Lentils: Low-Fat, High-Fiber Folate for Healthy Eating

Last year I took a trip to Mexico and I ate lentils for the first time in all of my thirty-two years, I loved them! When I came back home I began looking for recipes, I discovered that vegetarians utilize these tiny beans and that lentils are a good addition to living a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle.

A healthy … well-balanced lifestyle! Considering the fact that up until a couple of month's ago my idea of a really good dinner was a box of pizza dough, some spaghetti sauce, a cup of mozzarella and some deli pepperoni, I'm not doing so bad jumping on the healthy food trolley.

The lentils I sampled in Mexico were green but there are so many colors, so many ways to cook lentils some ways based on the very color of the lentil itself but the possible combinations to actually use lentils in a family's diet is practically endless.

Lentils are green, brown, red, orange, yellow, black and there may be other colors I just haven't discovered yet too! In the U.S. most lentils available for purchase at various stores are green and brown, occasionally I've found the red ones at the supermarket.

Cooking Lentils

Most people believe that since lentils are beans, they should be soaked prior to cooking with them but that's not true at all. The only prep required is a simple rinse with cold water to ensure cleanliness in the food you cook, which is basic. Some lentils purchased in bags may say ‘soak' but it's not really required and soaking them for a recipe that has a longer cook time from start to finish at a high temperature may actually make the lentils a little soggy like.

The most common base ingredient needed to cook up some lentils is water but it varies on the amount to add.

When in doubt just use this simple rule-add 1&1/2 cups of water per ½ a cup of lentils and your recipe will turn out fine. Lentils are usually used in soups so the liquid content amount shouldn't make a huge difference even if you're a few teaspoons off mark.

Lentils can be cooked on top of stove, in a crock-pot, in stews, soups and even tacos!

Nutritional Benefits