Seventy years of lentils

"They're basically way better than kale" Emily Blatchford - Huff Post

The image and type of lentils that we eat has changed several times over my lifetime. And doubtless it will continue to change.

In my childhood there seemed to be just the red ones, which I'm pretty sure we used to call Egyptian lentils. And we didn't do anything fancy with them. They were just washed, soaked and put in soup. And there I go saying they went into soup when I know I have said before that I don't remember my mother cooking soup. So either my memory is false and she did cook soup or they went into stews. Anyway they were basically a thickening thing, but I did love their slightly musty taste. They are also the kind of lentils I am going to use in my dinner soup tonight. They are very much a comfort nostalgia food for me.

Then in the 60s and 70s came the era of the vegetarian hippies who wore damp and musty, shapeless woolly clothes and ate lentils and brown rice. It was a cartoon kind of image I know but this was how vegetarians were perceived back then. And the lentils tended to be brown. And these definitely needed to be soaked a bit. But they also retained their shape rather better than the red ones and didn't just slowly become mush.

The brown shaded into green and as they became increasingly fashionable to the health food market they shaded into the ultimate - the Le Puy lentils from France or the home-grown French green lentils. Not French - just called that because the Le Puy ones have an appellation contrôlée on them so you can't call them Le Puy. Same plant, different terroir. Here in Australia there are several prestige brands of green and Le Puy type lentils - Mount Zero being one of them. And they are not really green - more a slate colour. Smaller and they do retain their shape much better - thus making them the darling of salad makers.

These days they are fashionable for everyone. You will not be able to open any kind of food magazine without there being at least one recipe that includes lentils, whether it be in some kind of stew, or salad, or soup, or patty.

Running alongside the three trends I noted above, we have of course had first the proliferation of Indian restaurants, and then the Middle-Eastern ones. Now parts of India are heavily reliant on lentils - dal to them - of a bewildering variety of hues from white to black, and a concomitant number of things to do with them. The Middle-Eastern dishes tend to focus more on the patties and the fillings I think rather than the stews - but I confess I haven't looked into it that much.

It's still one of the prime ingredients of the vegetarians and health conscious of course, and can be quite pricey if you go for genuine Le Puy lentils, but for much of the world it is cheap, plentiful and a source of just about every food type we need:

"You get both protein and carbohydrates in one foul swoop. Aside from dairy, there aren't really any other foods we can say that about.

They also provide slow burning, long-lasting energy and are packed with fibre -- both soluble and insoluble fibre -- which helps with your digestive system, keeping us regular.

That is also going to help us actively lower our cholesterol levels." Lyndi Cohen - Dietician

Plus a whole lot of minerals and vitamins. So there is no doubt that they are healthy. Indeed possibly one of the world's healthiest foods - and so cheap too - well the more ordinary red, brown or green ones. And they don't go off either.

They are also ancient. They have found some in Greece that are 11,000 years old and it is generally believed by many that they were the first cultivated crop. Lentils grow on small bushes and produce pods, like peas and beans to which they are related of course. But the lentil pods contain just one or two seeds. They leave the pods to dry out on the vine and then when they are harvested they remove the seeds, sometimes drying them yet more. Sometimes the seeds are left whole with the coating intact, sometimes the coating/skin is removed and you get those lentils that are flat on one side. And did you know that because of this shape the ocular lens was named after the plant - lens culinaris?

To show its antiquity I found this rather nice little story from Ancient Greece.

"The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king." Anthony de Mello

I don't eat them enough. I won't include any recipes - there are probably millions out there on the net, and I'm sure that all of your (and my) favourite cooks have a recipe or two.

“The lentil is perhaps the world’s most versatile, indestructible food." Beth Fantaskey

Though I have to say that Beverley Sutherland Smith doesn't include lentils in her book on vegetables - The Seasonal Kitchen and neither does Bert Green in Greene on Greens. Maybe they somehow don't see them as vegetables. For they are dried always. And even though they are naturally dried perhaps they don't see them as fresh. And even though Jane Grigson does give quite a few recipes she also says:

"I cannot regard them with any deep enthusiasm." Jane Grigson

Me - I really do rather like them. So I'd better go and make this soup which will have some ham and tomatoes in with it.

And I forgot to say - you can grow them into sprouts too. Which makes them into something completely different and a great thing for kids to do.