Best place to buy lentils online?

[chickenstick]

Anybody have success buying lentils online? I am new to the lentil scene and am in love. I plan to make it a staple in our family diet and search the forums here for recipes, but want to find places where I can buy big bags of them - as cheaply as possible, of course - and figure some of y'all have done some research and homework on this.

[Slevin]

Azure Standard is the place I buy bulk bags of things if I need to buy online (but local bulk stores will likely be better if you have one). Whether or not it will work well for you probably depends on whether there is a drop off spot close.

[jacob]

Don't underestimate going to Walmart in person. You might have to clear the entire shelf of one pound bags to get anywhere close to 25 or 50lbs, but it will often be cheaper for the basic of basics, i.e. black beans, pinto beans, white rice, white flour, sugar, red and brown lentils.

[Ego]

What price per pound would entice you to stock up on 1lb walmart bags? Not just lentils but pinto, black beans, kidney beans.....

I've stopped buying beans from my used-food guy if they do not have a reasonable date because every once in a while I will get some that just refuse to soften.

[jacob]

What price per pound would entice you to stock up on 1lb walmart bags? Not just lentils but pinto, black beans, kidney beans.....

We just compare WMT to bulk+shipping prices. Figure about $1.25/lbs for lentils and beans. A bulk seller would have to provide free shipping in order to beat WMT prices. When they do we order +100lbs.

I don't care about how the food is packed because it's all going into gamma sealed 5 gal buckets anyway. I do find it silly that the bags are so small at the SAD consumer level.

[Scott 2]

Shipping costs exceed the savings from buying online in bulk. I tend to buy dried goods from Aldi, my local budget grocer. Last week black beans were $1.40/lb. Even in person, I haven't found bulk purchases offer much savings. I prefer to buy product I know is moving, so I'm not stuck with old food.

[Chris]

+1 for Aldi. Note that their online prices differ from their in-store prices. I last found lentils @ $1.29/lb, less if charged to a 6%-back credit card. And because most of Aldi's bagged products are stocked on the shelves in boxes, it's easy to grab a 20 1lb bags at once. The "best buy" date is 2 years out as-packaged, easily extended if you repack.

[chickenstick]

This is helpful. I've seen Aldi mentioned a couple of times - they have 1lb of lentils at $1.45 plus tax. I didn't think to check Walmart - we stopped going there in favor of Aldi some time ago because of how expensive our local Walmart was. Thanks y'all!

[Frita]

If you have access to a Mexican grocery, check there. Since people who shop there are mostly scratch cooking, the dried legumes are even less than Walmart. (You will need to sort more carefully.) Produce, dried chiles, and spices tend to be fresh and value priced too.

[guitarplayer]

Buying online in bulk of course saves time as someone comes and drops the lentils off at your doorstep.

I got my >55lb organic black beluga lentils at $2.12/lb

Before I got >55lb brown organic lentils at shelf price $1.45/lb discounted to $1.29/lb.

This is in the UK though - but the black beluga lentils came all the way from Canada as it turns out.

[Ego]

I am glad this tread was posted because it made me pay attention. This morning I stopped by a different swap meet than normal and the used food guy had these lentils, 1lb. bags at 2/$1. Best by date is 1/25. I bought one bag to test before buying more. He had cases and would have probably sold me a full case for less.

[Slevin]

This morning I stopped by a different swap meet than normal and the used food guy had these lentils, 1lb. bags at 2/$1. He had cases and would have probably sold me a full case for less.

Yeah if those are good I would take him for all he’s got. Best I’ve been anble to find around here so far (but I’ve only lived here 1 month to be fair) is $1.85/lb, maybe I need to check out the local swap meets.

[Ego]

We should probably have a dedicated Bulk Foods thread but I figured I would ask here.

I am having difficulty finding inexpensive flax seeds lately. We eat a lot of them and the price is now rarely under $3 a pound here. There is a seller on Amazon that has them cheaper but they are listed as "Feed Grade Flax Seeds". I looked up the seller and they are a grain and livestock company. Any ideas on what Feed Grade means? I can call them on Monday but thought I might check here to see if anyone has found a good source for flax.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNW4ZSC1

[AxelHeyst]

azurestandard has organic flax seeds for 1.64/lb, is that competitive with the feed grade stuff?

At bulk amounts azure has them for closer to a dollar a pound, but they seem to be out of stock on that. The 1.64/lb is for 33oz bags.

[Salathor]

I have never found competitive prices for bulk grains online. This is one of the times when the larger "bulk" grocery stores come in handy. Smart & Final and Winco seem to be the best, but also restaurant supply stores and even OCCASIONALLY health food stores and the like.

[guitarplayer]

I'm going to try to squeeze a bit more life out of this thread as we are moving to the Bulk Foods thread and I don't want to clutter the new thread with the below tangent:

So far I have been buying ground flax seeds but do you have an ERE solution for grinding flax seeds? Same would go for chia seeds.

Because they are so smooth, my manual (coffee) grinder that I use for herbs does not work for them. I guess an electric coffee grinder would be the choice of most, with the runner up being throwing them into a vitamix or another smoothie maker? Am also considering getting a granite / ceramic / similar mortar.

[Slevin]

So far I have been buying ground flax seeds but do you have an ERE solution for grinding flax seeds? Same would go for chia seeds.

Because they are so smooth, my manual (coffee) grinder that I use for herbs does not work for them. I guess an electric coffee grinder would be the choice of most, with the runner up being throwing them into a vitamix or another smoothie maker? Am also considering getting a granite / ceramic / similar mortar.

Smash repeatedly with a heavy thing on a cutting board, using a napkin / etc to hold all the spices together while you smash em. Rolling pin is the classic, cast iron a close second. Alternatively, use a bowl and anything shaped kinda like a pestle. Back of a screwdriver, butt of a flashlight, some rock you found outside, idk look around and see what's shaped correctly. It isn't exactly "efficient" but it is time tested.

[guitarplayer]

The smashing would be quite loud though!

I will try to find a good rock somewhere around and use my cast iron pot as a dish - it's got a good texture as it is not enameled hence a bit rough, would prevent the seeds from running away from the rock.

ETA: have been looking around the kitchen and I see another solution being soaking chia / flax seeds and then blending them. We have a hand blender, if the seeds were soaked I don't think it would be that heavy on the blade, could prepare this in batches.

[Ego]

Flax seeds have a high oil content. When the seeds are ground the oil is exposed to oxygen and oxidizes, turning the good Omegas into free radicals. The shorter the duration between grinding and eating is best. For this reason, we avoid pre-ground flax.

About once a week Mrs. Ego uses the Vitamix to grind them and we store them in the freezer. We keep about two days worth in a small container on the counter.

[Slevin]

The smashing would be quite loud though!

Erm, not actually smashing, its more of a milling action, in the style that people have been milling things for the last 30000+ years. I will agree a strong blender is insanely more effective, as Ego points out. But good to know how to do either for when are traveling or your blender has been full of 64 ounces of pique you haven't been able to find a proper container for in the past three days.