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For Beautiful Skin and A Healthy Glow, Take Advantage of Lentils!

July 29, 2024

For Beautiful Skin and A Healthy Glow, Take Advantage of Lentils!

Yes, you read that right: today, we are going to talk about the humble lentil.

Sometimes, when we talk of a healthy plant-based diet, we immediately think of complicated recipes and ingredients that are hard to find or even pronounce. But while it’s great to have diverse foods on the menu, we don’t have to skip over the more ‘common’ ingredients. Many of them are underrated when it comes to nutrition! Lentils are a fantastic example.

Rarely do we talk about how beneficial lentils are to our skin and hair, but these pulses can do wonders. Besides being nutrient-packed, lentils are vegan, affordable, and super accessible. Here’s our quick guide on lentil skin benefits. Plus, read on to learn a fresh way to enjoy lentils!

Skincare and Beauty Benefits of Lentils

Though often overlooked as a lowly legume, lentils are an amazing source of these nutrients that are beneficial for skin and hair:

  • Protein
  • Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
  • Vitamin B9 (folate)
  • Antioxidants (phenols).

Let’s dive into what these nutrients do for our body to give us that healthy glow.

Lentils are rich in protein for lovely skin and hair.

Lentils are one of the most protein-rich vegan foods around. Just a cup of cooked lentils can give you 18 grams of protein, which is more than a fifth of the recommended Daily Value (DV).

So what does protein do for our hair and skin? Protein provides our body’s building blocks including collagen and elastin for our skin, and keratin for our hair. Scientists have established that when we don’t produce enough collagen and elastin, our skin can prematurely sag and be more likely to wrinkle. Likewise, hair that’s deficient in keratin becomes brittle and prone to breakage.

So if you want smooth skin or strong hair (who doesn’t?), make sure to get adequate protein. And because lentils are a good protein source with zero saturated fats and low calories, they’re an ideal choice for your beauty diet!

Lentils are loaded with B-vitamins for supple skin.

There are eight types of vitamin B that our body needs, and lentils contain several of them. In particular, its vitamin B5 and vitamin B9 are essential for the skin’s elasticity, softness, and resilience.

Vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid, is known to moisturize the skin by binding with and holding water within the skin tissue. Well-hydrated skin is smooth and pliable – when you pinch it, it’ll bounce back to its smoothness instead of staying wrinkly. This is what vitamin B5 helps achieve.

Meanwhile, vitamin B9 – sometimes referred to as folic acid or folate – boosts the health of our skin cells. This vitamin enables our body to form healthy DNA and RNA, helping cells become more resilient to damage. In terms of skin cells, folate may help fight cell aging and even skin cancer! Research also suggests folic acid can be a good therapy for people with inflammatory skin diseases.

Now, some people turn to vitamin B supplements to get its benefits, but why not eat lentils first? According to FDA and USDA data, just a cup of cooked lentils provides over 25 percent of our vitamin B5 needs and nearly 100 percent of our folate DV! That’s a whopper from just one serving.

Lentils contain antioxidants to protect skin and body.

A quick explainer of antioxidants: At any given moment, our living cells are fighting a battle against unstable molecules called free radicals and oxidants. When these molecules build up in our cells, they can cause a variety of disorders, from premature aging to cancer. Thankfully, our cells can protect themselves using compounds called antioxidants.

Fruits and vegetables are amazing sources of antioxidants, but did you know lentils are, too? These legumes are loaded with phenols or phenolics, which are a type of antioxidant. Various studies have examined this lentil benefit. One paper even said that certain lentils are “a promising source of antioxidant phenolics, and may be used as a dietary supplement for health promotion.”

Bonus: Lentils are packed with good carbs for blood sugar control.

There’s already so much lentil goodness as we described above, but the kicker is that you can consume lentils as your healthy carbs!

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the starchy carbohydrates in lentils are digested more slowly by our body, so our blood sugar remains stable and we feel full for longer. This makes lentils a perfect replacement for refined carbohydrates like white bread and white pasta. Refined carbohydrates can wreak havoc on our skin, causing us to break out. Not our lovely lentils, though!

Which Lentil Variety is the Best?

There are lots of varieties of lentils, but which one is best for our diet? In general, the nutrients we get are loosely similar across lentil varieties, but other factors can make one lentil type more ideal than the others:

  • Brown lentils are ideal if you want pulses that cook without losing much of their shape. For instance, you may cook them for salads and casseroles. Plus, you can get this type pretty much anywhere, so it’s a great pantry stocker.
  • Green lentils also hold their shape well but have a stronger flavour. This makes them perfect for crunchy snacks like granola bowls and tacos.
  • Red lentils, yellow lentils, or split lentils disintegrate upon cooking, so they’re best for thicker, creamier dishes. Use them in soups, stews, casseroles, purees, and even salsas!
  • Specialty lentils like puy or black beluga have a more distinct earthy flavour. They also look unique and expensive! Because of that, they make fantastic feature ingredients in side dishes or in main-dish salads.

How to Incorporate Lentils in Your Diet

Ever so versatile, lentils can be eaten in so many ways, from crunchy salads to creamy stews. But first things first: you’ll have to pre-cook these legumes to make them edible. The general way to cook them is to simmer them in a pot of water until they’re tender. Now, here are just a few things you can do with lentils:

  • Add them to salads.
  • Use them as taco fillings.
  • Use as a ground meat alternative. (Plant-based sloppy joes for the win!)
  • Add to sauces for texture and taste.
  • Form into vegan patties.
  • Use to thicken soups and stews.
  • Add to salsas and slaws.
  • Puree as a pastry filling.

Creative Red Lentil Recipe to Get You Out of a Rut!

It’s really just a matter of imagination when thinking of ways to eat the super adaptable lentil. Speaking of which, we came up with our own lentil recipe that’s quite unusual but really good. Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce our red lentil tofu!

What we do in this recipe is puree the lentils in a way that they set into a solid mass, just like soy tofu. From there, we fry or bake the lentil tofu with whatever seasoning we want. The texture is firm yet soft – the perfect middle ground between crunchy and mushy. It’s a nice twist for when you want to eat more lentils but can’t think of an appetizing new dish to make. Try it!

Red Lentil ‘Tofu’ Recipe

Makes 2-4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cup dried red lentils
  • 3 cups boiling water
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • Optional: Any spice flavourings you like! I added 3/4 tsp garlic and 3/4 tsp onion powder. Other ingredients you can add are lemon juice for a brighter flavour or red beet for colour.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Rinse red lentils really well and place in a large Pyrex container or glass bowl. Add 3 cups of boiling water to rinsed lentils and cover. Let sit for 20 minutes.

  2. Without draining the water, put the soaking lentils in a blender. Add your spices or seasonings and blend until smooth.

  3. Place the mixture in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly using a whisk. When it starts to thicken or bubble, turn down to medium-low or low heat. Keep stirring for 7 to 10 minutes until the mixture is very thick.

  4. Once it is very thick, remove from heat and immediately pour the mixture into a glass container. Tap container or smooth top over with a spatula if necessary.

  5. Place in the fridge for a couple hours or overnight to set. Once it’s set, remove from container and cut into cubes. Optional: Add marinade, sauce, or other seasonings to the cubes. Air-fry, stir-fry, or bake in the oven. Enjoy!

We double this recipe every time we make it, keep it in the fridge, and fry as we need it. The uncooked ‘tofu’ can sit in the fridge for four days and still turn out great on the air fryer! Air-frying is our favourite way to cook this, then we eat it as a snack or as a salad topping.

I’m always on the lookout for affordable plant-based recipes that are also tasty. I concoct some of my own, too! We may be sharing more of our recipes in future blog posts, so watch this space!

How about you? Any lentil recipes or vegan go-to dishes to share? Comment below – we’d love to read it!

 

xx,

Judit

 

Related:

Top 8 Vegan Foods for Amazing Skin

5 Easy Skincare Resolutions for Healthier Skin

 

Additional reading:


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