The beauty of lentils is that they need less time to soak than other beans (or legumes in general) because of their small size and thin seed coats. Since they soften relatively quickly, there is no need to soak these overnight (though, some still do to accommodate their cooking schedule). In fact, to cook red lentils, you don’t technically need to soak them for hours, but we are trying to achieve a creamy consistency for thin tortillas, which is why I suggest soaking them for about 4 hours.