Proteins · Ln

Lentil

Protein 25% · breaks down in 20 min

Per 100 g

358 kcal Energy

24.6 g Protein

63.4 g Carbs

1.1 g Fat

10.7 g Fibre

Gluten-free GI 16

Let’s cook with it → Invent something with it

What it is for

Heat unfolds them and they link to each other: they bind, they firm, they build crust. They are one half of the Maillard reaction; sugar is the other.

Where it catches you out

Every protein has its own threshold and none of them are reversible. Egg turns at 82 °C, meat at 70, fish at 55 — once past, there is no coming back.

The knack

Red lentils have no skin, need no soaking and collapse in twenty minutes; use green ones if you want them to hold.

Storage and health

How to keep it, and who it suits.

Keeping it

Airtight in a cool dry place for a year; older lentils take longer to soften, and when they will not, age is the culprit rather than salt.

Gluten-free

Lentils are naturally gluten-free.

Glycaemic index

16 — glucose is taken as 100. Below 55 is low, 56–69 medium, 70 and above high. The number says nothing about portion: at the same index, twice the amount is twice the load.

Row in the table: Lentils, boiled, mean of eight foods

Atkinson et al., Am J Clin Nutr 2021

What it works with

Pairings, and the reason for each

"They go well together" is not an explanation. Every pairing below has a chemical or structural mechanism under it.

Lemon →

Ascorbate reduces and chelates the iron, defeating the phytate that otherwise locks it up. This is the single most useful nutritional pairing in the list.

Rice →

Lentil protein is lysine-rich and methionine-poor; cereal protein is the mirror image. Together they approximate a complete amino acid profile.

Cumin →

Cuminaldehyde and toasting-derived pyrazines are lipophilic and are only extracted and distributed by hot fat. That is why bloomed cumin tastes nothing like stirred-in ground cumin.

Also works with

Olive oil

Chilli flakes

Mint

Bulgur

Carrot

Butter

What it fights with

Tomato paste

Acid at the start of cooking keeps pectin insoluble and the lentils stay hard.

What goes on top

Sizzled butter with dried mint and chilli, lemon wedges, croutons, a spoonful of yoghurt

Key compounds

Fitik asit: Chelates iron and zinc; reduced by soaking, sprouting and long cooking.
Rafinoz ailesi oligosakkaritler: Indigestible by human enzymes and fermented in the colon; much of it leaches into the soaking water.

Nutritionally

Lentils are iron-dense at roughly 6–7 mg per cooked cup, but that iron is non-heme and phytate-bound. What turns the label number into absorbed iron is the vitamin C beside it.

Terms on this page

Maillard: Protein meeting sugar above 140 °C to produce crust, colour and that roasted smell.

Where it turns up

What is made with it

1 dishes in the database use it.

Soups 1

Tutmaç

Small cut noodles cooked with meat or lentils, with garlic yoghurt poured over at the plate rather than stirred into the pot. This is a far older and far simpler answer to the curdling problem than terbiye.

Quick ideas