this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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I'm a vegan. Lentils aren't a regular part of my diet. I'm willing to bet that they aren't in a lot of people's diets. I live in the US, and you kind of have to seek out lentils here. They aren't a rare and exotic food or anything like that, but which foods can you buy, ready-made, that contain lentils? Soup is about the only one I can think of.
Soup or stew is about the only traditional way to prepare lentils pretty much everywhere, traditionally eaten with bread. The lentil+wheat/rye combo is to Indo-European cooking what beans+maize is to American cooking, and rice+beans to Asia. Africa is also lentil territory the grain situation there is... complex.
In any case yes it's going to be soup or stew in whatever viscosity and degree of mushiness you want but you'll find a metric fuckton of different recipes.
If you want something ready-made there's lentil crisps which actually are very good but also quite a bit more expensive than the usual potato or maize fare.
So, you caveat your statement with ready-made foods, but that's kinda disingenuous, as you're vegan. That means you have to seek out your food in general, and it's more likely that your food may contain lentils, like bean patties that replace beef patties for burgers. Maybe not all of them, but they definitely exist. I imagine a lot of pre-made vegan meals also probably intentionally make up for difficiencies natural to the diet.
I like to cook my own food, so everything I make could be counted as "seeking out". Split peas, lentils, and dal are common beans I keep, along with northern beans, black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, and pigeon peas.
When I ate pasta more, I also often bought lentil based pasta for a quick meal, so if you're making anything it isn't too hard. Also made lentils and rice often. My bean/pasta drawer(obvious none of the canned stuff):
https://i.imgur.com/ATSvuGy.jpeg
Accidentally hit post before finishing this.
Your question was "How is it that people turn vegan and don't eat enough lentils?" and my answer is "Easily enough, if lentils weren't part of their diet in the first place".
Oh, that wasn't me who asked you that. I just took maybe too much confusion to your statement about lentils being something you had to seek out, which I probably somewhat misunderstood as saying lentils are hard to get outside of soup or something. I don't have an argument against veganism nor am I confused on how they get nutrients nor that some dietary changes are necessary. In other words, I probably shouldn't have made my prior post...