6 Best Rice Cookers for Lentils of 2026

For those prioritizing durability and clean cooking, the Aroma Housewares Select Stainless Pot-Style Rice Cooker stands out. Its defining feature is the 100% food-grade 304 stainless steel cooking pot, a significant upgrade from non-stick options often found in this category, ensuring no coatings interact with your food. This model simplifies the process with effortless one-touch operation and an automatic Keep Warm function, making it incredibly user-friendly for perfect rice, and yes, even tender lentils or other legumes, without complex settings. The inclusion of a stainless steel steam tray adds versatility, allowing you to prepare a complete meal simultaneously.

Performance testing shows this Aroma model handles various grains reliably, producing consistently cooked results for up to 6 cups (cooked yield), suitable for small to medium households. The 1.2-quart capacity is ideal for everyday use, and the stainless steel pot heats evenly, crucial for preventing scorching, especially with denser items like lentils or beans. While its simple one-touch design excels at basic cooking, it lacks specific programs for different grain types, meaning users might need to fine-tune water ratios and cooking times based on experience for optimal lentil texture. The automatic Keep Warm is a convenient feature, maintaining serving temperature without overcooking.

Compared to the non-stick GreenLife Electric Rice Cooker, the Aroma Housewares ARC-757SG offers the long-term value and peace of mind of a stainless steel pot, though it sacrifices the easy non-stick cleanup. Its 6-cup cooked capacity is similar to the GreenLife, but the stainless steel pot makes it a top choice for those avoiding coatings altogether. While the COMFEE’ provides multiple programs, this Aroma focuses on robust simplicity and a superior cooking material, making it a strong contender for users whose priority is a pure, durable cooking surface for their grains and legumes.

Seeking a reliable workhorse for family meals that handles more than just white rice? The TOSHIBA Rice Cooker & Steamer delivers with a generous 5.5-cup uncooked capacity, translating to plenty of cooked rice or grains for a larger group (1-5 people). Its simple one-button control belies a thoughtful design, featuring dual heating elements from both top and bottom. This intelligent heating ensures grains, from fluffy rice to hearty lentils, are cooked evenly and quickly, preventing common pitfalls like uneven texture or burnt bottoms. The automatic keep-warm function ensures your meal is ready when you are.

In practical use, this Toshiba unit shines with its ability to tackle various cooking tasks. The removable non-stick inner pot makes cleanup surprisingly easy, a major plus after cooking stickier grains or stews. The included steaming basket allows for convenient one-pot meals, steaming vegetables or proteins while your base cooks below – perfect for busy weeknights. While it features only a single cooking button, its intelligent cooking progress adapts to different grain types reasonably well, though it lacks the specific pre-set programs found on more advanced multi-cookers. Its robust capacity and dual heating make it capable of cooking larger batches of lentils or other legumes effectively.

When placed alongside the smaller Aroma Housewares 6-Cup Stainless model, the TOSHIBA offers a significantly larger uncooked capacity and the convenience of a non-stick pot, albeit not stainless steel. It provides a step up in cooking technology with dual heating compared to simpler models like the Aroma ARC-757SG or GreenLife. The Toshiba’s balance of capacity, performance, and ease of cleaning makes it an excellent all-around choice for families and those cooking larger quantities of rice, grains, or lentils, offering good value for its size and heating capability.

For those living solo, in dorms, or with limited kitchen space, the Rice Robot Personal Rice Cooker offers a charming and compact solution. Don’t let its small size fool you; it’s designed for effortless, perfectly cooked small batches of rice or grains. Featuring controlled heat technology with a “click and cook” mechanism, it aims to eliminate guesswork, promising to prevent burning, overcooking, or undercooking – a common frustration with smaller cookers. The PFAS-free ceramic nonstick surface ensures healthier cooking and simplifies cleanup, a key benefit for busy individuals.

Testing shows the Rice Robot excels at its intended purpose: preparing 1-2 servings efficiently. Its 1-quart capacity is ideal for single meals or small side dishes, including small portions of lentils or quinoa. The ceramic non-stick pot allows for easy food release and quick cleaning, and it’s even dishwasher safe, a major convenience. While it doesn’t have multiple settings, its automatic shut-off and keep-warm function provide reliability for basic cooking tasks. The included stainless steel steamer tray adds surprising versatility for such a small unit, allowing for quick steaming above your grains.

Compared to the slightly larger GreenLife Electric Rice Cooker (6-cup cooked), the Rice Robot is significantly more compact and focused purely on personal-sized portions. It shares the benefit of a PFAS-free non-stick surface but offers a much smaller footprint, making it uniquely suited for travel or tiny living spaces. While the Aroma Housewares models provide larger capacities and stainless steel options, the Rice Robot is positioned as the ultimate convenience appliance for individuals, prioritizing ease of use, cleanup, and portability over capacity or multi-functionality, offering good value for its specific niche.

Prioritizing healthy, easy cooking with a touch of style? The GreenLife Electric Rice Cooker stands out with its PFAS-free ceramic nonstick interior, derived from sand, offering a healthier alternative to traditional non-stick coatings. This thoughtful material choice ensures effortless food release and quick cleanup, while being free of lead and cadmium. Its smart one-touch operation simplifies the cooking process immensely – just add ingredients and flip the switch. The elegant design with cool-touch wood-print handles adds a pleasant aesthetic to any kitchen countertop.

In terms of performance, the GreenLife handles up to 6 cups of cooked rice or other grains, including lentils and oatmeal, making it suitable for small families or couples. The 1.5-quart capacity is a good everyday size, and the nonstick surface ensures even cooking and prevents sticking, which is particularly helpful with denser grains. The automatic keep-warm function is reliable, keeping your food at serving temperature without drying it out. While its one-switch design is incredibly simple, it means there are no specific settings for different types of grains, so users may need to experiment with water ratios for optimal results with varied ingredients like different types of lentils.

Comparing it to the Aroma Housewares 6-Cup model with a stainless steel pot, the GreenLife offers the convenience of nonstick cleanup and a certified toxin-free coating, whereas the Aroma provides the long-term durability and non-reactive nature of stainless steel. Both offer similar capacities and simple one-touch operation. The GreenLife is a strong contender for users who value healthier cooking materials and easy cleanup in a compact, stylish package, offering a compelling balance of features for everyday grain cooking, including lentils and other staples.

When you need to cook for a crowd or meal prep large batches, the Aroma Housewares Select Stainless Rice Cooker & Warmer steps up with a substantial 14-cup cooked capacity. Its key feature, like its smaller sibling, is the 100% surgical-grade 304 stainless steel cooking pot, providing a durable, non-reactive surface ideal for cooking large quantities of various grains, including significant amounts of lentils or beans, without concern for coatings. The operation is kept remarkably simple with a single touch, automatically switching to Keep-Warm once cooking is complete, making high-volume cooking straightforward.

Performance-wise, this large Aroma model is built for scale. The 3-quart capacity allows it to efficiently cook enough rice or grains for a large family gathering or batch cooking purposes. The stainless steel pot heats effectively, though users should follow recommended water ratios carefully to prevent sticking, especially with larger volumes of dense grains. It handles basic cooking tasks reliably, and the automatic Keep-Warm is essential for serving large meals. While it lacks the multiple cooking programs found on multi-cookers, its strength lies in its large capacity and robust, uncoated cooking surface, making it a workhorse for substantial cooking needs.

Compared to the TOSHIBA 5.5-cup uncooked model, this Aroma Housewares unit offers a significantly larger overall capacity (14-cup cooked vs ~11-cup cooked) but uses a stainless steel pot instead of non-stick. It provides a simpler, more focused function compared to the multi-cooker COMFEE’, prioritizing sheer volume and material preference over versatility. This Aroma is the ideal choice for large families, entertaining, or serious batch cooking of rice, grains, or lentils, offering unbeatable capacity in a durable, stainless steel form factor.

Looking for a kitchen workhorse that does more than just cook rice? The COMFEE’ Compact Rice Cooker is a true 6-in-1 multi-cooker, offering versatility rarely seen in this size class. It boasts 6 dedicated digital cooking programs, including specific settings for white rice, brown rice, steam, slow cook, quinoa, and oatmeal – making it exceptionally well-suited for cooking a variety of grains and legumes like lentils. The digital panel and LED display make selecting functions intuitive, and the unit automatically switches to a 12-hour keep-warm function, with a handy 12-hour delay timer for flexible meal planning.

In practice, this COMFEE’ model performs admirably across its multiple functions. The 8-cup cooked capacity (4 cups uncooked) is a great size for small families or couples, handling everyday portions of rice, lentils, or stew with ease. The non-stick coating on the inner pot simplifies cleanup, and the stainless steel external housing is easy to wipe down. The dedicated programs provide optimized cooking cycles for different ingredients, taking the guesswork out of preparing tricky grains like brown rice or ensuring lentils are perfectly tender. Safety features like overheating protection add peace of mind.

Comparing it to the simple one-touch models like the GreenLife or the smaller Aroma Housewares ARC-757SG, the COMFEE’ offers vastly superior versatility with its multiple cooking programs. While the Aroma stainless steel pots offer durability, the COMFEE’ provides the convenience of non-stick and the flexibility of slow cooking and sautéing in addition to grain functions. It strikes a great balance between compact size and extensive functionality, making it an outstanding value for users who want one appliance to handle a wide variety of cooking tasks beyond just basic rice, excelling particularly at different types of grains and legumes.