Lentils, Lens culinaris

The lentil is a legume that grows on all continents. It is undemanding and also likes dry climates. Lentils are an affordable source of protein and contribute to improving soil health. Lentils are eaten most in the world in India, where ‘dal’ is a staple food. Today, Canada and Australia dominate the lentil market alongside India. The quantity of lentils produced annually has doubled worldwide since the beginning of the millennium and the area under cultivation has also increased significantly. With regard to the healthy nutrition of a growing world population, lentils offer many interesting prospects.

From wild lentil to arable crop: the history of lentils

Together with emmer, einkorn and barley, lentils are one of the ‘primal crops’ that were cultivated in the Fertile Crescent (today eastern Turkey, northern Iraq and Syria) on the very first fields in human history. Ken Albala describes the domestication of lentils in his book ‘Bean, a History’ (2007): gathered wild lentils were left by nomadic peoples at their temporary sites. When they returned later, they found lentil plants ready for harvesting. They must have repeated this process so that the seeds could grow larger over time and the plants could become more robust. At some point, the cultivated lentils no longer opened by themselves, like their wild ancestors, and so harvesting became easier. As lentils are self-pollinating, this first form of plant breeding led to stable results. Something similar probably happened with emmer, einkorn and barley. No one knows for sure when, but at some point the former nomadic peoples of the Fertile Crescent began to settle down and make a living from agriculture. The undemanding lentils, which can also grow on barren, dry soils, were certainly ideal for this. In one way or another, the wild-growing ‘Lens orientalis’ developed into today’s edible lentil ‘Lens culinaris’. Because lentils could grow as a winter crop in the Fertile Crescent region, they provided food in spring when little else was ready for harvest.

The oldest evidence of the lentil is around 10,000 years old. In the cave of Franchthi in Greece, remains of lentils dating from around 9,000 years ago were found. Evidence of lentils has also been discovered at the archaeological site of Tell Mureybit in Syria and during excavations around the stilt-dwelling settlements on Lake Neuchâtel (Switzerland). In ancient Egypt, lentils were used as offerings in graves and in the Bible, Esau sells his birthright to his brother Isaac for a bowl of lentil soup when he returns home exhausted from hunting.

Frugal and nutritious – how the lentil grows

Today, lentils grow on all continents. The lentil plant is annual and herbaceous and, like beans and peas, belongs to the legume family – more precisely to the papilionaceous family. The thin stem of the lentil is strongly branched and has filigree, alternately pinnate leaves. Four to twelve pairs of leaflets together form a leaf, with a small tendril growing at the end. The delicate plant can grow up to half a meter high. The white or blue butterfly flowers of the lentil, which are only about half a centimeter in size, open during the flowering period. The pods later develop from these. When mature, they are around two centimetres long and contain one to three flat, round seeds – the lentils. These can be yellow, orange or light to dark green in color.

Lentils often need climbing aids so that they can grow well. Mixed cultivation of lentils with barley or oats, for example, is widespread. The lentils and the grain are then harvested together by machine and are only separated in the sorting machine. This is why lentil packages sometimes also contain individual grains. This makes the consumption of lentils problematic for people with coeliac disease, even though lentils are naturally gluten-free. Another form of climbing aid is to sow the lentils in harvested grain or rapeseed fields, where they can grow up the stubble of the previous crop.

Lentils can cope well with drought and also like poor, water-permeable soil. They grow in a variety of soils with different pH values and degrees of severity. Because lentils are very delicate plants, it is important to keep them well clear of weeds at the beginning of the growing season so that they are not overgrown. When grown, lentils do not need any fertiliser because, like other legumes, they are particularly good at fixing nitrogen from the air. However, it makes smaller amounts of nitrogen available to the plants than is the case with other legumes.

Healthy and slim? The lentil helps!

Dried lentil seeds have a protein content of 25 – 30 percent and are therefore richer in protein than other legumes. Beans and peas, for example, only have a protein content of between 20 and 25 percent. If you want to provide your body with a particularly good supply of protein, you should eat lentils (or other pulses) with a grain or cooked rice. On their own, these two food groups do not contain all the important amino acids, but in combination they balance each other out perfectly so that the body gets all the essential amino acids from a plant-based diet.

Because lentils are smaller than other pulses, they do not need to be soaked before cooking and cook faster than beans or chickpeas, for example. Raw lentils contain toxic substances such as lectins, but these are rendered harmless during cooking. Lentils are easier to digest than other pulses, are filling and low in fat. They are a good source of vitamin A and also contain B vitamins. Lentils also have a high zinc content, a mineral with a central role in metabolism, and are rich in potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium. For good iron absorption, it is important to supplement the lentils with a food containing vitamin C, such as a glass of orange juice.

Lentils are an integral part of traditional fasting dishes in many cultures precisely because they are easy to digest and rich in protein. Lentil soup is often served at iftar, the breaking of the fast in Ramadan. The Ethiopian fasting dish Misir Wot also consists of red lentils. In India, lentils are also a staple food. Dal dishes in various preparations and seasonings are part of many people’s daily diet.

In Italy, lentils are traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve. The small round seeds symbolize coins and promise wealth for the new year.

There are countless different types of lentils. Lentils are usually sold by colour and size, split or whole. Lentils can easily be stored for a long time in a dry environment. If you are in a hurry, you can often find canned lentils in the supermarket. Lentil sprouts are also eaten on a smaller scale.

Plate or export? The lentil in India, Canada and Australia

The three most important lentil producers in the world are currently India, Canada and Australia. These three countries are currently on the podium in terms of both acreage and production volume. However, there are striking differences between the countries.

India

In India, dals are an integral part of the diet and the small round legume has an important place in the country’s tradition and food culture. India is by far the largest consumer of lentils in the world and, in addition to its own lentil production, imports the most lentils in the world, mainly from Canada. Lentils are one of the most important sources of protein for the poorer sections of the population and there are countless varieties of lentils on the markets. Lentils are mainly grown in the regions of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In many cases, it is small farmers who cultivate lentils for self-sufficiency and for local markets. In India, as in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world, lentils are an important winter crop and provide food in spring. They are often grown after rice, maize, millet or sorghum for soil regeneration. These are areas with a high diversity of varieties and low yields. By way of comparison, while an average of 1425 kg of lentils were harvested per hectare in Canada in 2018, only around half that amount was harvested in India, namely 744 kg. This is despite the fact that the yield per hectare has increased somewhat in many places in India in recent years thanks to adapted varieties and improved cultivation techniques. However, not all regions have access to good seeds, knowledge and technology. Fusarium head blight and other diseases have also caused crop failures in recent years and are causing problems for Indian farmers.

Canada

Lentil cultivation in Canada is very different. Lentils have only been cultivated there since the late 1960’s. Back then, resourceful agronomists recognised the potential of pulses for the dry and flat prairie areas in the south of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The agronomist and plant breeder Dr. Al Slinkard, who introduced the large green Laird lentil to the market at the end of the 1970s, was at the forefront. Just ten years later, it was the most widely produced lentil in the world and paved the way for the Canadian pulses industry’s breakthrough. Today, Canada still produces 15-20 percent Laird lentils. In addition, new red lentils adapted to Canadian locations have also come onto the market in recent years. These are about half the size of Laird lentils, mainly intended for export and now account for 80-85 percent of Canadian lentil production.

This rapid growth in lentil cultivation has made Canada the country that produces the most lentils in the world over the last twenty years. For farmers, the round legume is an opportunity to expand their crop rotation with a crop that delivers reliable yields even in dry years. As the lentil itself can bind nitrogen very well, producers save a lot of money that they do not have to spend on artificial fertilisers. The next crop in the rotation also needs less fertiliser because the soil is enriched with nitrogen from the lentils, which also pays off economically. There are currently around 5,000 farms producing lentils in Canada’s vast landscapes.

To prevent soil diseases, lentils are only grown in the same field every four to eight years. Lentils are sown in loose rows with gaps between them. This allows air to circulate better between the plants, making it more difficult for fungal diseases to spread. For harvesting, the large combine harvesters with their long cutter bars have to work low to the ground, as lentils only grow to about knee height. The flatter the ground, the easier it is to harvest and the fewer harvest losses there are. This is why the soil in Saskatchewan is often leveled before lentil cultivation.

Australia

In Australia, lentil cultivation is even more recent than in Canada: it has only really become established in the last few years. Here, too, it is large farms that have recognised pulses as a valuable contribution to crop rotation. They are mainly located in the dry areas of South Australia and Victoria, but lentil cultivation is also increasing in other regions of the country. Just as the value of total agricultural production in Australia has steadily increased over the past twenty years, so too has the area where lentils are grown. In recent years, the increase has been even more pronounced and in 2023, partly as a result of a difficult harvest year in Canada, Australia was able to take first place as the world’s largest lentil producer in terms of volume for the first time.

Sources

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Utopia.de: What makes lentils so healthy: minerals, vitamins and nutritional values. Link.
Malik et al (2022): Global status of lentil production with special reference to India. Link.
Sah et al (2024): Dynamics of lentil (Lens culinaris) production and trade: Global scenario and Indian interdependence. Link.
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