Dhal with Canned Lentils in Slow Cooker

[FiveShelties]

Would this be ok, or should I use Dried Lentils instead?

Do anyone have a recipe for this? Many thanks.

What sort of lentils?

I use either. It really doesn't matter.

Dried are much cheaper.
I have used the Riverford organics recipe and it is very good. Look for 'slow cooker dal' on Riverford.co.uk

@CurlewKate Oh! I am not sure, is one variety better than another?

@CatsSnore thank you very much.

@ODFOx I will go and have a look for that one - thank you.

I'd personally only put red lentils that are dried in the slow cooker, or tinned green ones. With the red ones they don't need to be soaked first, although I do put them in boiling water whilst I put everything else together, then give a good rinse.

@FiveShelties
"Oh! I am not sure, is one variety better than another?"

Only that red lentils are so quick to cook you don't really need to use the slow cooker. If I was making slow cooker dal, I'd probably use one of the other dried pulses-simply because why not, if you're going to be cooking it all day! There is a YouTuber called Chetna Makan who has lots of fabulous dal recipes- worth a look!

Precooked lentils, particularly the red split ones, tend to turn to mush very quickly whereas the dried ones do nicely on slow cooking. By contrast when it comes to beans, tinned are probably your best bet - dried sometimes don't soften brilliantly during slow cooking. You should never slow cook kidney beans because they don't reliably reach the temperatures needed to deactivate the toxins.

Thank you so much - I have not used lentils before but trying to do different things instead of the same old stuff. It is winter here (NZ) so I was thinking that comfort food might be very welcome.

Agree with others that dried would be better in slow cooker. I only use tinned lentils when cooking something in a hurry on the hob

I use dried red lentils in my dal and it cooks in about 30 minutes in a pot on the cooker so really no need to use slow cooker. If you are set on slow cooker, I make a Cuban black bean soup (dried beans soaked overnight) that takes about 3-4 hours to cook, so would be ideal for slow cooker.

Green lentils need to be soaked before cooking.
So I'd use dried red lentils or tinned green lentils.

Thank you so much for all these ideas. I am going to try all the different types of lentils over the winter - some in the slow cooker and some on the hob.