How to Cook and Freeze Lentils | Indian Meal Prep Ideas

5 from 5 votes

Learn how to cook dals in Instant Pot using Pot in Pot method and how to freeze them. A simple meal-prep task that saves you a lot of time!

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Pressure Cooking + Releasing Time30

Total Time1 5

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: cooking and freezing lentils, freezing dal

Servings: approx

Calories: 77kcal

Author: Srividhya G

Rinse the toor dal and add it to the inner pot directly. Add the ¼ tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp gingelly oil, and 2.5 cups of water and mix well.
Now place the trivet. As I mentioned in the post, I don't have a separate tall trivet, so I use my egg stand as the trivet. And then place the stackable pan and add the rinsed moong dal, ⅛ tsp turmeric powder and 1 cup of water. Gently mix.
On top of it, place the other stackable pan, add the rinsed masoor dal, ⅛ tsp of turmeric powder, and one more cup of water. Gently mix.
Close the Instant Pot and make sure the vent is in the sealing position, and the sealing ring is on. Pressure cook the lentils at high pressure for 30 minutes. When the cooking is complete, let the pressure release naturally.
Carefully take the stackable pans out. Mash all the lentils and let them cool completely before freezing.
After the dal is cooled down, portion it as per your need and freeze them in the ziplock bags or silicone freezer trays.
PS - Flatten the dal in the ziplock bags and squeeze out the air as much as possible before sealing it. And don't forget to label the dal.

Oil is optional. You can skip it if your toor dal cooks well and mushy.
Adjust the water quantity according to the dal brand and variety. As we are freezing, add just the required amount of water. We can always add water when making a recipe and thin it down.
You can cook the dal in the stove-top pressure cooker similarly with stackable pans. Cook for up to 4 to 5 whistles.
You can cook whole masoor dal, green moong dal, green lentils in a similar way, and mash and freeze them.