Entry for My Legume Love Affair Fifteenth Helping - Palak Dal

Any menu, particularly pooja menu that needs to be san onion and garlic, is kinda incomplete without a lentil-based item aka dal. Wikipedia entry for dal or lentil is here. This is very easy to make. It was the first item that I made while prepping for the pooja celebrations.

Ingredients:

Toor dal - 2 cups
Salt - per taste
Turmeric - 1 tbsp
Dry red chilli powder - 1 tsp or per taste (optional)

For tempering:
Canola oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Dry bay leaves - 3-4
Green chilli or dry red chilli - 2-3 (optional)

Ginger - 1.5 inch to 2 inch, finely grated

Spinach bag - 1, chopped

Tomato - 2 chopped and cubed
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

For garnish:
Fresh coriander leaves - 2 handful

Pressure cook the dal with twice or thrice the amount of water based on desired consistency. Remember to add salt, turmeric and chilli powder before putting the pressure lid on. Wait till the whistle goes off and let it cook in medium-low heat for another 5 mins.

Note - You can also cook this in a heavy-bottom container with the lid on. It just takes longer to cook in the container.

Once the pressure cooker has released the pressure and the lid can open without any effort, add the tempering ingredients. To prepare the tempering, take a container and add the ingredients in the tempering ingredient list one after the after as they are getting cooked. Finally, garnish with coriander leaves.



This is one item that I always like to have handy in my fridge. For days when I don't feel like cooking, this goes down well with rice or roti with some egg scramble, papad and pickle. And when I am all for cooking some more, even then this dal is a great side-dish. No matter what - this is a winner! :)

This is going for the event "My Legume Love Affair Fifteenth Helping" being hosted by dear Sia of Monsoon Spice. The event announcement is here. This event is the brain-child of Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook and the link to her event page is here.