Lentil Appreciation + Recipe Thread

[Slevin]

This thread is about Lentils, lentil recipes, and that’s it. ERE is built on lentils, and since people around here have a real hankering for ERE1, I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about lentils.

Lentils are pretty much the best food. You can try and argue differently, but you’re gonna lose. One cup of dry lentils is roughly 50 grams protein, 20 some grams fiber, and about 125 grams carbs. But the slow burning amazing kind of carbs. That keep-you-full-because-you-had-so-much-fiber-you-can’t-look-at-any-more-food-tonight kind of carbs. Amazing. And if you look around you can find bulk lentils for $1 per pound. And that’s 2.25 cups of lentils, so that’s like 113 grams of protein per dollar, meaning, its less than 1 cent per gram of protein. Try and find a goddamn cheaper source of protein, I dare you. (Joke is on you, its impossible).

But we didn’t even get to the good part yet. Lentils are delicious! Like, incredibly delicious. Like, whoa, they are so yummy and versatile. And that’s what this thread is ALL ABOUT. Cheap lentil recipes. Except, even better, we’re gonna make it DELICIOUS cheap lentil recipes.

Note to readers: You will notice that most of these recipes have a large crossover in ingredients. This is a baby example of systemic cooking, where we eat a bunch of recipes with different tastes and flavor profiles, but the bulk of the ingredients stay the same.

Ultra classic: lentils and rice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4aldYc ... ManCooking

Lentil soup (you probably have everything to make this in your house): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weBDIPa ... ManCooking

Kung Pao Lentils (I think @Salathor for this one, but can’t be sure. One of my favorite new things to go in my mouth these past few weeks): https://www.veganricha.com/kung-pao-lentils/

Lentil Sloppy joes (also super amazing, how have i not been eating lentil sloppy joes for decades?): https://minimalistbaker.com/vegan-sloppy-joes/

Vegan cuban picadillo (I serve this one to guests often. I always try to make way too much to keep some leftovers, but my guests always want a second bowl because its so yummy): https://simpleveganblog.com/vegan-cuban-picadillo/

Lentil bolognese two ways (I love the first one but only generally have non cashew / peanut nuts around my house when someone dumps them on me): https://rainbowplantlife.com/10-ingredi ... bolognese/
https://minimalistbaker.com/zucchini-pa ... bolognese/

Lentil Chili:
(simple)
https://www.littlebroken.com/lentil-chili/
(more complicated)
https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pot-red-lentil-chili/

Dal / curry (most of these use coconut milk. It can be a couple of dollars for a can in some parts of the world, I know, but my god is it delicious enough to warrant it every once in a while):
https://rainbowplantlife.com/restaurant ... dal-tadka/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDS9JZf ... ManCooking
https://rainbowplantlife.com/vegan-red-lentil-curry/
https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pot-lentil-dal/
https://minimalistbaker.com/coconut-cur ... 0-minutes/
https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pot-golde ... ntil-soup/
https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-curry/

Add more recipes, ask me things about lentils, tell me how much you like lentils yourself and how much they are the best food to ever exist, go wild and join in on the lentil craze!

[mountainFrugal]

Love it! I look forward to trying out the sloppy joes, kung pao, and picadillo.

In the summer we like to have a large bowl of cold salad on hand: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/make- ... ntil-salad
The spendy parts are the feta and olives. We can always find these at grocery outlet for .25-.5 regular price. We use green lentils because that is what we have in out bulk bin ATM (also some red, but not as much). Can adjust the ratio to add more lentils without too much of a loss of flavor balance.

[grundomatic]

I learned about lentils from ERE. Once we stopped buying and cooking meat, I replaced the 1lb of ground beef in our favorite taco recipe with 1 cup of lentils, cooked. At some point I realized there was no need to cook the lentils separately, so it became a one-pot meal. Then we wanted to take it to work, so I started adding rice to it so we wouldn't have to futz with tortillas and dripping taco stuff everywhere. It's a staple now, sometimes cooked as often as every other week. Yay lentils!

[Salathor]

Kung Pao Lentils (I think @Salathor for this one, but can’t be sure. One of my favorite new things to go in my mouth these past few weeks): https://www.veganricha.com/kung-pao-lentils/

I came here to suggest this one but you've already got it! It's my favorite too. I'm going to be taking a look at the other stuff you listed though.

My wife makes an INCREDIBLE curry out of butter nut squash, mashed red lentils, and curry spices. You dress it with pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds, and fried onions, and then we dip it with 100% whole wheat focaccia bread. So, so good. I'll get the recipe and post it here, if I can remember.

[Lemur]

@grundomatic

Every other week? You need to pump those numbers up! I eat lentils just about everyday.

[OutOfTheBlue]

Love the thread idea, thanks for sharing!

Adding two of my favorites to the mix:

Middle Eastern Lentils & Rice w/ Crispy Onions - https://rouxbe.com/recipes/4826-middle- ... spy-onions

Yotam Ottolenghi's Curried (Red) Lentil, Tomato, and Coconut Soup - https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food ... conut-soup

This one is very pantry-friendly, just add some fresh coriander/cilantro (that can be home-grown too)

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Okay, I am currently doing this with mung beans because they are (even) cheaper and more accessible here in Thailand, but lentils are also great for sprouting!

Tested in various senarios, including during multi-day hiking. It's like a secret weapon. So nice to have some nutricious, low maintenance, living food on hand at home or on the road/mountain, that you can eat raw or combined without the need for cooking.

Can't beat the flexibility. Lentils ftw!

[grundomatic]

@Lemur

Cooked every other week on the weekend, leftovers eaten 3-4 times throughout the week. But yes, I could up my lentil game. I thought I was joining in in on a lentil celebration, though, not a gauntlet throw down like the burpee thread.

@Slevin

Forgot to say: you are hilarious. Giant smile on my face reading your original post.

[jacob]

Dumb question.

After [DW] getting into finer baking, it became clear that there are different qualities of flour and that ingredients do matter. I know that that's what chefs keep saying, but not knowing any better, I lacked the framework to appreciate it and pay attention to this wisdom. Ironically, it's kinda obvious given how the difference in taste is quite clear between supermarket produce and homegrown produce.

However, I've never been able or even known how to explore the difference when it come to legumes. Is it the same difference?

[vexed87]

Can somebody please explain to me how I can get the legumes I bought back in my 2014 pepper phase to tenderise, why did I ever think that buying a 1kg tub of chickpeas would keep me from starving when SHTF nearly 10 years later. My pressure cooker won't even soften them up.

Edit: In all seriousness, I totally dig [fresh] lentils now. And yes, I know you can mill them into flour.

[Slevin]

However, I've never been able or even known how to explore the difference when it come to legumes. Is it the same difference?

Yes the taste is, smoother(?) / creamier with fresh beans after cooking. They kinda melt in your mouth, it’s a really nice texture but it’s a pain to get fresh beans. Basically you have to grow / buy them then shuck them then cook them. When I’m up in the north bay we head up to the farmers market and buy cranberry beans with my partner’s mother, then spend 20-30 mins shucking a few pounds of them before cooking them. They cook much faster than dried beans as well, about half the time, and always come out really delicious.

Can’t speak to fresh lentils explicitly though, I’ve never grown them and also never seen them at a farmers market.

Honestly I probably wouldn’t do it on the regular even if it was an option at the farmers market at the prices being asked. I like paying $<2 per lb for beans, and the fresh beans at the market usually pull $6 per lb, and that pound gets you about 1.5 cups of beans, which is like, way less than a pound of dried beans. So idk, feels like the equivalent of $10/lb of beans

[Frita]

Can somebody please explain to me how I can get the legumes I bought back in my 2014 pepper phase to tenderise…

Add a teaspoon of baking soda to the soaking water. Soak overnight. Drain. Rinse. Add fresh water and cook as usual. The quality may not be as good, but they will be edible.

[shaz]

Super simple and also delicious: lentils + diced onion + garlic + beef broth. I brown the onion and garlic in a little olive oil then add the other ingredients and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I hear it takes less than 30 minutes closer to sea level.

I am pretty sure I first came across this recipe somewhere on this forum.

ETA: It looks like my recipe is based on one posted by @Candide. My only contribution is the addition of garlic.

[Slevin]

@grundomatic

Thanks, I hope I came off as snarky/ sarcastic in my post as I meant to. Also, totally gonna make up some lentil taco filling this week while my partner is out of town.

@mountainFrugal can it really be a salad if its chocked full of lentils? Or is it a lightly dressed lentil veggie mix?

@salathor, looking forwards to that other recipe if it is as good as the kung pao lentils (and just scored as much cashews as I could carry since they were on sale at $4/lb)

@OutofTheBlue mujadara (the lentils + rice + onions) was the first lentil meal i learned to make when I was introduced to lentils (likely by the ERE forums) back in 2014ish. Haven't eaten it in years, so thanks for the throwback! The soup looks good too, but i don't have any cilantro on hand to try it yet. Will report back

@shaz i 100% feel your Rocky Mountain altitude pain. Luckily I'm just right next to them and not up another couple thousand feet higher in Leadville or something.

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A quick Q&A with a person I totally didn’t make up right this minute:

Q: Oh my gosh I didn’t know how amazing lentils were. Can you help me find somewhere to read infinitely too much scientific jargon on how amazing lentils are to eat for humans?

A: No worries, I got you. Kinda crazy that lentils are like basically the most health promoting food you can get (or you know, a top notch S tier food at minimum). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5713359/

Q: So like I want to read a book a dystopian novel where there are massively oppressed farmers who can’t pay their bills anymore but then they turn to lentils as a form of rebellion and revolution

A: Yeah of course. It's obviously hard to pick just one of those novels out of the whole genre, but I think the most highly regarded recent one is here (obviously get it from the library or something though and don’t buy from Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Lentil-Undergrou ... 1592409563

[dranudin]

However, I've never been able or even known how to explore the difference when it come to legumes. Is it the same difference?

Yes, I have tried this myself. You can get cheap canadian lentils (probably of the clear field type) in the supermarket, here. But they have a lot less taste than high quality lentils. We usually import lentils from the Umbria region in Italy, these days. There is a very clear difference in taste. Also they tend to keep their shape even after cooking. The standard cheap lentils usually become mushy after cooking. Even if the imported lentils cost around 2-3 times as much, in absolute terms they are still very cheap.

[macg]

I have no recipes to contribute yet, but I appreciate this thread. I've been failing at my lentil game, but now I'm going to try out some of these recipes.

Thanks!

[guitarplayer]

Nice one, I will keep this thread for when we crave variation, could see DW looking into the recipes.

A question for lentil fans: are all legumes created equal?

Within reason, that is. Of course there are some differences, but I would think that generally mainstream legumes are more or less similar in terms of ratio of protein/fiber/carbs, and the feeling of satiation afterwards. If anyone knows of significant differences, please feed back in!

Meanwhile, now eating through our 50lb bag of black beans. Our routine for cooking them:

Soak in water for +12h with at least one change of water. First water will be with 1/8 tea spoon of soda bicarbonate, for the physiology of this household it does help tremendously with 'lightening' the legumes. We prepare 600g in 3 out of 4 nights on average.

In the evening chuck them into 4.5l slow cooker together with anything we have handy. Recently have been doing lots of a kind of dumpster diving which yields things like broccoli sprouts, mushrooms, green beans, parsnip, potatoes, cauliflowers, brussel sprouts, onions, chalottes, I'm running out of breath enumerating it all.

Add water so that water level is 3/4 inch below the edge. Turn the slow cooker on when going for a glass of water at night, or to the loo, or maybe just before going to bed. They cook normally for about 6h.

Veggies can be chopped, DW chops them more often than I. I just chuck the veggies on top of legumes, potatoes and other root veggies that are on top of the pile turn out steamed. Works for onions too, maybe a bit counterintuitive. Not chopped onions cooked like this are tender, sweet and delicious. Any vegetable can be cooked like this in a slow cooker. I put stuff with stems. Recently I experimented with putting in an unpeeled onion, the outside skin softens okay.

Herbs and spices can be added before or after, whatever one fancies better. It is however recommended to add herbs and spices in the last hour rather than at the beginning, otherwise the taste seems to fade.

Caveat: when you have overgrown cilantro, it will not soften. Will feel like eating fibrous grass, unfortunately. This I found out when I could not agree to just let go of overgrown cilantro from our garden earlier this year.

[sky]

It would be helpful to read the text of the recipes here on this page rather than through a link.

[Smashter]

DW made the kung pao lentils mentioned above last night. They were fantastic! Thank you Slevin for kicking off this most ERE1 of threads

[candide]

It would be helpful to read the text of the recipes here on this page rather than through a link.

1/2 cup lentils
1 beef bouillon cube
chopped onions
water to the level of soup you want

25 minutes on medium heat.

[Slevin]

A question for lentil fans: are all legumes created equal?

Within reason, that is. Of course there are some differences, but I would think that generally mainstream legumes are more or less similar in terms of ratio of protein/fiber/carbs, and the feeling of satiation afterwards. If anyone knows of significant differences, please feed back in!

There’s pretty huge variation within just beans even. I haven’t found an actually complete infographic anywhere (and I’m not good enough at image editing to make a good one, though I might try and convince my partner to make one soon), but here is one decent one we have hanging off one of our cabinets (ours has a lot of random extras added in):