Help with lentils please?

[Amy :-)]

There is a bag of green lentils sitting in my pantry...

I don't know what to do with them.
I have never cooked with them before.
I have read that you are supposed to soak them, but then not sure what you do after that.
I know that there are different colours, but I'm not sure what the differences are, apart from the obvious.
I'm not sure what flavours go well with them.
I don't even know if I LIKE them.

So, the million dollar question is: what on Earth should I do with this bag of green lentils?

[fundj&e]

amy lentil dont need soaking ,i dont have  recipe for you i just add carrots potaoes some celery and tomato paste and veg stock all in at once and let cook , there is some lovely reipes on the forum

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=9575.0

[Amy :-)]

Thanks for another helpful, speedy response uni

You are fast becoming my thermomix forum guardian angel

[RosieB]

Lentils are great to make a vegetarian Shepherd's Pie.  I think there may even be a recipe on the forum to make one.
I used to make them regularly when my girls were little.
One night a friend baby sat them and gave them regular Shepherd's Pie.
My eldest, when she came home announced they had a nice meal, 
'But Mummy, ..  Ros put meat in the pie.  It tasted a bit strange"   

[Lellyj]

I find red lentils cook in 15-20 minutes, green lentils about twice that.  We also like the small green French lentils "du puy."  They don't break down when cooking and have a nice texture, they cook in about 20 minutes too.  Split peas, many dried beans and chick peas have to be soaked

We like split yellow(mung dahl) lentils and black lentils too (available from Indian Groceries).  Never met a lentil I didn't like in fact!  You are about to have a whole world opened up to you!  Meagan's mixed lentil dahl from the forum is lovely, don't think it would matter if you just used green lentils with that, the spices are lovely in it. http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=2661.0

We really like the soup I posted a while back, you could use green lentils for that, but adjust the cooking time.  It has pancetta in it, which I love, but if you wanted vego you could leave it out. http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=6836.0

I totally agree with RosieB's suggestion of shepherd's pie and Dashingden posted a lentil pie recipe which I havent' tried yet, but sounds lovely. http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=8658.0

We have Quirky Jo's Lentil Bolognaise recipe at least every fortnight, but that's probably better with red lentils.http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4286.0

If you do a search for lentils you will get hundreds of replies just on this forum.  Good luck!

[Amy :-)]

Lentils are great to make a vegetarian Shepherd's Pie.  I think there may even be a recipe on the forum to make one.
I used to make them regularly when my girls were little.
One night a friend baby sat them and gave them regular Shepherd's Pie.
My eldest, when she came home announced they had a nice meal, 
'But Mummy, ..  Ros put meat in the pie.  It tasted a bit strange"   

How adorable

Thanks for all the links Lellyj I did look at a few recipes on here, but a lot of people seem to be familiar with lentils. I was worried there might be something obvious about them that I didn't know

[Merlin]

You don't need to soak them first. I chuck them in lots of soups eg Judy's  chicken and vegetable soup. Definitely useful in a pea and ham soup if you have a ham hock to cook. As mentioned, I often throw them into my spag bolognese sauce to make a larger quantity, or to use them in the vegetarian spag bolognese sauce- they taste great and no one in my family  realizes that they are eating lentils. Otherwise, there are plenty of Dahl recipes to try.

[Meagan]

Do check for little stones. I am not sure if it is all lentils you need to rinse and check for stones. Is this right?

[Cuilidh]

I always check for stones / twigs then rinse my lentils - you will see why as soon as you swish some water around them - you can see the dust in the water when you pour it off.  I would probably give them a good three to four rinses.  I always pre-soak the larger lentils for a couple of hours (if I have that much time available - even overnight if I am organised enough) - unless I am doing a very long, slow cook.  If your lentils are old there is no choice, you must pre-soak them otherwise they will take a really really long time to cook.

Red lentils don't need pre-soaking, but like all lentils and beans, they need a good rinsing.

I use red lentils in soups - particularly good in pumpkin soup, but also good thrown into stews and casseroles - they just seem to 'melt' into the mixture and don't need a long cooking time.

The mixed dahl recipe Lellyj mentioned above is very simple and very tasty so maybe have a go at that one first. 

The larger lentils and dahl (split beans, split beans, etc) are chunkier and retain their shape after cooking so add texture to whatever you are making which can be a good choice if you are vegetarian and cooking for a non-vegetarians - it gives a similar texture and appearnce to the food which they are more used to seeing.

[mcmich]

Quirky Jo has a recipe for lentil bolognese and it is lovely and very quick in the thermomix.

[obbie]

I did the tomato soup yesterday with red lentils, no need for soaking.

Hope you find what you are after.

Robyn

[Merlin]

I definitely agree with the washing part and checking for stones/debris etc but even with split peas and larger lentils I dont generally presoak them either.

[Amy :-)]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions everyone. Especially about the rinsing! I probably would have just thrown them in...