If you love beans, you’re definitely healthier for it. Eat up! But what about the haters? Thankfully, nature developed red lentils… the anti-bean bean, which cooks quickly (15 minutes from bag to fork), disintegrates nearly completely in soups, sauces, stews, and rice dishes, and is just as nutritious as cannellinis and pintos: 7 grams of fiber & 7 grams of protein per half-cup cooked lentils. Look for them in the grocery store with the dried beans (GOYA makes a mean red lentil), or with the Indian foods.
Here are a few ways to sneak’m & stuff’m:
- Add 1/2 cup dried red lentils to marinara sauce. Simmer the lentils with 1 jar of marinara for about 15 minutes, until lentils are mere flecks of light red sunshine. If you want to really top the nutrition charts, toss in a bag of frozen chopped spinach.
- Add 1-2 cups of dried red lentils to a pot of soup or chili. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, or until the warm creation is fully cooked. Play a game called “Find the Lentil.” Nobody wins!
- Simmer 1/2 cup dried red lentils with 1 chunked sweet potato in 2 cups water for 15-20 minutes. Mash with a touch of salt and pepper. Who stole the lentils?
Other ways to trick the masses?
Delish & Healthy-ish With Jen Reilly, RD 
“Let Go of my Legume!” by baking them in a foot-long veggie-diverse casserole.
Don’t add *green* lentils to your marinara sauce, unless you have a lot longer than 15 minutes to simmer it. Eventually, we did have dinner, and no one complained about lentils (too busy complaining about chard!) but they were still easily visible. Their flavor was entirely concealed, but I think they had an overall blanding effect.
Good tip, Vivian! That’s why I love red lentils… They’re like secret agent beans, and they’re super fast to cook!