Warning: that $1.50 bag of lentils from Aldi taught me something about my cooking habits

I was chatting with the cashier at my local Aldi in Austin last Thursday after she rang up my 3 lb bag of lentils for $1.50. She laughed and said she sees people buy them all the time but never come back for more because they don't soak them overnight. Has anyone else noticed dried beans and lentils get ignored even though they're the cheapest thing in the store?

3 comments

3 Comments

jade88518d agoMost Upvoted

ok but like is this really that deep? i buy lentils all the time and i've never once soaked them overnight. i just rinse them and throw them in my soup or whatever and they turn out fine. maybe if you're trying to make some fancy lentil dish from a blog you need to soak them but for basic everyday cooking just boiling them works. i feel like people overthink dried beans and lentils because they want to make some complicated recipe and then get frustrated when it doesn't turn out like the picture. the cashier probably just sees a lot of people buying them for the first time and then giving up because they expected instant results. not everything has to be a deep cooking lesson.

paulb9818d ago

My grandma soaked lentils once and forgot about them for three days, grew a science project.

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troy_ross7d ago

Man, my buddy tried to be all frugal and bought a giant bag of dried chickpeas once. He soaked them for like a day and a half and then got distracted by a video game, totally forgot about them until the whole apartment smelled like a science fair. He just tossed the whole bag.