Slow Cooker Dal
Yellow split lentils slow cooked on low for 6 hours with onion, tomato, ginger and turmeric, finished with a sizzling garlic and cumin tarka.
Photograph credit: Dal curry by David Pursehouse · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Where This Goes Wrong
Rinse the lentils until the water runs clear.
Make the tarka at the last moment.
Thin with hot water if the dal thickens.
How to Make Slow Cooker Dal
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Put the lentils, water, onion, tomatoes, ginger, turmeric and salt in the slow cooker.
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Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, stirring once or twice, until the lentils have broken down.
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Whisk the dal until smooth, adding hot water if too thick.
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Heat the ghee in a small pan. Fry the cumin seeds, garlic and chillies for 1 minute until golden and fragrant.
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Pour the tarka over the dal, stir in the lemon juice and scatter with the coriander.
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What's Going On Here
Why does dal made in a slow cooker taste so much creamier? Because the lentils have six hours to break down fully, and what starts as separate grains ends as a smooth, golden porridge with a deep flavour. There is no need to blend it.
Use yellow split lentils such as toor dal or chana dal, rinsed until the water runs clear. Put them in the cooker with water, chopped onion, tomatoes, grated ginger, turmeric and salt, and leave it. Do not add salt late: lentils cook perfectly well in salted water now, despite the old advice.
The tarka is what makes it dal. In a small pan, heat ghee or oil until hot, then fry cumin seeds, sliced garlic and dried red chillies for about a minute until the garlic turns pale gold and the seeds crackle. Pour the sizzling mixture over the finished dal and stir through. It adds a smoky, nutty aroma that no amount of slow cooking can produce.
A squeeze of lemon at the end brightens the earthiness of the lentils. Serve with rice or flatbread. If the dal has thickened on standing, thin it with hot water to the consistency of soup.
Storage and Reheating
Keeps for 4 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
Common Substitutions & Variations
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the red chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Good With
- Basmati rice
- Roti
- Cucumber raita
- Lime pickle
Slow Cooker Dal Nutrition
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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