Lentils, Green, Organic, Superpail

Our lentils are certified organic, triple-cleaned and perfect for baking & cooking purposes. Lentils grow in a variety of colors. Ours are a blend of brown and green, and the color tone may be somewhat more brown or more green than the photo, due to natural crop variation.

Convenient & safe storage

Our green lentils are certified organic and non-GMO, and come in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container), containing 40 lbs. net weight. When you store lentils at home, they need to be protected in a couple of ways. First, they need to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to them before you do. Weevils and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your lentils from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our lentils come in provide full protection against these storage risks. They have airtight gasket-sealed lids and oxygen absorber packets that remove the oxygen from the air in the bucket after we put the lid on. The O2 absorbers leave an atmosphere of nitrogen in the bucket, because air consists almost entirely of oxygen and nitrogen. (The oxygen absorber packets themselves are completely food-safe, being made of powdered iron and salt, which are kept separate from the product itself.)  Our buckets safely lock out pests, so your lentils enjoy complete peace and quiet until you want to use them. Note: If you don't already have a bucket lid removal tool, they make lid removal easy (see lower section of this web page).

Beat oxidation

In whole-grain foods, the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as grain is ground, exposing the cell's contents to oxygen in the air. Flour that is several days (or more) old, has been exposed to oxygen that inevitably diminishes its nutritional value. The way to get full nutrition from whole grain foods is to mill them when you need them, right in your kitchen. Modern high-speed grain mills make it fast and easy to enjoy the freshest, best tasting and most nutritious food imaginable!

Super-cleaned

All of our lentils are triple-cleaned to ensure purity and protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Lentils that aren't sufficiently cleaned may contain small stones that will damage or destroy a grain mill... not to mention that you don't want such things in your food!)

Shelf Life

Our organic green lentils have a shelf life of 10+ years when unopened and stored in a cool, dark, dry environment.

Non-GMO

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO). Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

History & Uses

Lentils (lens culinaris esculenta) are small, gluten-free seeds that grow in pods, making them part of the legume family. They’re an inexpensive legume that’s packed with nutrition and can be stored for a long time. Lentils are the oldest known pulse crop (pulse crops are the dried seeds of legume plants), and are among the first to be domesticated. In fact, lentils dating back thousands of years have been found on archeological digs, and they’re even mentioned in the Bible.

Originally grown in Western and Central Asia, today lentils are mainly cultivated in Canada, India, and Turkey, as well as in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota. Interestingly, in Ancient Greece lentils were considered poor man’s food, but in Egypt they were considered a delicacy for royalty! Because of their health benefits, lentils have become a staple in many cultures around the world, especially in developing countries.

After harvesting, lentils are dried and sold whole or split in half (resembling a split pea). Dried lentils can easily be ground into flour at home using a grain mill. Lentil flour can be used for baking gluten-free flatbread, muffins, waffles, and more.

Lentils are grown in a rainbow of varieties from red, orange, yellow, and green, to brown and black. The most common varieties are red, green (sometimes called French lentils), and brown. The lentils we offer for sale on this page are a blend of whole, organic green and brown lentils.

The flavor of lentils differs between varieties. Green and black lentils have a mild peppery flavor, while red and yellow lentils have a slightly sweet taste. Lentils are the most flavorful of the legumes, and yet they’re mild enough to take on the flavor of seasonings extremely well.

In general, legumes are becoming less popular in home cooking and on restaurant menus, but lentils are the exception and have actually risen in popularity both for their delicious flavor and their many health benefits!

Lentils are high in potassium, iron, folate, and manganese, and low in fat and calories. Just half a cup of green lentils provides 32% of the daily recommended amount of fiber.

Lentils are a good substitute for foods that are missing from vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets. After soybeans, lentils have more protein than any other legume; and they are especially high in iron, making them an invaluable staple in vegetarian and vegan cuisine.

Lentils can be prepared in a variety of ways, either by soaking, sprouting, boiling, frying, or baking the flour. The most common method is boiling, like you would boil rice. While green and brown lentils take longer to cook than other varieties, they’ll retain their shape and slightly chewy texture better than other varieties will. Red, yellow, and orange lentils will break down into a thick paste when cooked because the hull on these varieties has been removed.

To cook green and brown lentils, simply pour water or broth over the lentils in a saucepan until they’re submerged, bring to a boil, cover with a lid, and simmer for 45 minutes. The lentils should absorb all the liquid and become soft. Drain any excess water. Unlike beans, lentils don’t need to be soaked to soften them prior to cooking, but soaking is still recommended, to make the lentils easier to digest.

Lentils can be cooked and used in cold salads, casseroles, pasta dishes, or pilafs. Raw lentils can also be added to broth or stock to cook while soup is simmering. More creative approaches to using lentils include cooking them into a non-meat base for sloppy joes and tacos.

In addition to the organic lentils shown on this page, we also offer non-organic lentils.