Lentil

The fastest pulse to cook — no soaking, half an hour at most — and one of the oldest crops in the Near East.

Where it comes from

Lentils were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent alongside wheat and barley, among the very first crops anywhere. They are central to Indian, Ethiopian, Levantine and Turkish cooking, and to the meat-free days of the Christian and Muslim calendars.

The distinction that matters in a kitchen is whether the lentil still has its seed coat. Whole lentils hold their shape; split and hulled ones dissolve. Almost every disappointing lentil dish is one used where the other was wanted.

Varieties

• Brown and green — Whole, keep their shape reasonably. General-purpose.
• Puy and Castelluccio — Small, dark, firm. Hold shape completely — salads and side dishes.
• Red / masoor dal — Split and hulled. Collapse to a purée in twenty minutes. Soups and dals.
• Yellow / toor and moong dal — Split pigeon pea and mung. The everyday dals of South Asia; toor is the base of sambar.
• Beluga — Small, black, glossy. Firm, and they look like caviar.

In the kitchen

Red lentils are not a substitute for green in a salad, and green are not a substitute for red in a dal. One holds, one melts, and that is the only decision that matters.

As with beans, acid keeps them firm — so tomato and lemon go in near the end unless you want them to stay separate.

Tempering — frying whole spices in fat and pouring the lot over the finished dal — is not a garnish. It is where most of the flavour in a dal comes from, added at the end because those aromatics would be destroyed by the long simmer.

Lentil is tagged on 91 dishes from 38 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.