduce heat, and simmer until they are tender; for whole lentils, cook time is typically 15-20 minutes, and for split red lentils, cook time is typically only about 5-7 minutes. Season with salt, as desired.

Lentils do not require soaking like other legumes.

Season with salt after cooking; if salt is added before, the lentils will become tough.

How to Use Lentils

Brown lentils [...] have a mild, earthy flavour. [...] [The brown lentil] holds its shape well during cooking, making it ideal for use in warm salads, casseroles, soups, and stews as well as veggie burgers or vegetarian meatloaf.

Green lentils are very similar to brown lentils, [...] but have a more pronounced, earthy and slightly peppery flavour. Green lentils tend to retain their shape well after cooking making them ideal for warm salads, casseroles, stuffing or serving with fish or sausages.

Sweet and nutty red lentils stand apart from green and brown in that they cook quicker and lose their shape, becoming mushy, during cooking. This makes them ideal for soups and absorbing spices and stronger flavours, particularly in Indian cooking. [Use red lentils for] thickening soups, stews, casseroles and satisfying curries, like dal.

Yellow lentils, or yellow split peas, moong dal or yellow dal perform similarly to red lentils and are commonly found in Indian cuisine. [They are good for] purées, soups, curries, mashes.

[Black beluga] lentils are [...] the most intense with a rich and deeply earthy flavour and retain their shape when cooked. [They are good for] salads.1

French lentils [are] thick-skinned[,] retain their shape when cooked and have a pleasant, poppy texture. [...] French lentils are perfect for a side dish or salad. Just dress them with oil, vinegar, a bit of crumbly cheese, and some salt and pepper. Maybe a little thinly sliced raw vegetable for texture.2

  1. "Different Kinds of Lentils and What to Use Them For." Fine Dining Lovers. 13 January 2022. ↩

  2. Delany, Alex. "All the Types of Lentils (and What the Hell to Do with Them)." Bon Appétit. 9 January 2018. ↩

  3. "Black Lentils: Everything you Need to Know." Fine Dining Lovers. 21 June 2021. ↩

  4. Smith, Michael. "How to Cook Lentils." Lentils.org. ↩