Basic Cooked Lentils
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Cooking time: 20 minutes
- Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Lentils:
- 1 cup yellow split peas or red lentils, picked over and rinsed
Onion and Garlic:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely chopped (approximately ½ cup chopped onion)
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Water:
Seasonings:
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground tumereric
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
Ingredients
(serves 4)
Section
Instructions
-
Pick over yellow split peas or red lentils; rinse and set aside.
- Heat oil on medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
- Add the finely chopped onion to the saucepan.
- Cook the onion, stirring occasionally until golden brown; about 5 minutes.
- Stir in garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add the lentils to the saucepan.
- Add the seasonings to the saucepan.
- Slowly and carefully add the 2½ cups water to the pan.
- Bring to simmer, cover, and cook until the lentils are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf and discard.
- Serve.
Comments
Yellow split peas and red lentils have a very creamy and moist texture and are sweeter and nuttier tasting.Red or orange lentils will cook to a yellow or beige color.
Brown lentils can be substituted, they hold their shape much better but have a firmer and drier texture when cooked.
If you use standard brown lentils allow 5 to 10 more minutes for cooking time.
Add water if the mixture becomes too dry while simmering.
If cooked lentils have too much liquid, simmer uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes.