Cook lentils to the texture your dinner needs

How you cook lentils depends on what they need to do on the plate. Some dinners need lentils that stay separate and hold their shape. Others need lentils that soften into a stew or break down into something creamy. If you choose the variety first and the method second, you can avoid a mushy salad or a soup with stubbornly firm lentils.

Match the lentil to the texture

The food blog Love and Lemons groups common lentils by how they behave when cooked. Its approximate timings are the author's guides for her own methods. They are not interchangeable recipes, so use them to plan your evening rather than to time a different dish.

Variety	Cooked texture	Suits	Approximate time (Love and Lemons)
French green	Firm, holds its shape	Salads, sides	17–20 minutes (method below)
Black (beluga)	Holds its shape, like French green	Salads, sides	About 20 minutes
Regular green or brown	Softens	Soups, stews	About 30 minutes in soup
Red or yellow	Breaks down	Creamy dishes	About 15 minutes

Stovetop method for firm French green or black lentils

This plain-lentil method comes from Love and Lemons. It cooks the lentils in plenty of water and drains off the excess, so you don't need to measure a water-to-lentil ratio. You need 1 cup of dry French green or black lentils, a fine-mesh sieve, and a saucepan with a lid.

1. Pour the dry lentils into a fine-mesh sieve and look through them. Remove any debris, small stones, and shriveled lentils.
2. Rinse the lentils in the sieve.
3. Put the lentils in the saucepan and fill the pot about halfway with water.
4. Bring the lentils and water to a boil.
5. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer. Stir occasionally.
6. Cook for 17 to 20 minutes, checking the texture toward the start of that window, until the lentils are tender but not mushy.
7. Drain off the excess water.

How to tell when they're done

The target is tender but not mushy. Lift out a few lentils and bite them. They should be soft all the way through and still look whole and separate. Treat the 17 to 20 minutes as the window for checking, not as a guarantee. French green and black lentils are chosen because they keep their shape, so lentils that are collapsing or turning pasty have gone past the texture this method is meant to produce.

When to change course

If dinner needs soft lentils in a soup or stew, choose regular green or brown lentils. Love and Lemons cooks them for about 30 minutes in soup. Follow a documented soup or stew recipe for the liquid and timing.
If dinner needs a creamy component, choose red or yellow lentils, which break down as they cook. Use a separate documented recipe for them rather than reusing the French green timing.
If you are starting from canned or previously cooked lentils, the dry-lentil method above does not apply. Follow the product's directions or a recipe written for that starting point.

Cooking ahead for later dinners

Cooked lentils can be made a few days ahead. Follow the USDA's guidance for cooked leftovers, which is stricter than some longer refrigerator times you may see on recipe sites.

Divide the cooked lentils into shallow containers.
Refrigerate them within 2 hours of cooking, or within 1 hour if the temperature is above 90°F. Hot food can go straight into the refrigerator, so you don't need to cool it on the counter first.
Cover or seal the containers.
Keep the refrigerator at 40°F or below and use the lentils within 3 to 4 days.

Reheating

Reheat the lentils until a food thermometer reads 165°F. If you use a microwave, cover the dish and leave a vent. Rotate the dish during heating and let it rest afterward. Then check the temperature in several places, because microwaves can heat unevenly.

A planning worksheet

Before you shop or cook, write down a few details for each batch:

Intended dish
Desired texture
Lentil variety
Starting state: dry, canned, or previously cooked
Quantity
Cooking method you're following
Approximate timing from that method
Result of your tenderness check
Whether and when you drained the lentils
Date and time you cooked them
Storage deadline (3 to 4 days after cooking)

Keep dry, canned, and previously cooked lentils on separate lines. Each starting state needs its own instructions.

Example: a grain bowl and a creamy side

This is an illustrative example. Suppose the people you're feeding want lentils they can recognize in a grain bowl, and you also want a creamy side. For the bowl, choose French green or black lentils and use the stovetop method above, stopping when they're tender but still whole. For the creamy side, choose red or yellow lentils and follow a separate recipe written for them. If you cook the bowl lentils a day early, get them into shallow containers in the refrigerator within 2 hours. Note the cooking date, and plan to use them within 3 to 4 days.