As of: March 7, 2024, 9:01 a.m
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Lenses are rightly considered small powerhouses.
However, the time-consuming preparation can be daunting.
Soaking halves the cooking time.
Lentils are nutritious, high in fiber and simply delicious.
Many great dishes can be conjured up from legumes, such as curries, filling lentil stews and salads.
Vegans and vegetarians in particular should regularly include lentils in their diet due to their high protein content.
However, depending on the variety, cooking can take some time.
This is particularly impractical in hectic everyday life.
Luckily, there is an effective way to get the lentils ready faster: simply soak them in water.
Lentils: Soaking shortens cooking time
How long lentils need to be cooked depends on the variety.
Plate lentils take between 30 and 60 minutes, beluga lentils between 20 and 30 minutes.
It's much quicker with red and yellow lentils: the cooking time is only ten to fifteen minutes.
If time for cooking is short, you can opt for these varieties.
Red, green, brown: There are many different types of lentils.
© Shotshop/Imago
But plate lentils, mountain lentils (cooking time 30 to 40 minutes) and beluga lentils can also be prepared more quickly.
The trick is to soak the legumes overnight.
First wash them in a sieve to remove possible dirt and foreign particles.
The water that drips should end up being clear instead of cloudy.
Now put the lentils in a large pot and add three times the amount of cold water.
In summer, it is recommended to put the soaked lentils in the refrigerator.
You should not soak these types of lentils
To prevent bloating, you should throw away the soaking water the next day and cook the lentils with fresh water.
According to
Öko-Test,
soaking halves the cooking time.
So if cooking usually takes half an hour, the lentils will be cooked in about fifteen minutes thanks to the soaking method.
It's best to try the legumes while cooking - then you're on the safe side.
A great side effect is that soaking also saves you energy.
Unlike other varieties, red and yellow lentils are already peeled.
That's why they shouldn't be soaked: otherwise they would fall apart.
Since the cooking time is only a maximum of fifteen minutes, these varieties are cooked quickly anyway.
If you want to save energy, you can also let the lentils boil.
After a short time, turn off the stove and put a lid on the pot.
The residual heat is used to finish cooking the lentils.
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Flatulence?
Soaking makes lentils easier to digest
Maybe you are one of those people who gets gas easily from legumes.
Then it is even more important that you soak lentils, beans, etc. before cooking.
According to the State Center for Nutrition (LEn),
lentils contain
trisaccharides and polysaccharides that cannot be broken down in the small intestine.
So they end up undigested in the large intestine, where they are digested by bacteria.
This produces gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which can cause flatulence.
When soaking, substances that are difficult to digest are dissolved and passed into the soaking water.
For this reason, fresh water should be used for cooking.
Lentils also contain antinutrients such as phytic acid.
These make the absorption of important minerals more difficult.
Iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium in particular are bound by phytic acid and are therefore less absorbed.
Soaking and cooking significantly reduces the phytic acid content.
Cook lentils properly: Salting them beforehand is beneficial
It is often said that legumes take longer to cook if you add salt while cooking.
The
Federal Center for Nutrition,
however, writes on its website: “Salt can be added directly during cooking.
It helps to loosen up the cell structures during the cooking process and the vegetables soften even more quickly.” In addition, lentils etc. become more aromatic if they are salted during cooking instead of afterwards.
However, you should be careful with acids such as vinegar or lemon juice.
These harden the cell structures in legumes.
This means they soften more slowly.
So it's better to wait until the end of the cooking time.