How could I work this? Cooking lentils in slow cooker stew.

[magnoliasouth]

I have an excellent slow cooker Tuscan Chicken Stew recipe that I love. However the economy being what it is, and my local market also being what it is, I need to make a change.

Traditionally cannellini beans are used, but I'm tired of the cost of those type of beans as well as my market being out, most of the time. They only stock like 4 cans. Besides, I'm trying to cut out as much canned anything, in my diet, as I can.

I'd like to use dried beans, for both health and frugality purposes, but the problem there is the time it takes. It's best to pre-cook beans before throwing them in a stew. That's more effort than I'm willing to make.

Enter the lentils. I think lentils would be really good in this. Also their simplicity is super drawing factor here.

That said, my stew is a thick stew with not much liquid left so I definitely would need to add more liquid for the lentils.

Any guesses for how much liquid I should add? I tried Googling slow cooker lentils and most throw in cans of tomatoes and so forth, so it's hard to say how much liquid I would need, especially for a slow cooker which requires less liquid. Any recommendations?

I've only made lentils once or twice.

TIA!

 

[GrillingFool]

I googled "lentil to water ratio" and, just looking at the results page....
looks like the consensus is 2 cups of water to 1 cup of lentils.

 

[Hoot]

Lentils being a relatively small legume, I am inclined to agree with that estimate.

 

[Constance]

That's funny...I was just talking about cooking some lentils today. If I were you, I'd check out the directions on the package, but the above-mentioned ratio sounds pretty good. You can always add more water when needed, but if you start with too much, they may disappear, the way my split peas did a few weeks ago.

 

[CWS4322]

You can quick cook dried beans (rinse, clean, heat pot of water, put beans in boiling water, boil for 2-1/2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let sit 1 hour. Drain, heat a pot of water to boil, add beans, cook 1-1/2 hours or until done). You can also soak, drain, and freeze beans to cook later, (save and freeze the juice in which you soaked the beans). This cuts the cooking time to about 1/2. You can also freeze cooked beans. I use the quick-cook method when my menu-planning was not foresighted enough to include soaking the beans the night before.