Ingredient

Lentils

Lentils split cleanly into two groups: the ones that hold their shape and the ones that collapse into a purée. Choosing the wrong group is the only real way to go wrong with them, and it is unfixable once the pan is on.

The lentils

Red or orange (split)

Skinless and split, so they collapse completely in about twenty minutes. Dal, soups, anything you want thick. They will never hold a shape.

Yellow split

Similar behaviour, milder and slightly sweeter.

Brown or green (standard)

Hold their shape reasonably for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes, then start to break down. Good all-rounders for stews and mince substitutes.

Puy (lentilles vertes du Puy)

Small, dark green-grey, and they hold their shape properly. Peppery and firm. Salads, sides, anything served in visible pieces.

Beluga

Small, black, glossy. Hold their shape like Puy, and look striking.

Whole brown masoor

Red lentils with the skin still on. They hold, unlike their split cousins.

Cooking them

• No soaking needed. Unlike most dried pulses, lentils cook from dry in under three-quarters of an hour. Rinse them and pick out any stones.
• Simmer, do not boil. A rolling boil breaks up even the firm ones and makes them muddy.
• Salt them. The old advice to salt at the end has been tested and does not hold up — salted lentils are better seasoned and cook perfectly well.
• Keep acid until the end. Tomato, vinegar, lemon and wine all slow down softening considerably. Add them once the lentils are tender or accept a much longer cook.
• Start them in cold water with an aromatic — a bay leaf, half an onion, a garlic clove — and they will taste of something before you have done anything else.
• Drain firm lentils promptly and dress them while warm; they absorb dressing far better than cold.

When they will not soften

Occasionally lentils simmer for an hour and stay stubbornly hard. There are three usual causes and they are worth distinguishing.

Acid in the pot is the commonest and the easiest to fix — it firms up the cell walls and dramatically slows softening. Cook them in plain water and add the tomatoes afterwards.

Hard water slows them too, because dissolved calcium and magnesium reinforce the same structures. A pinch of bicarbonate of soda in the water counteracts it, though too much makes them slimy and soapy.

Age. Dried pulses that have sat in a cupboard for years may never fully soften. There is no fix; buy them somewhere with turnover.

What to do with them

• Dal — red lentils cooked to a purée and finished with a tarka: whole spices bloomed in hot fat and poured over at the end. That last step is where nearly all the flavour is.
• A warm Puy lentil salad with mustard vinaigrette, shallot and something green — a genuinely good dish and one of the cheapest on any table.
• Lentil ragù, where brown lentils stand in for mince and the long simmer with tomato, soffritto and a parmesan rind does the rest.
• Soup, where red lentils thicken the whole thing without any starch or cream.
• Under fish or a fried egg, where firm lentils act as a savoury base.

Which lentil holds its shape

Red and yellow split

Collapse completely into a purée in fifteen to twenty minutes. For dal, soups and thickening. No soaking.

Green and brown

Hold their shape reasonably. Twenty to thirty minutes. The everyday all-purpose lentil.

Puy and beluga

Hold their shape best of all and stay firm and distinct. Twenty to twenty-five minutes. For salads, and worth the extra.

Whole brown (masoor)

Firmer than split red, and earthier.

Timing acid

Add tomato, vinegar or lemon after the lentils are tender. Acid added early slows softening considerably and can leave them stubbornly firm.

Salt

Salt from the start. It does not toughen them, and it is the only chance to season them through.

Common questions