Healthy Slow Cooker Dal Makhani

Some one turned a bit more wiser today, yep , that would be me. I am 30 years old today. For the last few days I have been trying really hard to feel anxious or depressed about turning 30. I have seen so many of my friends behave like 30 is the end of life that I found my own personal experience quite different.

May be its got to do with this little guy, keeps me on my toes all the time. No wonder I feel my birthday came and went like a breeze

Whatever it is, I am embracing 30! All I expect for all this positive attitude is that life conveniently throws a good job in front of me, Neil starts sleeping better, I magically lose all the excess weight and I think that will be all. No qualms, really

Moving on,

somethings are mum’s absolute best friend like coffee, white noise machine, baby monitor and slow cooker to name a few among other things. I mean really slow cooker is one of the best invention ever. Throw together ingredients and you have dinner waiting for you after an exhausting day of baby care. I have been scouring the internet for good slow cooker Indian recipes and disappointed to find very few of them. So I picked the few available online and try them with a few modifications obviously.

This first recipe I tried is Daal Makhani literally meaning lentils in a buttery sauce and when I mean butter I mean a couple of sticks of butter. No Good. My version is healthy (only 1.5 tbsp of butter), can be veganized (add earth balance instead of real butter) and so hearty.

Slow Cooker Dal Makhani

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black lentils dry (Black whole urad) Urad is a type of lentil easily available online. If not found, you can substitue with brown lentils too.
• 1/3 cup kidney beans dry
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 Thai chilly or jalapeno
• 1 can of diced tomato.
• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 4 cups of vegetable stock/water
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp garam masala powder.
• 1 tsp ground coriander  You can also use about 1.5 tbsp of mild curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1 cup milk (I used 2%, to makes this vegan you can use almond milk or coconut milk)
• 1 tbsp honey (sugar can be used too)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cilantro fro garnishing.

Directions:

Soak dry urad dal (lentils) and kidney beans overnight or at least for 6 hours.

After soaking, thoroughly wash them.

Assemble the crockpot and spray a bit of cooking spray before you begin (makes clean up much easier,since food does not stick much)

Add, lentils and beans, onion, chilly, spices, bay leaf and cinnamon

Add the vegetable stock. Don’t add the salt and tomato at this point. 

 Let sit on low for about 8 hours.

After about 8 hours, when the lentils are cooked through, crank it up to high and add the tomato, butter and let it go for another 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes add, salt and finally the milk and honey

 Garnish with cilantro!

I served mine with quinoa.

Let me know if you try this recipe!

Do you have any favorite slow cooker recipes? I’d love to hear about them!

Tagged as: healthy Indian slow cooker recipes, slow cooker dal makhani, slow cooker indian recipes, slow cooker lentils