I think that the primary reason for rinsing lentils is to check for little rocks. I have made lentil soup many times and never found a rock. Your soup will be fine.

You rinse to remove any dust and to check for pebbles. In 30 years I have only found one tiny rock. And since lentil soup has a muddy color anyway, the dust is no problem. As my Oma used to say, the gut needs a bit of dirt to work right. Go ahead and make it and serve.

leahikesgardens, pkramer60 thanks for replies. Soup is done and I will be serving it. However, I cannot tell my husband about the dust. Oh my, I better not think about it too much either. This will teach me not to be in such a hurry when cooking.

Believe me, probably 80% of the people who make stuff with lentils don't bother washing them. As a matter of fact, a lot of recipes just recommend spreading them out on a plate to look for the rocks, but the odds of finding one these days are pretty slim. I did once, and that was in cooked lentils I had rinsed (little pebble was too big to go through the strainer, even though too small to see easily.)

As writersblock mentions, lots of people don't rinse their lentils. I used to but my husband never does, so I just followed suit and now I don't either. I can't tell any difference at all.

I'm glad the soup was good!

Annie

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I don't rinse them since the rock incident, either.

I've made lentils only a couple of times. Decided that I just don't like them much and the rest of the family was underwhelmed w/ 'em, too.

But I always, always rinse dried beans. And sort. I've found small pebbles but mostly I find little mud balls. We eat mostly pintos and I'm supposing the mud balls were bits of adobe-ish soil that clung to the roots and got shook off w/ the beans. Another reason I always rinse is because I grew up in wheat growing country and know about all the rodent droppings from grains that are stored in silos. (I remember bumper harvest years when the harvested wheat was actually dumped outdoors because the silos were full.) Not that the mouse turds will hurt you after all that cooking but it's just the idea of eating poop.

I always sort and rinse. Always. Especially some of the cheaper back-up brands i stock in the pantry. Even the bags they come in are a bit cloudy and i often find small stones. Rarely find any debris in Palouse brand or Bob'sRedMill. In fact i don't recall ever finding anything. So just a rinse will do. Most of my beans and grains get an overnight soak anyway to give them a bit of sprout so that is the same thing.

I would not worry if they were not rinsed since the cooking will take care of any bugs or soil but stones would ruin the meal for me. Like sand in a spinach salad.

Pics and videos of harvesting with people and donkeys stepping all over...same with produce being un-loaded in the rain and sitting on a filthy dock in mud and muck for hours. At a stoplight in NYC i watched a big box of cabbages break open and roll all over into the gutter and they grabbed a filthy garbage can then dumped them onto the other crate...

Well thank you for your replies about mud and muck and rodent poops. It's a good thing the replies were today and not yesterday lol. I will remember all of this for the rest of my life :) We are going to have the leftovers tomorrow. Yummy!!!!!!!

Well, you know, there is a USDA rodent poop allowance for all types of bulk foods, including chocolate, and nobody's rinsing that. Just sayin'.

hahaha! I think it needs to be sterilized... dip that chocolate in wine or something. ;^)

Yes, as writersblock mentions, there's something called "particulate matter". I found out about it because a friend worked for the Gerber Baby Food company. It's something like 11% and can be twigs, sticks, rodent droppings, fingernails, hair, worms and bugs, pretty much anything that could be in produce. It's in all frozen, canned and dehydrated commercially available foods in varying amounts. And so I grow my own garden and can my own food, LOL, and mostly raise my own beans too, but I don't raise lentils.

Annie

I try and not buy processed foods when at all possible. annie1992 this just pushes me more to find alternatives. I do have a garden, not a huge one since we live on the east coast in the city. Cannot raise livestock either. Neighbors would not appreciate that. LOL. Now you have me thinking, what does it take to raise beans. I'm going to research that :)

cactuscatie, beans are super easy to grow. If you don't have room on the ground, grow some pole beans on a trellis, they'll go up! I planted a package of Italian Horticultural Beans that were a free premium with some other seeds. I've saved the seeds and planted every year for three years now. They're prolific, a bush type so I don't need a trellis, and not so bad to shell. Also delicious.

And yes, every time I open a can of carrots or whatever, I wonder what the heck is in there. I just can't get past it. Too bad about the livestock, though. (grin)

Annie

annie, I did lookup growing beans to see when I can plant them in my area. I agree, they do seem easy. I am going to try it. I want to grow black beans because we eat a lot of them.

I grew black beans one year. Amazingly easy to grow. A bit of a pain to shell them, but I think they make bean shellers?? I just put them in a burlap bag and hit them with a stick and then scooped out the dried beans from the shell waste.

I pinkmountain, thanks for the burlap bag suggestion. My post definitely went off topic. Thank you everyone for your replies.

And as a reminder, leftover lentil soup for dinner tonight...and the poop and mud and muck is our secret.....shhhhh!!!

Please share this delicious recipe!

Lentil Soup:

1 onion, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

2 carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1 tsp dried basil

1-14.5oz can of crushed tomatoes*

2 cups dry lentils, rinsed and any stones removed

8 cups water *

1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced

2 tbsp. vinegar*

salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrots, celery and onion, cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, oregano, bay leaf and basil and cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in lentils, add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour. When soup is done, stir in spinach and cook until wilted. Add vinegar and season to taste salt and pepper.

*THIS IS HOW THE RECIPE IS WRITTEN. THESE ARE THE CHANGES I MADE. I ADDED 6 CUPS OF CHICKEN BROTH AND 1 - 29 OZ CAN OF CRUSHED TOMATOES. I ONLY ADDED 1 TBSP OF VINEGAR BECAUSE OF MY HUSBAND.

Thanks, cactuscatie, It sounds very good, and I'd also add the chicken broth, so thanks for that too.

I was lucky with the bean shelling. My husband had a hip replacement two years ago and a knee replacement last year. So I just picked beans and gave him a bucket and he'd sit in his chair watching television and shelling beans.

Annie

annie, you certainly were lucky...but what happens this year :)

Cactus: thanks for sharing. It does sound good!

Annie: Totally off topic. How did the knee replacement go? I'm looking at one down the road and always want to know how people fared. That said, I know it will vary by person and doctor. Just Curious.

lizbeth may I put my two cents in. My FIL had 2 knee replacements done at the same time. He was 66 years old. No complications at all. Followed doctor's orders exactly, went to PT and faithfully did his exercises and today he is perfect. No limp, no pain at all. The only thing is having to take antibiotics before having any dental procedure. However, I don't think this is necessary at this point (being more than 2 years), he just does it because he is afraid of infection.

Thanks, cactus! It's always helpful to know there are people who get along great with new knees. It's funny how you can talk to ten people who get along great and are glad they had the replacement, but the one who did poorly is the one you can't get out of your mind!

lizbeth, he did great. They did a block of some kind during the surgery, he says he never had any pain at all and didn't take the prescription pain meds either, handled everything with Tylenol and ice packs. Rehab was 6 visits to a physical therapist, and he's still doing well. The hip, now, that was another story. A lot of pain, long recovery after and it still bothers him. Go figure, everyone said the hip was easy and the knee would be harder. That was certainly not his experience.

Annie

lizbeth, my BIL had both knees replaced this year -- the first one in May, and the other in November. My sister said that a couple weeks ago he went shopping with her and he made a loud exclamation as he got out of the car... it was that he had NO PAIN for the first time in more than 3 years. :)

ETA: to go back OT, I haven't made lentils in quite a while... I last tried an Indian recipe with lentils and it used copious amounts of lemon -- all the flavor combos tasted horrible to me and I haven't eaten lentils since. lol! I don't remember ever rinsing lentils when I used them, but as I said it's been a while and they were never a favorite of mine. OTOH, you're warned to always rinse quinoa to remove the bitter coating... I forgot to rinse the quinoa once and I didn't notice any difference in the result. :p I do know you can buy 'pre-rinsed' quinoa (mine wasn't), but I think even that recommends an additional rinse. I don't really expect to find dirt and pebbles in my beans/peas, but I do use the rinse to rid any bad ones and excess hulls. Anything that floats goes.

party_music50, I tried a couple of indian recipes with lentils as well and didn't like them. After everyone's replies to my post, I will always remember to rinse lentils from now on. I do not like the taste of quinoa. I tried it so many times and cannot get use to it. I did, however, try puffed quinoa and like it. I make peanut butter balls and oat bars, etc. with the puffed quinoa.

I don't like quinoa, either, and if someone gives me some I try to use it in a recipe that has strong flavors of its own. But I love lentils--if offered a choice between having to give up lentils or beef for the rest of my life, I know which I'd choose.

Cactus, I'm not a fan of quinoa either. It's not the taste, it's the texture, just little pebbles of birdseed, rolling around in my mouth. I can't seem to grow used to it.

Lentils are not my favorite pulse, by far, I much prefer beans, dried peas, etc. I'll eat lentils, though, and Elery likes them a lot, so we have them regularly.

Annie

I really tried to like quinoa, I agree it is like birdseed and I don't like the way it looks either. I have incorporated more beans into our diet to cut down on our consumption of meat. I make this lentil soup or lentil cakes every other month. That's the extent of our lentil eating.

DS found a recipe for 30 Minute Turkey Quinoa chili that is very good. So far, this recipe is the only way that I've eaten quinoa. It does look a bit strange; kinda' reminds me of tapioca, though, and I like tapioca pudding a lot.

Anyway, if you have some quinoa that needs to be used, you might give this recipe a try before you give up on quinoa entirely.

We make the recipe exactly as it's written except to spice it up a bit more with some chopped jalapenos or serranos.

http://www.lifeisbutadish.com/30-minute-turkey-quinoa-chili/

ci_lantro, I will give it a try. I do have some that needs to be used. Your reply is timely because I was thinking about trashing it. One other thing I can't get past is what I call the "tails" :)

I'm making an experimental vegetarian chili w/ quinoa tonight... my friend told me she tried it and it was fantastic. She winged it, so that's what I'm doing. :)

That 'bird seed' texture of quinoa is what I like about it in veggie burgers. lol!

party_music50, let us know how your chili turned out.

I loved it and so did my BF! It adds a nice texture to a vegetarian chili. I used red quinoa and cooked it directly in the chili w/ appropriate extra water.

I tried ci_lantro's turkey chili recipe so I could use up the quinoa. It was good and hubby ate it but it wasn't a dish we would want to have again.

I'm sorry that you didn't like it much, cactuscatie. DS & I really like it (I forgot that we substitute another bean-black, great northern or pinto- for the kidney beans because I don't like kidney beans & never have them in the pantry) so it's in the rotation on a fairly regular basis. Hubs doesn't like it as much as we do, though; he'd rather have beef chili.

We always load it up with cheddar cheese and corn chips (Fritos) but we do that with regular chili, too.

party_music50, I received email you replied here but I don't see it. That's weird..

ci_lantro that's ok...I did use black beans in place of kidney...we don't eat kidney beans here either...never have them in the pantry...we eat our chili with tortilla chips.

Sorry! I posted then suddenly realized that what I said might be misinterpreted... felt it was best to obliterate it. Nothing earth shattering. Dumb really. lol!

I love kidney beans! but if you're looking for a different kind of chili that doesn't use kidney beans, I love this recipe for White Chicken Chili! The wine makes all the difference -- I just wing a gluten-free version of it using leftover roast chicken, skip the rosemary, and the only jalapenos I add are pickled -- added at the end. :O)

Thanks party_music50, sound delicious and different. I have already added to my rotation for next week.

Thank you for the chicken chili recipe link, PM. That's going to be dinner tomorrow night since the weather is forecast to turn colder.

Oh, I can eat kidney beans. They're just my next to least favorite (limas) bean.

lol.....ci_lantro me to. Limas #1, kidneys#2....My grandma would make a lima bean soup, which the whole family loved, except me....She passed away at 102 years old and she never stopped trying to get me to like it (with no success).

I hope you both like the white chili! I'll feel bad if you don't. One thing we can totally agree on is limas being least favorite. LOL!

Not allowed! (To feel bad if I don't like the soup!) Need a new chkn soup recipe because every time I set out to make it, it always ends up being a chicken enchilada/ tortilla soup. This recipe sounds like it is just the ticket.

Annie & PM: Thanks for sharing the positive knee experiences.

Cactus: In the lentil soup recipe, did you replace the water with chicken broth or add both?

lizbeth, I used all chicken broth.

Thanks, Cactus!