Can you cook a lens? Although we are particularly common in our country porridge or soup, where the legume is expected, we do not always want the lens to disintegrate. However, the art of cooking the lens is not only the length of cooking. What should you know?
Why do you fall in love with a lens
Although legumes have lost their flags in the last few years, their inclusion in the diet has many positives. They are very healthy foods, cheap and contain substances that often lack in our diet or do not have enough.
For example, legumes are an excellent source of protein. Although it is not the same protein as we can find in meat products, the lens or other legumes can definitely contribute to the ideal amount of protein in your diet.
The legumes are also very rich to dense, especially when we boil them. So if you do not want a heavy stomach, cook them so that they stay nice and combine them. In this way, you can use them in various salads, which will not only be lighter, but also refreshing and full of health benefits.
The lens contains about 25 g of proteins in 100 g dried lenses. It offers boarders a large amount of fiber, folic acid, as well as magnesium, potassium and antioxidants. It has a low glycemic index and perfectly fits into a healthy diet.
Source: YouTube
How to cook the lens properly?
A common mistake is salting and that we cook it like rice. First, it is necessary to know that the lenses are different. The red lens is significantly smaller and softens very quickly. The brown lens, which is more typical in our country, is larger and stiffer. What should you not forget to cook them?
- Type: It is enough to soak the red lens for only a few minutes, while the brown larger lens should be soaked for at least a few hours or overnight.
- Rinse: Always rinse and cook in clean water before cooking.
- Cooking: Cook the lens in large amounts of water. The fluid should not all absorb into it, which would lead to the creation of a porridge.
- Salt: Do not add salt to the boiled lens and other legumes right at the beginning because it slows the softening of the peel. Add salt only in the last minutes of cooking.
- Cooking time: green and brown lentils need 20 to 25 minutes.
- Red and yellow lenses are tiny and cool quickly, so 10 to 15 minutes is enough.
- Black lens (Beluga): It is suitable for salads because it is stiffer and cooked for 25 to 30 minutes.
Other tricks in preparing the lens
You can also add a small amount of baking soda to the lens and other legumes. It will not only help with its digestibility, but also speed up cooking by up to 20 to 30 %.
Baking soda is often used in cooking harder legs of legumes such as chickpeas, beans or older lenses or peas. If you decide to use it, add only a pinch, such as 1/8 teaspoon per liter of water. If the edible soda were too much, legumes would have a soap taste, they would look flourish and would lose part of the vitamin B.
You do not have to cook lentils or other legumes only in clean water. You can try to add broth, bay leaf, clove of garlic or Roman cumin to highlight the taste. Legumes cooked in one pot with meat, vegetables and spices taste great.
Sources :,
