Lentils are a dish with deep roots in Spanish cuisine. These legumes loaded with iron and protein provide many benefits to the body and, in addition, are very versatile for different preparations. From the most traditional stew, which allows variations where creativity takes the reins, to cold salads.
Cooking lentils is not complex, although it does require some rules to achieve the cooking point and the appropriate consistency of the broth. If we do not pay attention, it is easy for the lentil stew to be too watery or, on the contrary, we will end up with very dry lentils. To avoid falling into one extreme or another, we resort to Karlos Arguiñano’s trick.
It was during the preparation of lentils with banana on his program Cocina Abierta on Antena 3, when Arguiñano slipped some tricks to obtain a perfect result when cooking lentils. The problem with legumes is that they absorb a lot of liquid when cooking them, so you have to be precise so that they turn out well.
If you want the lentils to be neither watery nor dry, you should know that the amount of water will depend on the container in which you cook them. Thus, Arguiñano maintains that if you use a pressure cooker, you have to add three parts of water to one of lentils. In the case of the conventional pot, the amount of water needed amounts to five parts of water to one part of lentils, since in this container it evaporates faster.
The Basque chef also put on the table a solution in case you overdo it with the amount of water: take a saucepan of the cooked lentils, crush them and add the resulting puree to the pot, stirring so that it integrates and thickens the broth.
A recurring question is whether it is necessary to soak lentils before cooking them, as is the case with other legumes. The truth is that the answer depends on the lentils we choose and the time we have to prepare them.
Depending on the brand and type of lentils you are going to use, you will be able to see on the package whether or not it is necessary to soak them, as well as the equivalent cooking time based on the soaking time. Whether you opt for bulk lentils or a brand that says soaking is optional will depend on how long you want to keep them on the heat.
To considerably shorten the cooking time of the lentils, you can let them soak for a few hours, while if you don’t, they will have to cook longer. Now, what is essential is that you rinse the lentils before adding them to the casserole, to clean them and remove impurities.
