HOW TO COOK LENTILS IN THE INSTANT POT

Hey guys, welcome back to another video. Today I'm showing you how to cook lentils in the Instant Pot and I'll show you three easy lentil recipes. I'll show you the various cook times and methods for different kinds of lentils so that you can eat healthy and save time in the kitchen. And if you're looking for more delicious vegan recipes, I have a lot on my blog, rainbowplantlife.com or on my Instagram, rainbowplantlife, and you can find those links in the description box below. And before I get to the lentils, I wanna mention two things. One, if you enjoy this video, please hit that thumbs up button. It's always very much appreciated when you do. And two, if you wanna see more healthy Instant Pot recipes or more vegan Instant Pot recipes, just let me know in the comments down below. The first recipe I wanna share is a red lentil sweet potato soup. Red lentils are great for a soft or pureed dish like an Indian dal, a curry, or a soup, which is what I'm making today. To start this soup, you're gonna turn on the saute setting of your Instant Pot, add some coconut oil, and saute diced onion for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Then you're gonna add in some fresh ginger and garlic for flavor. Next comes some curry powder and turmeric, and you're just gonna cook that until it's fragrant. Now pour in some vegetable broth. You can use water if you prefer, but it'll be a lot more flavorful with the broth. Finally, add in the red lentils along with some cubed sweet potatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Just give this soup a stir, and now your work is done. Seal the Instant Pot, turn the venting knob to the sealing position, and select the manual setting and bring it to high pressure for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes is up, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, and then open up the pot. Give your soup a taste for seasonings. You might find that it needs more salt, or if it's too acidic, you can balance it out with a little bit of sweetener. And that's about it. Your lentil soup is ready to eat. So here I'm sharing our Indian-style black lentils. Black beluga lentils hold their shape when they cook, so they're great for a side dish or in a salad, and they take about 10 to 12 minutes in the Instant Pot, depending on how firm or mushy you like your lentils. You can cook lentils in plain old water if you want, but lentils are like little sponges, so they absorb whatever they're cooked in, so I really recommend starting with some flavor. I like to start by sauteing some onion and garlic, maybe some green chilies and ginger, depending on the flavors I'm looking for, and then I cook them in vegetable broth to give a little more flavor. I'm going to start this dish in the exact same way I started the soup. Heat up some oil on the saute setting of the Instant Pot. The first step is to fry some cumin seeds, which is traditional in Indian cooking, to add some flavor. Then you're gonna add green chilies, but if you can't tolerate spicy food, you can omit this step. Now add in diced onion, followed by garlic and ginger, and these are all flavor-building blocks. Then you'll add in a mixture of Indian spices. The exact measurements are in the description box below. And finally, you'll add in black beluga lentils, vegetable broth, and salt to taste. As with the first recipe, just give it a stir and let the Instant Pot do the rest of the work. You'll follow the exact same directions as with the first recipe. After the pressure has been released, I like to add in a little bit of vegan butter. It makes the lentils softer and creamier. And then I also add in some cilantro for something fresh and bright. And the last recipe is a basic brown lentil. These are great to add to your meal prep or to a salad or a wrap or anytime you need a protein fix. And for brown or green lentils, you wanna cook them for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on, again, how mushy or firm you like your lentils. This final recipe starts off pretty similarly to the other ones. Just saute some green chili, onions, and garlic in coconut oil and season that with salt. Then you'll add in brown lentils and vegetable broth. For brown lentils, you're gonna cook them a bit longer. I'm doing 15 minutes at high pressure, but if you like your lentils on the firmer side, you can do 12 or 13 minutes. One of the questions I'm frequently asked is what are the best foods to eat on a vegan diet? And there are so many options, so many delicious and healthy options in the plant-based world, but something that's always at the top of my list are lentils. They're a tiny little superfood that's packed with high-quality protein, fiber that helps you stay full, iron, tons of minerals and vitamins, as well as antioxidants. And if you've never cooked your own lentils because you're not sure how or it's easy enough to just buy it in a box or a can, then I think you'll love these recipes because they're so simple. Unlike cooking lentils on the stove, you don't need to soak them for the Instant Pot. And unlike cooking lentils on the stove, you don't have to constantly watch them to make sure that they don't burn or get too mushy. Just put them in the Instant Pot, walk away, go do your own stuff, and then come back when they're done. I hope you found this video for how to cook lentils in the Instant Pot helpful. And if you have any suggestions for future video topics, let me know in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.