Black Lentils - Where can I find them?

[bbenedict]

I was interested in making the lentil soup with roasted garlic from the Jan/Feb issue. I've checked the grocery stores and Harry's/Whole Foods market. No luck! Any ideas where I can get them?

Bonnie

[Peggy]

I would check at a health food store. The one I go to has many different kinds of lentils in their bulk section.

Peggy

[Aubergine]

Indian stores typically sell a staggering array of lentils for the various dals.

[menat]

Originally posted by bbenedict
I was interested in making the lentil soup with roasted garlic from the Jan/Feb issue. I've checked the grocery stores and Harry's/Whole Foods market. No luck! Any ideas where I can get them?

Bonnie

I believe I have seen them at Trader Joe's!

[bbenedict]

Oh, how I wish we had a Trader Joes. I love that place. Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I'll check a health food or Indian store.

Bonnie

[emptyspool]

I have a package of these I bought at a local wine cellar that also carries some specialty items, cheeses, etc. and their legume selection is very nice. Can you post the recipe? Has anyone tried this?

[sneezles]

Originally posted by emptyspool
Can you post the recipe? Has anyone tried this?

There are a couple of threads that have reviews of this recipe. It is one of the few that didn't make it onto the CL homepage but since I had to tweak it for my diet I have it typed into MC already. The only change I made was to list the homemade CL Brown Chicken Stock that I make for lo-sodium purposes. The original calls for 8 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth and by changing to the homemade the sodium content dropped from 657mg per serving to a mere 96mg!! I am amking this for lunch today so can't give a review as yet.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Mexican Lentil Soup with Roasted Garlic

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 head garlic
2 1/3 tablespoons olive oil -- divided
2 cups chopped onion -- (about 2 medium)
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots -- (about 2 medium)
1 cup chopped celery -- (about 2 stalks)
8 cups Brown Chicken Stock
2 cups lentils -- (recipe calls for black lentils, rinsed)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 bay leaf -- (2 if using fresh)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Roast garlic rubbed with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and wrapped in foil for 1 hour; cool for 10 minutes. Separate cloves; squeeze to extract pulp. Discard skins.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; sauté 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in broth, lentils, parsley, and bay leaves; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until lentils are tender.

Remove and discard bay leaf. Place 2 cups lentil mixture in a blender or food processor; add cumin, coriander, hot pepper sauce, and pepper. Process until smooth. Return puréed mixture to pot; stir well. Stir in vinegar. Yield: 6 1 /13-cup servings.

S(Internet Address):
"http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68565"
Yield:
"8 cups"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 338 Calories; 6g Fat (15.7% calories from fat); 21g Protein; 54g Carbohydrate; 22g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 96mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.


Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[emptyspool]

Thanks for posting this....I will do this tomorrow, it looks great. The lentils I have are called beluga lentils and they are very small so I hope they work. They are packaged by a company called CASSOULETS USA....Zursun, ltd, Twin Falls, Idaho - no website noted on wrap.

[sneezles]

Originally posted by emptyspool
beluga lentils and they are very small so I hope they work. They are packaged by a company called CASSOULETS USA....Zursun, ltd, Twin Falls, Idaho - no website noted on wrap.

According to Cook's Thesarus that is a name used for black lentils. They are suppose to hold their shape better than some of the other lentils. I had to use Petite French Green (a sub listed by Cook's Thesarus) since I already have 5 kinds of lentils in house and couldn't see ordering yet another (DH isn't too fond of lentils).

The soup was wonderful! Since I used the green lentils it needed to simmer a bit longer (45 minutes). The hot sauce adds just enough heat to make it interesting. I served it over a bed of steamed spinach. DH wanted some "real meat" :rolleyes: so I used the leftover thigh from the Braised Herb Chicken I'd made last night.

[bbenedict]

Sneezles, thanks for the hot tip that black lentils are beluga lentils. I actually did a search and found some on Amazon.com. Had to pay about as much for shipping, but now I won't have to drive all over trying to find them. (I als didn't have ANY lentils in the house, so felt okay about ordering them.)

Glad you thought the soup was wonderful. It sounded really good to me.

I've also bookmarked the "Cooks Thesaurus" site. It looks very helpful.


Thanks!
Bonnie

[emptyspool]

Sneezles,
Just going over this recipe again.....what do you do with the roasted garlic?

Here is a recipe off the back of the package to use the belugas another time. Haven't tried it. I used cooked these once before but it has been so long I can't remember what I did.

Beluga Lentil Salad

3/4 cup beluga lentils
1 1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 lemon, juiced
lemon zest for garnish
1 green onion, chopped
1 red delicious apple, chopped
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1 teaspoon curry powder

Rinse and pick over lentils. In a medium pot cook lentils in stock or water for 15-20 minutes or until tender but not mushy, drain.

Toss lentils with yogurt and lemon juice. Add green onion, apple, raisin and walnuts; toss to combine. Sprinkle curry powder over salad and blend in. Correct seasonings, adding more curry if you like. Lemon zest for garnish.

(I would think salt and maybe pepper might go in there somewhere...)

[sneezles]

Originally posted by emptyspool
Sneezles,
Just going over this recipe again.....what do you do with the roasted garlic?



I'd actually contacted JenniferCL about something else and then asked about the garlic. She said it was to be put in along with the cumin, corriander and the hot pepper sauce. I put it in at the end of the sautéing time of the mirepoix since I wasn't going to use the blender anyway (read: lazy). I removed about 3 cups and then used my immersion blender in the pot.

[sooty]

I ordered from thefoostores.com (Zursun LTD)

[Ohioan]

Bonnie, I don't know how much Amazon.com charged for the Beluga lentils, but you can also get them -- and a few other kinds, including a new variety mix -- online at Indian Harvest (http://www.indianharvest.com/catalog/beanslentils2.html).

Cheers,
Phoebe

[jillybean03]

In addition to Indian markets, Mediterannean markets also carry a large variety of Lentils. I know the one that I go to carries red, black, orange, etc.

[BarbaraL]

I usually get red lentils and other "oddball" ingredients like that from Whole Foods; they have a ton of loose grain and bean-type foods that you can buy by the scoop. Don't know if Whole Foods is in
Georgia, though.

[bbenedict]

Phoebe, thanks for the link. I've bookmarked it. Looks like they have some beautiful products.

I have to go back and check, but I believe that Indian Harvest were the ones who were selling the beluga lentils through amazon.com. They were $4.95 for two 8 oz packages. The shipping, however, was about as much. Still, I would rather pay for shipping then have to run all over town trying to find them.

Now, thanks to you I've got another resource.

Who couldn't love a dried bean?

Bonnie