Why are my lentils grainy? Urad Dal (black lentils), Split Peas too.?

Question

Hello,

I am a twenty one year old male and having the most difficult time of learning to cook edible meals. Haha. :O). My problem this time around is getting lentils to cook properly. I can never seem to get them done. At a market quite far from my home I was happy to find some Urad Dal. These are split and say, "chilka" which I believe means with skin. They are still black on the outside. I tried to make Dal Makhani, which is a dish I like a lot, with these. I soaked these split dal over night. Then I boiled them on high, for 3.5 hours on the stove (in a normal pot) with turmeric, ginger and fennel seed. I did not add salt as I've read that this can cause some beans to toughen. The problem is that my dal remain "grainy"... they don't soften up. I have also had the same problem with split green peas in a attempt to make a green pea soup in a crockpot. I don't have a pressure cooker. Would that help? I have normal pots and pans and a slow cooker (small crockpot). Thanks. :).

I didn't salt until I gave up after four hours.

I picked out stones and less-desireables and rinsed very well, soaked over night, before rinsing well again.

Answer 1

Do not salt the cooking water until after the lentils are done. Many dry beans/peas will remain hard if they are salted before cooking. Add onions, celery, whatever else it calls for, just hold off on salt until the very end.

Answer 2

Try cooking in pure clay pot. The far-infrared emitted from the pot let seasoning & spices penetrate deeper and doesn't take too much time unlike metal or ceramic or glazed cookware. Most importantly the nutrients are intact, any lentils gets cooked soft not mushy and the food tastes amazing. I got mine from mecware.US (online) and it does a great job in my kitchen.

Answer 3

rinse them properly before cooking them and make sure to soak right amount of time before cooking