Pressure Cooked Red Lentils

by ewilhelm

24K86

Intro: Pressure Cooked Red Lentils

Lentils make an awesome meal, but can take a while to cook properly. By pressure cooking the lentils while you prepare onions and tomatoes, this half-an-hour dish will taste like it's been deliciously simmering for hours.

STEP 1:

Dump a couple of cups of dry red lentils in a pressure cooker and cover with water. The best metric I've found is to cover them such that the water comes to a depth above the lentils equal to the distance from your finger tip to between the first and second knuckle.

Heat the water up and let it reach a boil, while stirring periodically to prevent the lentils on the bottom from burning. Seal the lid on, turn down the heat, and cook for 9 minutes at 8 psi. After 9 minutes, take the pressure cooker off the heat and either let it cool naturally, or vent it depending on how much volume you are cooking. If you have a larger volume, the lentils can overcook while they cool naturally.

STEP 2: Chop Onions

Coasely chop some onions and start them sauteing while the water and lentils heat up.

STEP 3: Roast and Grind Spices

Add a few teaspoons of cumin seeds, corriander seeds, brown and yellow mustard seeds, and a few individual cloves to a small pan. Over low heat and without oil, roast the seeds; keep them moving to avoid burns. Once they start to smell more fragrent and before they change color remove them from the heat, and grind them to a fine powder in a coffee bean grinder.

STEP 4: Add Spices, Ginger, and Garlic to the Onions

Mince some garlic, and grate some ginger; mix them and the spices into the cooking onions.

STEP 5: Tomatoes

Chop some tomatoes and add to the cooking onions.

STEP 6: Mix Everything Together

Remove the lid and check that the lentils have been properly cooked. They should still retain their shape, but leave no white uncooked stuff when you squeeze one in your fingers. You can always cook them a bit more -- try not to overcook.

Dump in the onions and tomatoes, and add some freshly chopped cliantro.

Squeeze in a lemon and add fresh ground black pepper to taste.

STEP 7:

Serve with papadon.

6 Comments

trinath 15 years ago

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xss 16 years ago

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lemonie 17 years ago

Pressure-cookers are under used. They are great devices that few people understand

Brother_Bear 17 years ago

Do not went the cooker when making large amoutns unless you want to riskj having mushy lentils spewing out of the vent with the risk of clogging the stema nozzles and exploding the cookers. This is something to think about when cooking any legumes or anything with broth.

spinach_dip 17 years ago

I think that a lentil clog would blow long before a steel pressure vessel would unwind, but yea, too many lentils or other beans make a mess. Still, I can do up to a pound easy in my 6-quart pressure cooker. Another tip when doing beans or pulses is to add a tablespoon or so of oil to reduce the foam. I got that tip from /Diet for a Small Planet/