Tablespoons of dried lentils to grams runs on one number, 12 grams per tablespoon. 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 tablespoon of dried lentils is 12 g, which puts a teaspoon at 4 g and a tablespoon and a half — the quantity recipes are fondest of — at 18 g. Levelling twice is where the error comes from, so the scale is the faster instrument once the quantity passes a couple of spoons.
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
tablespoons- The amount of dried lentils you are converting, in tablespoons
12- Grams per tablespoon for dried lentils, from its density of 0.81154 g/mL
grams- The equivalent quantity in grams
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in tablespoons.
- It is multiplied by 12, the grams-per-tablespoon figure for dried lentils.
- The result appears in grams, with a second reading in oz beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
2 tbsp of dried lentils in grams
Take 2 tbsp of dried lentils: 2 × 12 gives 24 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 48 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
4 tbsp of dried lentils in grams
Take 4 tbsp of dried lentils: 4 × 12 gives 48 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 96 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
12 tbsp of dried lentils in grams
12 tbsp of dried lentils weighs out at 144 grams. Divide 144 by 12 and you get back to 12 tbsp, which is the quickest check that the factor is the right way up.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in 1 tbsp of dried lentils?
One tablespoon of dried lentils is 12 grams. Half that quantity is 6 grams and double it is 24 grams, 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?
A scale, if the result matters. Volume measuring carries a spread of about 20% for dried lentils — roughly 38.4 g on a 192 g cup — while a domestic scale is accurate to a gram or two. For anything where the ratio of ingredients drives the outcome, bread and pastry above all, weigh it.
How many tablespoons of dried lentils is 500 g?
500 g of dried lentils is 41.667 tablespoons — 0.0833333 tablespoons to one gram, so 500 × 0.0833333 = 41.667. Going that way is a division by 12, or a multiplication by 0.0833333 if you prefer.
Dried lentils in tablespoons and grams
| Tablespoons | Grams | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 tbsp | 6 g | 6 |
| 1 tbsp | 12 g | 12 |
| 2 tbsp | 24 g | 24 |
| 3 tbsp | 36 g | 36 |
| 4 tbsp | 48 g | 48 |
| 6 tbsp | 72 g | 72 |
| 8 tbsp | 96 g | 96 |
| 12 tbsp | 144 g | 144 |
| 16 tbsp | 192 g | 192 |
Based on 192 g per cup of dried lentils. One tablespoon of dried lentils is 12 grams.
| 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.