Easy Slow Cooker Dal Makhani
on Nov 28, 2016, Updated Nov 26, 2024
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Easy, slow cooker Dal Makhani recipe, cooked overnight in a crockpot and tastes just like restaurants and dhabas. This black dal is perfect with rice and tandoori rotis!
This Slow Cooker Dal Makhani is another easy-peasy slow recipe you need to try! It’s creamy, flavorful, and so luxurious – I promise you won’t want to stop eating.
Traditionally, dal makhani is made over an open wood fire, where it’s slow cooked all night to attain those delicious smoky flavors and creamy, melt in your mouth dal. But for this recipe, we are trying to achieve the same results – except this time in a slow cooker!
Slow cooking this dal makhani all night or all day, and keeping it warm in the slow cooker till you are ready to eat is an absolute genius way to make it. You’ll be amazed at how little work goes into it, and the results will blow your mind!
jump to section: Slow Cooker Dal makhani
Ingredients Overview
The ingredients list for this slow cooker dal makhani is long. But everything is either pantry staples or easily available both online and in stores.
Since this a dump-and-go recipe that also requires no chopping, the only prep you need to do is remember to soak urad dal and rajma overnight (approx 6 hours).
The next morning, all the ingredients (except cream and kasuri methi) to the slow cooker, along with water and cook for 8-12 hours until the lentils are super tender. Finish it off cream and kasuri methi, cook for another 20 minutes and done!
Richa’s Top Tips
- Usually a dal makhani recipe would have lot of onions, but in the slow cooked version the lentils cook so long that they break down and add their own flavor without needing onions to boost it up. So I’ve skipped them, but feel free to add one chopped onion to the recipe if you like.
- It’s important to soak the lentils overnight to achieve the creamy texture we want from this recipe.
- All slow cookers are different, so the cooking time may vary slightly. I would recommend checking for doneness after about 6 hours and then cooking longer if needed.
Serve this creamy, smokey goodness with my Instant No Yeast Naan, lachha paratha, or good ol’ rotis and Bombay Potatoes for a wholesome, warming meal. It’s pureeee perfection that combination.
Check out my slow cooker lamb curry and slow cooker chicken tikka masala recipes. They are such good non-vegetarian recipe to make in your slow cooker.
As always, send in your pictures over on my IG @my_foodstory if you happen to make this recipe. I LOVE seeing your recreations.
Easy Slow Cooker Dal Makhani
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 cup Urad dal, whole black gram lentils
- 1/2 cup Rajma, kidney beans
- 1 Bayleaf
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 3-4 Cardamom Pods
- 3-4 Cloves
- 1 tablespoon Ginger, finely chopped
- 8 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped or minced
- 2 Green Chillies, slit lengthwise
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- 4 Tomatoes, diced (large)
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
- 2 tablespoons Butter , + extra
- Salt , to taste
- 1/4 cup Cream
- 1 teaspoon Kasuri methi, optional
Instructions
- Soak both the lentils (urad dal/whole black gram and rajma/kidney beans) in water overnight or at least for 6 hours. This needs to be done only if you are using dry lentils.
- Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker (except cream and kasuri methi) along with four cups water. Stir well. Cook on high for 8 hours or low for at least 12 hours till the lentils are cooked through and can be easily smashed between your fingers.
- Mix well and lightly mash everything with the back of a ladle or spoon. Add the cream and kasuri methi if using and cook on low for another 20 minutes. Top with more butter and serve hot. If serving later, you can keep this on warm for up to 3 hours. Just thin with a little water or milk before serving if it’s too thick.
Notes
- This slow cooker version has flavours similar to the authentic dal makhani that is slow cooked over a wood flame overnight. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can try my stovetop version. Click here for the recipe -> https://myfoodstory.com/dal-makhani-recipe/
- Dal Makhani is traditionally made with whole black urad dal (black lentils) and rajma (kidney beans). Avoid using canned kidney beans.
- But if you are vegan or lactose intolerant, use ¼ cup cashew cream or ¼ cup coconut milk in the end in place of cream. The coconut milk might add a milk coconut-ty flavour, but the quantity is so small that you’ll barely notice it.
- Kasuri Methi is dried fenugreek leaves that help round up the flavors in the dal makhani. Its available on amazon, and is used in many Indian recipes (on this blog), so stocking it won’t be a waste.
- Don’t skimp on the cream and butter in the recipe. These give the dal makhani its distinct texture and flavour.
- Feel free to adjust the spice levels based on your tastes by reducing or increasing the green chillies.
- Also, if you are making some slow cooker dal makhani, make sure to try my Instant No Yeast Naan and Bombay Potatoes to go with it.
OMG. My husband and I love Dal Makhani and are always weary while ordering it at a restaurant because we don’t know who’s got it perfectly right.
I made it using this recipe and OMG! It was the best we’ve had so far lol! Simple and brilliant. Thank you Richa 🙂
So happy you liked the recipe Pooja. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Wow! I have never cooked dahl before and was SO sceptical about this recipe – surely it couldn’t be as easy as that? Every other recipe online is so complex. But this is seriously amazing. I too added an onion (browned in a pan beforehand) and some tomato paste, and I pureed the tomatoes in a blender before adding. I also only used one green chilli (partially removed seeds and membrane) but the heat was perfect. But aside from that, I followed recipe exactly and it came out every bit as good as all the other comments are saying. This is a new winter staple for me. Thank you!
So happy to hear that, Jon! We can’t get enough of dal makhani too! You should try our other Indian curries and biryani!
I didn’t see any mention of boiling the beans before placing them into the slow cooker. This can cause bean poisoning, particularly with kidney beans. If they are slow cooked they become 4x more poisonous.
Ethel you don’t need to boil the beans before adding them to the slow cooker because they’ll boil/cook in it – that’s the whole point. But to avoid indigestion and to help our body digest complex sugars such as oligosaccharides, we’ve recommended soaking the beans for 6 hours in the recipe.
This was soooooo good!! Unbelievably easy and super yum! I just added some extra tomato puree to the ingredient list. I used the slow cook option on mealthy – cooked on slow for around 10.5 hours, opened & gave it a stir once. I then slow cooked on high for another 3 hours. Thanks a bunch, I’m never cooking dal makhani another way now!
Wohooo! So happy you enjoyed this!
This recipe is great, delicious and easy. I have been consistently making this dish that I love every month since I’ve discovered this recipe on your website. Thank you so much! With by boyfriend, we bought a new slow-cooker so we could make more dal makhani. That’s how much we love it!
Woww!! You really did love it. Soooo happy you liked the recipe Margaux! Thank you for leaving a comment
My lentils were not cooked in 9 hrs
Hey Arushi, that can happen if your lentils are too old. The problem with lentils is that their age can affect the cooking time. I would recommend just cooking it for longer.
I tried using instant pot as slow cooker to make this recipe but that was a big flop 🙁 this was the first time I tried my instant pot as slow cooker and Rajma was not at all cooked and very hard after keeping it for 12 hours in slow cooker mode . I followed exactly your recipe as is but I guess instant pot is not so good as slow cooker after all . There is nothing wrong in your recipe though so I’ll try stovepot version of this recipe in instant pot 🙂
Hey Sree! Honestly the slow cooked function on the instant pot doesn’t work well. I have an instant pot version of this recipe on the site. Give that a try: https://myfoodstory.com/dal-makhani-recipe/
Best and easiest recipe ever, reminds me so much of the dhal my Mum used to make on a rayburn, cooking it overnight.
Thank you so much
I would like to give you a big thanks for this recipe. I tried it yesterday and it was probably one of the best dal makhni I ever had. though I made some changes to it, like adding onions and skipping soaking the lentils and instead cooked on low for 13.5 hours instead of 12. It came out so awesome that I had to come back to your blog to say thanks. keep sharing.
So happy you liked it Gaurav!!
Bought a slow cooker yesterday and was raring to use it. Immediately went online in search of a recipe and found this. After reading it, couldn’t wait to try it out. And I’m so glad I did. The Dal Makhani came out amazing. Thank you for this recipe. I did make a few changes…added onions and 3 tbsp of store bought tomato purée additional to the existing recipe. It was lip smacking tasty.
Thanks! So glad you liked it!