Bright, Tasty and Colorful Lentils: Lenticchie in Umido – Lentils cooked in Tomato sauce!
Bright, tasty, al-dente lentils. My sister said it best after tasting this recipe, “Wow! This is not mom’s brown mushy lentils that we were forced to eat. I like lentils now!” And so will you. From start to finish, this recipe will only take a little over 20 minutes, with only 10 minutes cooking time under pressure (versus 45-60 in a regular pan)!
I like to serve these lentils as a main dish on top of polenta, or basmati rice, with a swirl of unfiltered extra virgin olive oil and a little chopped parsley or basil on top.
| Pressure Cooker | Accessories | Pr. Cook Time | Pr. Level | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 L or larger | none | 10-55 min. | High(2) | Natural |
Pressure Cooked Lentils in Tomato Sauce
Author: hip pressure cooking
Recipe type: pressure cooker
Cuisine: Italian, Indian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
INGREDIENTS
- 11oz or 300g or a heaping cup of lentils (not pre-soaked)
- 1 stalk celery, chopped (use it all from stem to leaf)
- 1 medium green pepper (not red, it comes out strangely sweet!)
- 1 medium onion
- 14.5oz or 400g can chopped tomatoes
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1tsp of curry powder (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add a dash of olive oil in your pre-heated pressure cooker and soften the onion, celery and pepper.
- When the whole mix is softened, add a can of chopped tomatoes.
- Stir well and add salt and pepper and the optional curry to taste.
- Now, add the lentils into the pan. If the lentils were a heaping cup, then you should add two of water.
- After adding the water, stir. Close and lock the lid of the pressure cooker and turn the heat to high. When the pan reaches pressure, lower the flame to minimum heat and begin counting 10-15 minutes cooking time under pressure (depending on the variety of lentils – usually smaller ones take longer).
- When time is up open the pressure cooker using the natural release method. Turn off the heat, move the pressure cooker to a cooled burner and wait for the pressure to lower naturally (usually about 10 minutes).
- Open the pressure cooker and serve!
Are they Puy lentils? You have persuaded my husband to have some tonight, amazing! He is British and I spend all my life trying to persuade him to eat beans and lentils.
Hi Tammy, I used the regular-sized reddish ones. In Italy, they just call them “lentils” also the slightly smaller green ones are ok – from googling the name these may be the puy.
I’ve used large lentils (beige) and they seem to get a little too soft. I don’t recommend using the French “beluga” lentils, which are very small and black, they were too “crunchy” and their flavor is not that great. Maybe the Belugas lend themselves to a specific preparation, and this is not it!
I make this dish at least once a month and am always looking for new lentil varieties to try with this recipe!
Enjoy!
L
Thank you for clarifying. I will try with Puy Lentils as I have these at home at the moment and let you know. I am also pefecting my creamy chick pea soup recipe I tried in an Italian restaurant once(no tomatoes) and he has obligingly agreed to be my guinea pig. Will post when successful. Making progress on the lentil front with my family!
I made lentils once according to the instructions of my pressure cooker.
Oh my God! I obtained only mashed lentils,not very attractive :-)
This afternoon I prepared lentils in your way and….it WORKS!!!!
Thanks Laura
Miss Tammy, how did your hubby like the lentils?
Anonymous, That’s funny and sad. but I’m so glad you decided to give lentils another shot and succeeded!
Ciao,
L
Bravissima! I am going to cook this now!
How did you like it?!?! Send me a picture of this (or any other pressure cooker recipe) in one of your pretty pottery pieces, and I’ll post it on facebook!
Ciao,
L
This looks good – I am trying to get into lentils and other beans, but quite often the recipes seem to ‘long’. How much water should I use if I weigh out my lentils in grams?
Roy, in the recipe above I have the weight also written 300g of lentils is a heaping cup.
Ciao,
L
Have only ever used split red lentils before in other dishes such as soup or curries. Was surprised at how easy and tasty these were. First couple of times I used what is generically called brown or green lentils. Did not look as nice as yours but tasted good and even better the next day. Just made them today using Persian Red Lentils. These look much more like yours but I had to add another couple of minutes to the cooking time. These are great to have for a quick and filling lunch or for breakfast with a couple of pieces of fried bacon:)
You said to “add a dash of olive oil in your preheated pressure cooker” How do you ‘preheat’ a pressure cooker. I never used one and they scare me to death. They say never to heat an empty pressure cooker. So how do you preheat it?
Thanks.
Instruction manuals, often say not to bring a cooker to pressure without liquid. I haven’t read an instruction manual, yet that says not to pre-heat it. So I would love to hear more about where you read this.
You can pre-heat your pressure cooker just as you would any normal pan. Put the cooker on medium flame, without the lid, until the top edge becomes almost too hot to touch (about 3-4 minutes). If using induction, put on medium power and as soon as the base is giving off lots of heat that can be felt with your hand near – but not touching – the base (about 1 minute). Then, proceed with the recipe.
Enjoy!
L
Thanks! I read it here http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2011/01/quick-pressure-cooker-ragu-meat-sauce.html but I don’t think it applies to me. I don’t have an electric pressure cooker. I ended up a bit confused on that page still, but I’ll just go ahead do what you said. Thanks, again.
There it says “Never pre-heat and empty NON-STICK pressure cooker” – that’s because you should treat non-stick pressure cookers just like your normal non-stick pans (no pre-heat, no metal utensils, etc.) and you will get similar results as well.
Apologies for the confusion!
Ciao,
L
I’ve made this recipe in the quantities noted above; but was wondering if you had any guidelines for scaling it up for 4x or even 8x the quantities noted?
Please let me know! Thanks,
Josh
okjosh, I’m sorry my experience so far is only with home-cooking. I cannot give you reliable guidance on bulk and restaurant quantities. Once the batch grows to 4 and 8x several factors need to be reconsidered. Larger industrial pressure cookers and more ingredients will change the time to pressure and may also have a different evaporation rate – factors that can affect the recipe.
If you’re patient, I can help you work through this while, I too, learn something new.
I need to know what size and model pressure cooker you would be using. And on what kind of cooktop (if any)? Have you used it before? Do you know what pressure it reaches?
Once I have your answers, I can walk you through doing a water test in the appropriate amount to determine the evaporation rate and time to pressure. With that information, I should be able to give you a detailed answer to scaling the recipe to larger quantities.
In the meantime, I can tell you that this recipe can be doubled for 8 or 10L/qt pressure cookers by removing 1/2 cup of water (so instead of 4 cups, use 3 1/2).
Thanks for asking, and I apologize for not having the exact answer you were hoping for.
Ciao,
L