Just out of interest - are you supposed to eat the skins?
I've been using lentils on and off for the past 10 years and have always felt too foolish to ask anyone irl.
The red lentils don't need soaking, but the skins sometimes float to the top with the froth that needs to be skimmed off. And the green lentils I have at the moment are soaked overnight, and the skins of the topmost layer also float to the top and escape down the sink when I drain them to add fresh water (too lazy to use a sieve, see?) Same with the brown and yellow from what I remember.
It's the same question with some of the pulses I eat - the instructions and the recipes make no mention of a layer of floating skins, but I get them every time (aduki/ adzuki and mung beans spring to mind)
I don't mind them, although they give a slightly mushy quality to dishes - I usually include some near raw vegetables at the end for texture anyway. And I assume they're good for you. I'm just baffled as to what the correct form is - it would be too too embarrassing to cook for someone else and have them laugh at my lentil naivety
