The lentil (Lens culinaris) (International Feed Number, 5-02-506) is an edible pulse. It is a bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 centimetres (16 in) tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each.
Lentils have been part of the human diet since the aceramic (pottery nonproducing) Neolithic times, being one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. Archeological evidence shows they were eaten 13,000 to 9,500 years ago.
Lentil colours range from yellow to red-orange to green, brown and black. Lentils also vary in size (e.g. Masoor lentils, shown in photos here), and are sold in many forms, with or without the skins, whole or split.
The seeds require a cooking time of 10 to 40 minutes, depending on the variety — shorter for small varieties with the husk removed, such as the common red lentil — and have a distinctive, earthy flavor. Lentils are used throughout South Asia, the Mediterranean regions and West Asia. They are frequently combined with rice, which has a similar cooking time. A lentil and rice dish is referred to in western Asia as mujaddara or mejadra. Rice and lentils are also cooked together in khichdi, a popular dish in the Indian subcontinent (India and Pakistan); a similar dish, kushari, made in Egypt, is considered one of two national dishes. Lentils are used to prepare an inexpensive and nutritious soup all over Europe and North and South America, sometimes combined with some form of chicken or pork.
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler (born 18 December 1975), better known as Sia ( /sɪə/ or /ˈsiːə/), is an Australian pop, downtempo, and jazz singer and songwriter. In 2000 her single "Taken for Granted" was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. Her 2008 album Some People Have Real Problems peaked in the top 30 on the Billboard 200. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, she won the award for 'Best Music DVD' and received six nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 and won 'Best Independent Release' and 'Best Pop Release' for We Are Born and 'Best Video' for the song "Clap Your Hands". Furler has also collaborated and performed with Zero 7, Christina Aguilera and more recently Hilltop Hoods, David Guetta and Flo Rida.
Furler was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 18 December 1975. She went to North Adelaide Primary School. Her father, Phil B. Colson, was a musician in various bands including Foreday Riders, Rum Jungle, Fat Time, Jump Back Jack, and Mount Lofty Rangers. Her mother, Loene Furler, is a singer, songwriter & musician, and art lecturer who also provided backing vocals for Mount Lofty Rangers. Her parents were both in an Adelaide rockabilly band, The Soda Jerx. Furler is the niece of U.K. based actor/singer Kevin Colson. Singer/songwriter Colin Hay of Men at Work though not related, is affectionately known as "Uncle Colin". "Philby" Colson played slide guitar on Men at Work's last single, "Everything I Need" from their album Two Hearts, then toured extensively with "The Colin Hay Band" in 1988. In her 2008 NPR Music interview, she said that she had mimicked other singers while growing up and counts Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Sting as her early influences. She attended Adelaide High School. At fourteen, Furler said, her parents had enough money to pay for her getting her now famous snaggletooth removed, or a chance to attend school in Italy. Furler chose Italy, and she said that she doesn't regret keeping her snaggletooth.