The lentil (Lens culinaris or Lens esculenta) / Lentil Beans is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 cm (16 in) tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the largest producer is Canada, producing 45% of the world’s total lentils.
Lentil Beans are used around the world for culinary purposes. In cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, where lentils are a staple, split lentils (often with their hulls removed) known as dal are often cooked into a thick curry/gravy that is usually eaten with rice or rotis. Elsewhere, such as in Iran, Ethiopia, the Americas and Europe, lentils are used in stews and soups.
Many different names in different parts of the world are used for the crop lentil. The first use of the word lens to designate a specific genus was in the 17th century by the botanist Tournefort. The word “lens” for the lentil is of classical Roman/Latin origin: McGee points out that a prominent Roman family took the name “Lentulus“, just as the family name “Cicero” was derived from the chickpea, Cicer arietinum, or “Fabia” (as in Quintus Fabius Maximus) from the fava bean (Vicia faba).
Types can be classified according to their size, whether they are split or whole, or shelled or unshelled. Seed coats can range from light green to deep purple, as well as being tan, grey, brown, black or mottled. Shelled lentils show the colour of the cotyledon which can be yellow, orange, red, or green.
Red-cotyledon types:
- Nipper (Australia)
- Northfield (Australia)
- Cobber (Australia)
- Digger (Australia)
- Nugget (Australia)
- Aldinga (Australia)
- Masoor dal (unshelled lentils with a brown seed coat and an orange-red cotyledon)
- Petite crimson (shelled Masoor lentils)
- Red Chief (light tan seed coat and red cotyledon)
Small green/brown-seed coat types:
- Eston Green
- Pardina (Spain)
- Verdina (Spain)
Medium green/brown-seed coat types
- Avondale (United States)
- Matilda (Australia)
- Richlea
Large green/brown-seed coat types:
- Boomer (Australia)
- Brewer’s: a large brown lentil which is often considered the “regular” lentil in the United States
- Castellana (Spanish)
- Laird: the commercial standard for large green lentils in western Canada
- Mason
- Merrit
- Mosa (Spain)
- Naslada (Bulgaria)
- Pennell (United States)
- Riveland (United States)
Other types:
- Beluga: black, bead-like, lens-shaped, almost spherical, named for resemblance to beluga caviar. Called Indianhead in Canada.
- Macachiados: big yellow Mexican lentils
- Puy lentils (var. puyensis): Small dark speckled blue-green lentil from France with a Protected Designation of Origin name
- Alb-Leisa three traditional genotypes of lentils native to the Swabian Jura (Alps) in Germany and protected by the producers’ association Öko-Erzeugergemeinschaft Alb-Leisa (engl. “Eco-producer association Alb-Leisa”)
