Easy Lentil Curry Recipe (Stove or Instant Pot) (2024)

FAQs

Do red lentils cook faster than regular lentils? ›

Choose Red Lentils For A Shorter Cooking Time And A Creamier Base For All Your Favorite Meals. If you're looking to make a meatless sloppy joe's alternative for tonight's dinner, when grabbing a bag of red lentils, reach for the split variety for a speedier cooking time.

Be sure to use a large enough saucepan as the lentils will double or triple in size. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, reduce heat and simmer until they are tender. For whole lentils, cook time is typically 15-20 minutes. For split red lentils, cook time is typically only about 5-7 minutes.

Soaking naturally deactivates the harmful compounds and activates all the goodness of the seed and increases its nutritional value manifold. The process of soaking removes the gas-causing elements from the lentils. While legumes contain complex oligosaccharides, a type of complex sugar responsible for bloating and gas.

Black Lentils (Beluga lentils)

Thanks to the robust flavor, these lentils pair well with meaty veggies and marinated proteins like mushrooms, tofu, and seitan. Best of all, black lentils are the most nutritious variety of lentils, boasting the highest amount of protein, plus high levels of calcium, potassium, and iron.

Dal or daal is the generic Hindi word for Lentil. But dal refers both to the uncooked dry lentil and also the cooked lentil curry. You need dal to cook dal.

Yes, you can overcook lentils; they will become mushy. Much depends on the type of lentil you're using. Some cook quicker and hold their shape better than others. To avoid overcooking them, always follow the cooking directions in your recipe and use the type of lentils called for in the ingredient list.

As a general rule, one cup of dried lentils yields two to two-and-a-half cups of cooked lentils. Because of their rather delicate, earthy flavor, lentils work well in a variety of dishes and in almost any type of cuisine.

Keep them moist. If you don't want dry, hard lentils, make sure to keep a little liquid in the pot! You can always add a little more if the water is evaporating faster than they cook.

Lentils aren't rice—they don't need to absorb every last drop of cooking liquid. They're more like pasta: best cooked in an abundance of water or stock. Bring your liquid up to a boil, add your lentils, then turn down your heat to a simmer for at least 25-30 minutes.

Do I need to wash red lentils before cooking? ›

Lentils do not require it but can be soaked in order to reduce cooking time by about half. Before cooking, rinse lentils in cold water, pick over to remove debris or shrivelled lentils, then drain.

Avoiding Mushy Lentils

You want to see just a few bubbles in the water and some gentle movement in the lentils. They will plump up nicely without splitting their skins or becoming mushy. The other trick is to wait to add the salt or any acidic ingredients until the lentils are done cooking.

Split and whole red lentils have basically the same cooking methods, but I find split red lentils to cook up a tiny bit quicker and turn out creamier. Whole and split red lentils can usually be used interchangeably unless a recipe specifies.

(It actually works for dried pasta too!) In that book, I advise to soak lentils from four to twenty-four hours and then drain and cook them in the usual three cups of water.

Do you rinse canned lentils? It is not necessary to rinse canned lentils before cooking, but you can rinse them by emptying them into a strainer and under cold water. This can help to remove some of the sodium content from the liquid around the beans.