Slow Cooker Yellow Split Pea Dahl (Yellow Roald Dahl)
This is a really easy, cheap and tasty dish, and can be made from store cupboard and freezer ingredients. If you're using the spices for the first time you can use a mild curry powder instead of the individual spices listed here to cut costs. It can be a main dish, or served as a side dish.My kids eat this because they like the Roald Dahl stories (hence the name Yellow Roald Dahl) and because it's not very spicy. Add 1tsp hot chilli powder to the slow cooker mix for some extra zing!
Equipment
- Slow cooker (crockpot)
Ingredients
- 8 spray Spray oil
- 260 g Yellow split peas Rinsed (or not if you're feeling lazy)
- 3 cloves Garlic Chopped (or straight from freezer)
- 1 whole Onion Chopped (or straight from freezer)
- 2 tsp Turmeric
- 3 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 tsp Root Ginger Chopped (or straight from freezer)
- 2 whole Stock Cubes Best with 1 Kallo Vegetable and 1 Kallo Garlic & Herb
- 750 ml Water
- 1 stick Lovage Optional! Included once as a friend gave us one stick and it was great, you could use 2-3 sticks of celery chopped instead, it's an entirely optional extra .
- 400 g Carrots Diced
Instructions
- Put the slow cooker on a medium heat.
- Mist the slow cooker ceramic bowl with cooking spray. Put the split peas, onion, turmeric, ground cumin, crushed garlic, ginger and stock in slow cooker and stir. Optionally add 400g of carrots (or cauliflower florets are also a good tweak), submerging in the liquid. Cover and leave on medium for 6h (or low for 11h).
- For an optional side, which tastes so good the kids were fighting over the last sprout (I still can't quite believe it): just before end of slow cooking time, heat 1/2 tbsp sesame oil in a frying pan and gently fry 1 clove of sliced garlic and the other 1 teaspoon cumin seeds for 1 minute, stirring until fragrant. Add 350g of shredded brussels sprouts and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until bright green (don't leave them on while you try to persuade a child to wash hands before food or they burn...see photo...oops!).
- Serve with optional naan or rice - the photo has this dahl on a bed of steamed savoy cabbage to increase veg intake and a garlic and coriander mini naan.
Notes
I first tried this for 6h on low following a different guide, but the split peas were still a bit hard, so it worked after putting on high for another 1.5 hours, by which time everyone was too hungry.