Grams of dried lentils to teaspoons runs on one number, 0.25 teaspoons per gram. It is a measured property of this ingredient rather than a defined conversion, which is why a generic volume-to-weight tool cannot give you it.
Water is the yardstick: 1 mL of it weighs 1 g. Dried lentils comes in at 0.81154 g per mL, or 81.15% of water, which is why a cup of it is 192 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A level teaspoon of dried lentils weighs 4 g. A kitchen scale that reads to the nearest gram is therefore working at roughly 25% resolution on a single spoonful, which is why measuring spoons beat scales below about 5 g and lose to them above it. Three teaspoons make a tablespoon, so the same spoonful is 12 g if the recipe scales up.
Grams are the unit this conversion is really for. A domestic scale resolves to a gram, which is 0.521% of a cup of dried lentils, so weighing gets an accuracy no measuring cup can reach. A 500 g pack of it is 2.604 cups, and a 1 kg pack 5.208.
What the number depends on: Brown or green, dry. Split red lentils are a little lighter per cup.
The formula
grams- The amount of dried lentils you are converting, in grams
0.25- Teaspoons per gram for dried lentils, from its density of 0.81154 g/mL
teaspoons- The equivalent quantity in teaspoons
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in grams.
- It is multiplied by 0.25, the teaspoons-per-gram figure for dried lentils.
- The result appears in teaspoons, with a second reading in mL beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
50 g of dried lentils in teaspoons
50 g of dried lentils weighs out at 12.5 teaspoons. Divide 12.5 by 0.25 and you get back to 50 g, which is the quickest check that the factor is the right way up.
150 g of dried lentils in teaspoons
Take 150 g of dried lentils: 150 × 0.25 gives 37.5 teaspoons. Doubling the batch takes it to 75 teaspoons, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
500 g of dried lentils in teaspoons
Take 500 g of dried lentils: 500 × 0.25 gives 125 teaspoons. Doubling the batch takes it to 250 teaspoons, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many teaspoons are in 1 g of dried lentils?
One gram of dried lentils is 0.25 teaspoons. Half that quantity is 0.125 teaspoons and double it is 0.5 teaspoons, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of dried lentils not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Dried lentils has a density of 0.81154 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 192 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 44.6 g per cup, and it is the reason a single volume-to-weight factor cannot be applied to every ingredient.
Does how I measure it change the weight?
Yes, and by more than most people expect. Handling changes the weight of a cup of dried lentils by roughly 20% — about 19.2 g either side of 192 g — because brown or green, dry. Weighing removes the question entirely.
Is a fluid ounce of dried lentils the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume — one eighth of a US cup, 29.57 mL — and an ounce is a weight. One fluid ounce of dried lentils weighs 0.8466 oz, so the two readings differ by 15.3%. They coincide only for something with the density of water, and then only roughly.
Is this a US cup or a metric cup?
US customary: 236.59 mL, which is the cup every US recipe means. A metric cup is 250 mL, so the same cup of dried lentils would weigh 202.88 g instead of 192 g — 10.9 g more, or 5.67%. Australian and some European recipes use the metric cup, and the difference is large enough to matter in baking.
Do I need a scale for this, or will measuring cups do?
At this size the spoon wins. One teaspoon of dried lentils is 4 g, and a scale reading to the nearest gram is working at 25% resolution on that — a measuring spoon is the more accurate instrument below about 5 g, which is why spice quantities are still written in spoons.
How much does 2 tsp of dried lentils weigh?
2 tsp of dried lentils comes to 8 g, or 8 grams. This page runs that calculation in reverse — enter a weight and it returns the volume — and the teaspoons-to-grams page does it in the direction the question is usually asked.
Dried lentils in grams and teaspoons
| Grams | Teaspoons | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 5 g | 1.25 tsp | 1.25 |
| 10 g | 2.5 tsp | 2.5 |
| 25 g | 6.25 tsp | 6.25 |
| 50 g | 12.5 tsp | 12.5 |
| 100 g | 25 tsp | 25 |
| 125 g | 31.25 tsp | 31.25 |
| 150 g | 37.5 tsp | 37.5 |
| 200 g | 50 tsp | 50 |
| 250 g | 62.5 tsp | 62.5 |
| 300 g | 75 tsp | 75 |
| 500 g | 125 tsp | 125 |
| 1000 g | 250 tsp | 250 |
Based on 192 g per cup of dried lentils. One gram of dried lentils is 0.25 teaspoons.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 192 g | 6.77 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 12 g | 0.423 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 2 tsp | 8 g | 0.282 oz | 9.858 mL |
| 1 tsp | 4 g | 0.141 oz | 4.929 mL |
| 3/4 tsp | 3 g | 0.106 oz | 3.697 mL |
| 1/2 tsp | 2 g | 0.0705 oz | 2.464 mL |
| 1/4 tsp | 1 g | 0.0353 oz | 1.232 mL |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.5 g | 0.0176 oz | 0.6161 mL |
US customary measures: 1 cup = 236.59 mL, 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL, 1 tsp = 4.93 mL.
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup | Density (g/mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry couscous | 170 g | 5.997 oz | 0.7185 |
| Uncooked white rice | 185 g | 6.526 oz | 0.7819 |
| Uncooked brown rice | 190 g | 6.702 oz | 0.8031 |
| Dried lentils (this page) | 192 g | 6.773 oz | 0.8115 |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 7.055 oz | 0.8454 |
| Arborio rice | 200 g | 7.055 oz | 0.8454 |
| Dried chickpeas | 200 g | 7.055 oz | 0.8454 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.