Pink lentils are packed full of protein, folic acid, iron, fibre, and other essential nutrients. They also add plenty of flavour and texture to curries and many other savoury dishes. Cooking dried lentils may seem like work but in reality, pink lentils are very easy to prepare. There are a few ways that you can prepare dried lentils - keep reading to find out more.
Preparing Pink Lentils for Cooking
How you cook pink lentils will come down to how you plan to use the lentils in your meal. Here are some of the ways that you could prepare your lentils for cooking:
Prepare them on their own
If you’re cooking the lentils as a side dish or you want to add them when they are already cooked, you can cook lentils from scratch. Add water to a pot, allow the water to boil and then add a cup of lentils to the boiling water. Keep at medium heat and cook until the lentils are tender. Split lentils cook faster than whole lentils and they are often softer than whole lentils, too.
Cook them with rice
You can also cook lentils with rice. Simply add a cup of lentils to your dried basmati rice and cook until both are tender. This is a great way to make protein-packed rice that can be added to curries, stews, and other dishes. It also makes an excellent side dish.
Add them to soups
Finally, another way that you can cook these lentils is to add them to vegetable soup. Sautee potato or sweet potato and the vegetables of your choice. Add a cup of lentils and five cups of hot water and allow the soup to simmer until the lentils and vegetables are cooked. The vegetable and lentil soup can then be blended until smooth or left as is for a hearty, thick soup. You can also add lentils to meat or chicken soups to add more flavour and fibre.
However you prefer to cook them, pink lentils are an essential addition to your pantry.
0 comments