Pulses Novice needs HELP!!!!

seraphina

They can be quite confusing, can't they?
My guide is as follows:

Small lentils - the red kind - you can chuck a handful of these in to soups, stews etc and they cook quite quickly, around 15-20 mins. No soaking required.

Larger lentils- like Puy lentils - no pre-soaking but can take a while to cook depending on the age of the lentils - usually about 30-40 mins of fast boiling. These ones hold their shape well.

Kidney beans - MUST be soaked overnight AND BOILED for at least 10 mins to get rid of toxins. For conveinience I used canned.

Other pulses - Chickpeas, black eyed beans etc: soak overnight and then cook until done. However if you forget to soak overnight, I use Madhur Jaffery's emergency quick (ish!) cook recipe - rinse pulses, cook on a fast boil for an hour and then leave them to sit in their hot water for as long as possible, at least an hour. Then cook as normal. It's great at weekends if I forget to soak beans the night before:o

Horse_Owner

I find it easier to use the tins and sometimes cheeper too.

Squiggly_Diddly

Thanks for all the advice/suggestions so far I think it was because I wanted to do cassoulet type meals that I was thinking about using them... Don't like curry unfortunately, but 1 (or poss 2) of my DD's do, so that could be worth a go for them.
I've seen a salad with green lentils in before, just didn't have a clue how/when to cook them - so I gather that would be soak overnight, then boil, then cool, then use!
Yep, tins great idea too, as a first taste..
May do a cassoulet tomorrow or Monday

Telute

Green lentils take about 20 minutes on a fast boil (cook until edible basically). They're also called puy lentils and are my favourite since they have a lovely peppery flavour. They keep their shape well unlike ...

Red lentils. These take less time to cook about 10-15 min and go kinda mushy so are good for throwing in stews and soups.

Packets should have instructions - the above is based on the ones i use regularly, but given the wide variance in times suggested by people on this thread i'd guess that checking the packet of whatever you buy will give you the best idea of how to cook it and for how long.

sillyvixen

lentils are added to a dish that will boil for a bit (soup, curry, pasta sause, ratatouie etc) i have to admit that other pulses and beans i use cheap tins as it is quicker!!!

Mellika

My favourite EVER winter food (mum used to make it all the time)

Meli's Mum's Lentil Stew

-Onions (1 medium per person)
-1 Red pepper (if you're cooking for 4)
-Tomato puree
-Chunk of Spanish chorizo (dont worry, a small piece -50g- is plenty for a BIG pot of stew, it's just for flavour)
-Paprika (LOTS - the more the yummier)
-Green lentils (120g dry weight per person)
-Potatoes (optional - 1 small per person)
-Carrots (optional - 1 small per person)

You won't need to soak the lentils overnight. Before you do anything else, weigh up the lentils, put them in a BIG bowl, cover with boiling water and put a lid on it. 10 Minutes of this is enough, so by the time you've done everything else it should be ready - just make sure that you keep adding boiling water if it absorbs all of it.

Slice the onions and the pepper, soften on the stove with some oil. Add some salt, stir, add Spanish chorizo cut in small cubes. Let it all soften up. Add some tomato puree, LOTS of paprika and anything else you might like (I usually add garlic, chili, cayenne pepper and a beef stock cube dissolved in a bit of water)

Add the lentils and cubed potatoes (and some sliced carrots if you like) and cover with water. Bring it to the boil, then cover and cook on low for about 1 hour or until lentils and veg are soft.

I know it sounds like a lot of work but it is SO worth it !!! And I say winter food but I like it so much I cook it all year 'round Feel free to modify as you wish!!!

Squiggly_Diddly

Mellika, that lentil stew sounds great - I will give it a try this weekend sometime!
Telute - what would you do with puy lentils? I have a pack of ready-cooked ones in my cupboard that I'd like to do something with?! I just am not sure what....

So, with all the assorted types of beans (ie butter, cannellini, black-eyed) and so on, just a case of picking what you fancy & chucking it in...

Thanks all!

Mellika

Squiggly_Diddly wrote: »

Mellika, that lentil stew sounds great - I will give it a try this weekend sometime!

Great, let me know what you think of it. Suggestions welcome :cool:

Gingham_Ribbon

We have an older thread for pulse novices so I've merged the 2 to keep the answers together.

You may also want to check out these threads:

Pulses quick questions thread.
Some pulse questions
Beans and pulses.

Squiggly_Diddly

Thank you GR