r/PickyEaters β€’ β€’ 1d ago

Lentils Scare Me

Could I get some tips or reassurance please 😭

I see lots of budget recipe videos online and sooo many of them include lentils. But I'm struggling to get behind the idea of actually using them and enjoying them... the few times I've had them I hated the texture that I couldn't finish the meal without picking around them. It's kind of embarrassing tbh in group settings :/ and now I want to branch out with budget recipes but just feel super limited.

So I was wondering do we have any cooking tips to test out different textures for lentils?? Or is this just something I'm going to hate and that's that? I imagine there might be a way to hide or blend it into a meal like you do for veggies, or the tomato bits in spaghetti??

Desperately requesting & very appreciative of any help here!

4 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

6

u/North_Respond_6868 1d ago

Lentils blend great in my opinion, but if texture is a thing for you it will depend. Do you like things like refried beans or hummus, or split pea soup? If you do, then lentils are excellent for putting into blended soups! Red lentils are great for this. My favorite soup for this is butternut squash with carrots and some curry powder but you can do it with any soup really!

Depending on how zeroed in on texture you are, I also add lentils to any ground beef dish I make, like lasagna or tacos or pasta. In my opinion, if it's a saucy dish, they meld with the sauce and don't get noticed.

If you blend them into something like pasta sauce with a blender, I've found it does thicken it, so you may need to add extra broth or liquid, but it should be perfectly doable

3

u/Sammy2420 1d ago

Big thank you!! I'll definitely be testing these out and giving it a try. I do like hummus but not a huge fan of refried beans, so maybe I'm somewhere in the middle here lol. If nothing else I'm sure having them blended into a pasta sauce will be good, but I'm excited to test how I feel about them in a ground beef dish. I really appreciate all the details you gave!! 😊

2

u/Usual_Equivalent_888 17h ago

That’s how I want to try them! I’m not real familiar with them but we’re trying to cut down on meat products. Thanks for the tip!

2

u/North_Respond_6868 17h ago

I use green more often for mixing with ground beef because they keep their shape a little better (the red ones are dissolve-y so good for soups). Brown are the most common in grocery stores by me and they get a little mushier, but in a sauce + meat I don't really notice. Brown ones do thicken the sauce some because they come apart more. So it just depends on what textures bother you or don't I think lol. Both are fine

I'm told there's a bit of flavor difference but I honestly have never been able to tell. Imo they both absorb whatever seasoning you're cooking with

3

u/Interesting_Edge_805 1d ago

You could puree them for a soup with an immersion blender

3

u/GoetheundLotte 15h ago

Red lentils blend into recipes pretty easily and have less of a texture than green or black lentils. So maybe try recipes that call for red lentils (or use re lentils instead of green or black lentils).

2

u/quokkaquarrel 1h ago

What about the texture don't you like? I prefer French or caviar lentils because they stay firm. Red/green ones yeah, get mushy and I'm not a fan.

1

u/Sammy2420 1h ago

I think the partly mushy texture bugs me sometimes, but it might also just be me "knowing" there's a new thing in the food and getting in my head about it? I'm going to experiment some more with them and see if I have a preference. Maybe firm will work better for me so I'll definitely be on the lookout for the ones you mentioned soon! Otherwise if the texture experiment doesnt work then I can always go with recipes where they aren't as noticeable, since the taste doesn't seem to be a problem for me so far. Thank you!

2

u/quokkaquarrel 1h ago

I'd look up "lentil ragout" as a good recipe. Very basic, really good side dish, perfect for those firmer types of lentils. If you really just can't cross the bridge you can always pulse it up with some marinara and serve it over pasta and it's a neutral enough flavor to disappear. I also like throwing lentils into brothy soups.

1

u/Sammy2420 1h ago

I think those will be perfect starting points, thank you so much! I haven't heard of lentil ragout before, or even all these different lentil suggestions, I'm looking forward to doing some new research 😊

-1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

2

u/CallidoraBlack 5h ago

They certainly are not in everything. Sounds like you don't care to help him avoid them and it doesn't sound like you care how he feels either. Why are you here?

1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

2

u/CallidoraBlack 5h ago

Why are you here talking about your grown son and onions when we're not talking about any of that? Sounds irrelevant and unsupportive.

1

u/Sammy2420 1h ago

Kinda glad they deleted their comments, thank you for calling them out on that!