Are lentils more expensive than rice? [moved from Home Cooking]

[Hank Hanover]

I went to the store and was going through the bulk sale area. I decided to check out some lentils.

I was surprised to see that green lentils were $1.49 per pound and red lentils were $1.79 per pound. I had kind of assumed that lentils were cheaper than rice but in the same bulk area white long grain rice was $0.99 per pound. Jasmine rice was only $1.29 per pound.

Is this normal or has the price gone up since they got popular?

[freia]

I was surprised to see at my local bulk store that the cost per pound of rice, beans and flour were actually higher than their counterparts in my local grocery store (the pre-bagged stuff).

[Hank Hanover]

That coincides with my experience. I was somewhat surprised to see it. If I don't mind buying a 5, 10 or even 25 pound bag, I can get rice dead cheap. I was just surprised that lentils cost as much or more than rice at least at the bulk section of my grocery store.

I had the impression that the world's poor bought lentils because they couldn't afford rice. Maybe that is so with brown lentils as coll points out or maybe even a combination of brown lentils that have been cracked or broken during processing?

[westsidegal]

lentils are a legume.
rice is a grain.
other than both of them being edible, i would not consider one to be a nutritional substitute for the other, just like i wouldn't consider fruit to be a nutritional substitute for wheat.

since they are not nutritional substitutes for each other, to me, it doesn't make sense to compare their prices to each other any more than it would make sense to compare the prices of mangos to wheat.

fwiw, lentils cost more than many other legumes.
rice is cheap as grains go.

[coll]

Brown lentils should be a lot cheaper than red or green.

[nofunlatte]

I always remember them being more expensive than a comparable rice. I'm a member of three co-ops (in three different states), so I've done a lot of bulk shopping over the years and I always paid more for lentils. You do get more bang for your nutritional buck with the lentils, though.

[chrissy1988]

uum i think that lentils and rice are comparable--lentils might be SLIGHTLY more but not significantly where I am. The lentils are better for you though.