Around our house, lentils are a staple ingredient.  While similar to beans, they have several advantages over beans.  They cook faster (in about the same amount of time as brown rice), don’t require soaking, and don’t have the same gassiness issues.  Like beans, they’re an inherently “whole food,” and they’re inherently gluten-free, so they’re great for us to keep around.  (And since they don’t spoil, they’re easy to keep on hand.)

One of our favorite lentil recipes is:

Lentils & Rice

Lentils & Rice

Rachel Ramey

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

  

• 5 c. water
• 2 tsp. chicken or vegetable bouillon
• scant 1 c. brown rice 8 oz. weight
• scant 3/4 c. dried lentils 6 oz. weight
• 1 c. chopped carrots I usually keep some chopped in the freezer and just toss them in frozen.
• 1 clove garlic minced
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 c. grated cheddar opt.

Instructions

 

• Place water and bouillon in Dutch oven.
• Cover and bring to a gentle simmer.
• Add rice, lentils, carrots, and garlic.
• Cover and simmer over low heat until liquid is absorbed, about 50 minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in cheddar cheese.

Notes

You can pressure-cook this, for about 20 minutes, but if you're pressure-cooking, you will need to reduce the liquid by about a cup. Also, you can make this tastier by adding more/different seasonings.

This is vegetarian and travels/reheats pretty well (you might need to add a little extra liquid when reheating), so it’s good for taking to new moms, etc.  If you have leftovers, they work well for soup.