Do you need to soak lentils before cooking, and how to do it correctly?

Lentils are a healthy legume, a source of protein, vitamins and nutrients. There are a lot of varieties, they differ in color, size of beans and cooking time. Any lentils need to be soaked, but how and how much depends on the variety and the desired consistency in the dish.

Do I need to soak lentils?

Regardless of the type of legumes, they must be washed. To do this, pour them with cold water and filter through a sieve. Then they proceed depending on the variety and the result that needs to be obtained.

purity-en.htgetrid.com magazine recommends soaking any variety of lentils, but for different times. The operation allows you to dissolve the inhibitor phytic acid, which interferes with the absorption of some valuable minerals, in particular calcium, and causes bloating.

How to soak lentils

To soak the lentils, pour them in so as to cover the beans with water and leave. The room should be warm, about 25° C. On average, lentils require 10 hours for phytic acid to be completely neutralized.

In what water

The main condition is the water temperature. It should be room temperature, approximately 20-24 degrees. If you take it hot, the beans will lose their presentable appearance. If it's cold, the process will take longer.

For better effect, add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to the water (no more than 1 tablespoon per glass of liquid).

How much time

For quick-cooking varieties, 3-5 hours are enough. Hard ones need up to 10 hours.

Important
After soaking, the cooking time is reduced by 2-3 times.

How to soak overnight

To get an almost finished dish free of inhibitor by morning, you should soak the lentils for 8 hours or more. “Warm” varieties do not tolerate this procedure very well, but hard ones (brown, brown, all French) are ideal. They need to be left overnight in acidified water, and in the morning they will cook in 15-20 minutes.

It is permissible not to cook green and brown lentils for salad after overnight soaking, since the taste of the dish will be better if the beans retain their shape and are slightly tough. In this case, just rinse the lentils and place them in a salad bowl.

How to cook soaked lentils

Red - the fastest lentils to cook. It's not great for soup, but it makes a good puree. Cook red lentils without soaking for no more than 15 minutes. And after the procedure - no more than 5-10 minutes. Therefore, if whole grains are needed in the soup, they are thrown into the boiling broth at the end of cooking.

Pink variety looks like red, and is treated the same way.

Orange look A little tougher, but in terms of cooking it’s no different.

Yellow lentils It also boils quickly, its main difference is that it swells greatly. Therefore, it produces an airy, very tender puree. For meatballs, after cooking, leave the beans on the switched off stove, under the lid, for another 5 minutes, so that the mass increases in volume.

Canadian black varieties - beluga - belongs to the average speed of boiling. This is a specially bred variety, and is not yet often found on shelves, so purchasing it is worth the effort. Beluga is often used to decorate dishes, salads and sandwiches. Prolonged soaking will deform the grains and ruin their beautiful appearance. Without soaking in water, the variety takes 20 minutes to cook, so for salad it only needs 3 hours and cooking for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Interesting fact
Black Canadian lentils were called beluga because the beans resemble grains of black caviar.

Green lentils, firm. If you soak it for an hour, cooking will take 30 minutes. If the beans are kept in acidified water longer, 15-20 minutes will be enough. To preserve the integrity of the lentils, the cooking time can be reduced.

Brown variety - the slowest. It's ideal for soaking overnight, but will still cook until pureed in about 30 minutes.

Buraya (something between brown and green) in terms of cooking technology is more similar to brown and also requires soaking before cooking.

French varieties are also quite hard. Their incredible subtle taste is unique and requires no seasoning. For the salad, it is recommended to soak them in salted water acidified with lemon juice for 8 hours and then do not boil them, but only rinse them.

Many chefs believe that soaking worsens the taste of French lentils and recommend boiling them immediately for 30-45 minutes.

Even after cooking, the beans remain slightly hard, this is the specificity of this crop. Therefore, delicious pilaf and soups are obtained from the French variety.

Advice
Lentils cook faster in fresh water. If you need to boil the beans, add salt at the end of cooking, and immediately to preserve the integrity of the shells.

Lentils, unlike beans, cook faster and easier, and there is slightly less phytic acid in their shells. Therefore, it is not necessary to soak it all night, but it is convenient: in the morning, just throw the beans in boiling water and wait at least 5 and maximum 30 minutes.And you have a nutritious dish on your table that will not cause heaviness or bloating, but will release all its beneficial substances completely and be easily absorbed by the body.