Moong Dal Palak Recipe, How to make Spinach Lentil Curry

Palak/ spinach with dal, not only makes the dal interesting but also increases its nutritional value. Dal palak can be made with moong dal or arhar dal.

Moong dal is always preferred over arhar, as it’s easily digested.

Serves: 3

Time: 20 min (excluding soaking time)

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup Split green moong dal with skin
• 2 cup Spinach/Palak
• 1 Tomato, finely chopped
• 1 Green chili, finely chopped
• ½ tsp ginger, grated
• 1 pinch Asafoetida/hing
• ½ tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
• ¼ tsp red chili powder
• ¾ tsp salt/ as per taste
• 1 tbsp. Ghee/oil

Direction:

1. Rinse thoroughly and soak the Moong dal for 20 minute.
2. Wash the spinach leaves 2-3 times and drain. Chop it roughly.
3. Put Moong dal, pinch of turmeric and salt with water in a pressure cooker. Cook it up to 2 whistle on low to medium flame. 
   
4. Once cool, open the lid and add chopped spinach to the cooked lentil in cooker. Add warm water for desired consistency. Simmer till the spinach is soft and combines uniformly with the lentil.
   
5. Meanwhile, put a pan on stove.  Add ghee/oil in a pan, put cumin seeds and hing. Add tomatoes and ginger and green chili. Add turmeric, red chili powder. Roast the masala until the oil/ghee starts to float at the edges. Turn off the heat. Pour this in the cooker and mix well. Simmer just for a minute and it’s done.
   

Tips:

• You can make Dal palak directly in the pressure cooker. Just do the tempering step first followed by adding lentil and spinch and cooking them for 2 whistles.
• Soaking the lentil is optional. You can use rinsed dal, but the cooking time should be increased by 5-7 minute.
• As leafy vegetables should not be cooked longer, I have posted the recipe considering it. So the nutritious value should be taken care of.
• You can also add onion and garlic to this recipe, before adding tomato; just fry till translucent and rest follow next steps.

Serving suggestion:

Take the dal palak in serving bowl and pour 1-2 tsp. of ghee and garnish with coriander leaves. Dal palak can be relished with nan, roti parantha or jeera rice.