COIMBATORE, India – Green lentils can be used for more than just soup.
As part of a Saskatchewan Pulse Growers project to study how Saskatchewan grown green lentils compare with native Indian pulses in cooking, an Indian scientist has created 30 different ways lentils can be used in Indian cooking.
G. Pushpa, a professor in the Post Harvest Technology Centre at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, and her staff developed 30 types of meals, food, snacks, desserts and additives where green lentils can be used either as a replacement or additive to spices or recipes.
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“Most of the lentils were used to replace other products, either as food or an adjunct,” said Pushpa.
During the two-year project, the researchers studied how lentils compared to native pulses.
They discovered the less expensive Canadian lentils could be used as a replacement, or partial replacement, for most Indian pulses.
As part of the project, researchers developed aLentil Based Indian Food Productsrecipe book showing how to use green lentils in snacks, desserts, sweets, soups, spice powders, main dishes and extruded products like noodles and pasta.
The second stage of the project is to help popularize the use of lentils in Indian cooking. Through surveys and cooking demonstrations, initial acceptance of green lentils is positive, said Pushpa.
“We have had very good consumer acceptance in our surveys. They actually want to buy lentils in the open market,” said Pushpa.
Now, lentils are mostly sold to the hotel trade or distributed through the national food nutrition programs and not through traditional markets.
“The population is not aware of these lentils,” she said.
“During surveys, the people liked the product and said they would buy it if it was made available in the market.”
Ideally, Pushpa said television advertising would be the best way to get the information to consumers on the benefits and uses of lentils in Indian cooking but expensive television advertising is not likely to happen.
Instead, the plan is to popularize lentil cooking through training programs, magazine articles and hotel and restaurant training.
Hotels mainly use lentils in sambar, a type of plain lentil stew and as a side dish with rice, dosa (a type of crepe) or idli (a steamed, savoury cake).
“If we have more hotel use, it may increase the amount used,” she said.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers has extended the project to help Pushpa’s team complete the project, including updating and promoting the recipe book, along with providing technical assistance for the launch of Sask Pulse’s Kanadal brand, the new quality assurance brand for Canada’s green lentils exported to India.
