Mother’s Lentils
I do my mother’s shopping a couple of times a week. This Thursday afternoon I sit down at her kitchen table with my pad and pen, writing down her shopping list.
“2 packs of 3% milk
2 yogurt
package of lentils…”
My mother has never asked for lentils in the years I have shopped for her.
“Mum, do you want to have to soak the lentils overnight, and clean them?” I ask, knowing she no longer has the patience for such processes.
“No, so get me a can of lentils, instead.”
“Sorry, Mum, they don’t come in cans.”
“Oh, never mind, then. Forget it.”
When I am in the supermarket, I see that ready-to-cook lentils and rice do come in little packages, but they are very expensive. I “forget it,” and buy the rest of the items on the list my mother has given me.
However, the notion of my mother’s suddenly fancying lentils remains on a slow simmer at the back of my mind, and a couple of days later, I pick up a package of dry lentils at the minimarket in my neighborhood. I don’t buy them more than once every few months because I rarely have time to check them, but once I do, I sprout them.
While all raw fruit and vegetables contain the enzymes needed for the digestion of their own nutrients, sprouts have a much higher concentration than raw vegetables or fruit. Sprouted lentils are much easier on the digestive system and are preferable for those who wish to watch their weight. They contain far less calories per 100 gram than their non-sprouted equivalent: they use up their own energy in the sprouting process. During this process, enzymes convert stored inactive nutrients into a sort of nutritional super-fuel: carbohydrates into simple sugars, complex proteins into simple amino acids and fats into fatty acids which are easily digested compounds. Raw lentil sprouts contain more Vitamin C than alfalfa or mung bean sprouts.
I enjoy sprouting my lentils, not only for the many health benefits, but for the spiritual benefits, too. Sprouting lentils focuses me on the daily prayer, “…and in His goodness, He renews daily, perpetually, the work of creation…” when I harvest the tiny new shoots sprouting forth from the lentil seed every evening and morning for four to five days. I marvel at their overnight growth. They grow between my morning’s harvest and my evening’s. I can reap a whole cupful at a time! Sometimes two!
On Monday, I soak them overnight. On Tuesday, sitting under my fan on a sweltering day, I check them, and dispose of discolored ones and broken fragments, which will not sprout. Rabbi Menachem Slae told me years ago that tiny bugs are sometimes found under the skin, and these are only visible, as brown coloration, after the overnight soak. I shall bring to my mother a small bag of lentils, soaked, checked and ready for use, and put a sandwich bag with a cupful of the first checked ones in the fridge, ready to take over to her. Even though lentil sprouts are much healthier and easier on the digestive system, she prefers the un-sprouted ones she has cooked for so many years.
While I sit, checking two spoonfuls of moist lentils at a time, I receive a phone-call.
“Hi, Ruth, this is Malka from the Health and Beauty Magazine. I just came across the query you sent us some time ago about sprouting lentils.”
I remember the query: sent seven months ago, with no response.
“Yes,” I reply.
“Well, we have an issue coming up shortly. Could you give us an article on sprouting lentils?”
Could she know that this is the first time I’m sprouting lentils in four months?
“Sure,” I reply, bless my mother for wanting lentils, and thank HaShem for His Providence.
The best time to write an article on sprouting lentils is during the sprouting process.
This piece was first published in Yated Ne'eman, 22 August 2003