Slow Cooker Split Pea Curry
This post is sponsored by USA Pulses and Pulse Canada. As always, all opinions are my own.
Do you ever find yourself in a recipe rut? Where you end up making the same things over and over again and you’re not totally sure why? It happens to me. Even as a food blogger who spends her time coming up with new recipes, sometimes I notice that my themes tend to be the same and I have to find a way to think outside-of-the-box a bit. I’d been thinking about the fact that I hadn’t included many vegetarian recipes here lately and the timing couldn’t have been better. When North American Pulses contacted me about teaming up to create some new recipes, I jumped at the opportunity!
Okay, I know you might be asking right now, what is a pulse? It’s a valid question and one I’ve just recently learned the entire answer to myself. Pulses are a wide variety of dry peas, lentils, beans and and chickpeas that are protein packed and perfect to have on hand for quick and nutritious meals. And I just have to say, if you’ve never cooked with split peas before, now is the time to try them. Slow cooking season is finally here and there’s no better way to welcome it than by making a recipe that is so simple yet so delicious that you’ll want to keep making it all winter long.
We love all kinds of Indian inspired dishes in our house including butter chicken, paneer makhani, tikka masala and of course, curry! Given that they are nutritious and protein packed, not to mention tasty, split peas were the perfect option for this curry dish! There’s nothing easier than dry peas when you want to get a meal in the slow cooker in no time yet still feel good about what you are feeding your family.
Just a few other ingredients, like onion, garlic and crushed tomatoes along with a can of creamy coconut milk + a few amazing spices and you can let dinner simmer away all day. Seriously not many things in life better than coming home to a slow cooked meal!
Serve it up with some rice and you have a complete nutritious meal that you’ll be quick to add to your favorites list!
Slow Cooker Split Pea Curry
SaveIngredients
- 1 1/2 cups dry split peas
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 15 oz can coconut milk
- 1/2 cup diced sweet onion
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon green curry paste
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 cups basmati rice
- fresh cilantro for garnish optional
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except cream, rice and cilantro in slow cooker
- Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 until peas are tender
- Stir in cream (or to make it vegan you could use refrigerated plain coconut milk)
- Cook rice according to package directions
- Serve rice topped with split pea curry and garnish with cilantro
Did you know that 2016 is the International Year of Pulses? Take the Pulse Pledge with me and let’s promise each other to stay out of our cooking ruts and to create lots of new recipes using all the varieties of pulses!
My peas are still quite firm after 6 hours on low…
Was considering using lentils but since my first attempt stuck to recipe
Quite hot …might put less curry paste next time
Do I drain the tomatoes or check the whole can in?
No need to drain them.
Do you actually use yellow or green split peas or both can be used?
either should be fine!
Do I use both cream and coconut milk, or do I just chose one?
you use both unless you prefer it to be dairy free then sub out the cream for additional coconut milk.
This is fabulous!!! I’m always looking for ways to use my dried peas and beans. I will be making this again and again. I added some red pepper flakes (we love heat) and served with brown rice. My husband added grilled chicken to his. Thanks for sharing this!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Jessica!
Fantastic!
I was looking for something other than the usual soup for crockpots, but still good and easy enough to do while taking care of an infant. This did not disappoint.
I will make it again and again.
Thanks! So glad you liked it!
Will definitely make this again absolutely delicious 🙂
Thanks Lorraine! So glad you liked it!
Great flavours (followed the recipe except Thai yellow curry paste was all I had on hand) but after 7 hours on low and an hour on high, our peas still had some bite to them. Also added about a cup of boiling water at the 7 hour mark, as things were drying out and burning along the edges. Maybe a presoak for the peas would improve things, or using some red lentils in their place. Definitely worth further exploration, though it won’t be supplanting the family favourite dal recipe anytime soon!
Darn, I wonder why they wouldn’t soften? I bet you are right, a presoak would do the trick.
The acid in the tomatoes prevents legumes from cooking. Whenever, I cook legumes, I wait until the end to add salt and other acidic things.
Made this replacing the split peas with chick peas and doubling the curry paste and powder (since I like both of them a lot) and replacing the heavy cream with evaporated milk (since I didnt have any heavy cream). It came out great.
That sounds tasty! Thanks Saul!
I am so happy to see this recipe. I took the pulse pledge earlier this year and we now eat quite a few meat free meals and to see this split pea curry recipe really made my day. It seems I always tend to make the same things (meat or meat free) over and over again. I can’t wait for your next pulse recipe. Can you create a really tasty lentil and nut loaf without using mushrooms? For the life of me I cannot come up with something tasty – it seems like there’s always something missing. Thanks.
Hi Trish! My next recipes will actually be a pasta recipe (and it’s soooo good!) but I will have to look into the lentil and nut loaf! Let me know if you end up making this curry!!