Beef Caserolle, can I substitute Pearl Barley for Red or Green Lentils?

[Quinteszilla]

I know, it i Tuesday. Tuesday Stewsday.

The recipe calls for pearl barley, and I was so sure I had it! I have red lentils, green lentil, and basmati rice.

Other ingredients are: Beef, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, parsnip, chopped tomatoes, red wine, black pepper, thyme, bay leaves.

Red or Green lentils, you reckon?

yes, that's fine.

red lentils kind of disintegrate while green tend to hold their shape a bit better, but neither will take as long as barley to cook, so check the packet for when to add them.

The barley should cook for 30 minutes, but I always find that they need longer. So I guess I should cook for longer before adding lentils.

We pretty much always stick lentils of some description in our stew. Will be fine.

Good. Thanks.

I have pretty much just used lentils for dhal, not stews. Perhaps it is time to try!

Green lentils are lovely in stew.

I am wary of using red ones, as I can never judge the right amount and have ended up with a claggy orangey thing once too often. But I am a very 'meh' cook, so you should be fine!

Do I need to rinse them, or soak them?

I just chuck a handful in when using red lentils (I have a fair amount of liquid in my stews though)

Interesting, I was wondering the same question. I was going to do a ham, root veg and pearl barley stew tomorrow with leftover gammon, but it is a derisory amount so in the interests of having some actual protein in our dinner was wondering about sticking in puy lentils instead. Glad to hear this should be fine!

We are having financial heart attacks due to roof repair bill hence stretching about 200g gammon to two meals for three of us! Tonight it was ham & cheese potato cakes with fried eggs and bubble & squeak (aka leftover cabbage, swede and peas fried up). Tomorrow is the other fleck of gammon + the stock I got off the bone in stew form.

It was lovely with red lentils!