Recipes with lentils

The lentil is one of the oldest cultivated plants of the Fertile Crescent. One practical detail sets it apart from other pulses: it cooks without soaking, in half an hour or less. That speed, as much as how well it keeps dry, is what installed it in everyday kitchens across India, Ethiopia, the Levant and Anatolia.

The variety you choose defines two different cuisines. Red lentils, husked, break down completely and give you soups: Turkish mercimek çorbası, Sri Lankan dhal curry with coconut milk, Ethiopian misir wot with berbere and Indian dal tadka all rely on that collapse. Brown and green lentils hold their shape and serve wherever you want a distinct grain: Lebanese mujaddara pairs them with rice and fried onions, Egyptian koshari stacks them with pasta and rice, Ethiopian azifa serves them cold in a lemony salad, and Turkish mercimek köftesi binds them with fine bulgur.

Two habits change everything. First, salt and acidify only at the end: salt, and above all lemon juice or tomato, slow the skins from softening, and a lentil cooked in acid stays firm whatever you do next. Second, skim off the foam that rises in the first few minutes — that is what clouds the broth. Dal makhani is the deliberate exception: give it a very long, gentle simmer, because there the whole lentils are meant to turn creamy rather than stay firm.