Agh lentils! Help before 5pm please!

[Starontopofthetree]

Hi, slow cooker cottage pie on the go, I had the genius idea to stick lentils in as well (red) and a couple of hours on high later, they're pale orange but have a bit of bite to them. Not crunchy, just...like a garden pea...you know?

Anyway I think it's because I added the lentils in raw to the stock, and apparently salt can make lentils tough.

It tastes nice, though, so my question is if they stayed like that and didn't soften anymore, can they be eaten without making us sick?

They have a couple of hours left in the slow cooker plus the oven to crisp up the topping later on, obviously, and I got it into the slow cooker for around 12.

I don't think they'll soften but I doubt they'll be dangerous. I've done this before and have never been I'll from it.

For future ref, I always use boiled water (doesn't have to be hot, just boiled) to rinse lentils and cook them due to living in a very hard water area. They only take about 10-12 mins to soften then I add them to whatever.

Thanks, yes I've read that's what people do! :/

If it was just me I wouldn't mind, but I don't fancy making my children ill so I'm wondering whether to just bin it and buy a pizza :(

Undercooked lentils should not be eaten as they can cause gastric problems. So I'd go with the pizza option! Sorry 😞

Thank you both :)

They had softened by the time I came back from the school run at 4pm, so I deemed it okay to eat :)

Thanks again for your help