Dal Palak Recipe | Spinach Dal Recipe
Dal palak is a simple, healthy and delicious curry made with a combination of dals and spinach (palak). The recipe that is shared here today is a double tempting recipe which adds a nice smokey flavour to this dish.This is a healthy, vegan, protein-rich, diabetic-friendly, fibre-rich, and beginner-friendly recipe that is often made for a quick weekday lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 cup Turdal / Arhar Dal / Pigeon Peas
- 1/2 cup Yellow Moong Dal (Yellow Lentils)
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- 1 Tomato, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Garlic, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ginger, finely chopped
- 2 Green Chillies, finely chopped
- 2 Dry Red Chillies
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds (Jeera)
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 1/4th teaspoon Hing (asafoetida)
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala Powder
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- Salt to taste
- 2 tabelspoons Oil
For Garlic Tadka
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds (Jeera)
- 2 Dry Red Chillies
- 1 tablespoon Garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
Instructions
- In a bowl add a cup of turdal (piegeon peas) & half a cup of yellow moong dal (yellow lentils).
- Wash the dals a couple of times till the water runs relatively clear.
- Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook the dals for 5-6 whistles.
- The cooked dal is ready. Using a masher, mash the dal to a fine consistency.
- Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add dry red chillies.
- Add finely chopped ginger-garlic-green chillies & hing (asafoetida). Saute till ginger & garlic changes colour to light brown.
- Keep the flame very low. This golden brown garlic gives a nice flavour to this dal palak.
- Add finely chopped onions and cook till translucent.
- Add finely chopped tomatoes. Cook this onion-tomato mixture till the tomatoes soften.
- Add coriander powder, gram masala powder, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder.
- Add 1/4the cup of water to prevent spices from burning.
- Let this masala cook till you see oil floating on top, stir frequently in between.
- Add chopped spinach (palak). Mix well with the onion tomato masala.
- Add salt to taste.
- Let the palak (spinach) cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add the cooked dal.
- Mix dal with palak and add 2 cups of water. Adjust the consistency of the dal as per your choice.
- Let the dal simmer for 3-4 minutes. Keep on stirring occasionally to avoid dal sticking to the bottom of the pan.
For Tadka
- In a tadka pan, heat oil add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add 2 dry red chillies and a tablespoon of finely chopped garlic.
- Let the garlic cook till it changes colour to a light brown.
- Add a tablespoon of Kashmiri red chilli powder and mix well.
- Our tadka for dal is ready. You can keep half of the tadka aside to garnish while serving (optional).
- Pour this flavourful garlicky tadka on the dal and let the dal simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Once the dal comes to a boil. Switch off the flame and transfer the dal to a serving bowl.
- Delicious dal palak (spinach dal) is ready to serve. You can opt to add the tadka on the dal before serving (optional).
- Serve this dal palak with jeera rice or paratha.
Video
Notes
Giving extra tempering of garlic is not necessary but I would highly recommend it as it gives a nice smokey flavour to this dal.
For making it Jain style or satvik version, skip onion & garlic.
To make it gluten-free, skip adding hing (asafoetida).
Instead of combining dal, you can use any lentils that are available at hand.
