Dal Palak is an all time comfort curry in our house. This curry is not just tasty but healthy at the same time. After all it is made with the goodness of spinach and dal (legumes). We know that spinach is such an excellent source of iron (something we girls can’t get enough of) but it also contains micronutrients such as vitamin K, A, C and folate (all good for skin). Dal (legumes) on the other hand are a great source of protein. So dal palak is a perfect dish good for palette and health simultaneously.
Dal palak is one of my personal favorites. I have realized that proper seasoning and spice flavorings can make any veggies, greens, or legumes interesting. I make my dal palak using the same logic. Another hack that I use for most veggie/greens curries is to add little acidity (mostly lemon juice) which brings so much flavor to this seemingly boring regular curries.
Similar to other regular curries, dal palak does not need too much prep or cooking time. If the dal is soaked, then this curry can be wrapped up in less than an hour. I usually make this for dinner and serve it as part of a full gujarati thali (dish), and eat the leftover curry with rice for the next day’s lunch. So here I share one of my family’s favorite comfort curries and hope that it will be useful to you too.
Serves 4 | Prep time: 10 minutes(3-4 hrs for soaking moong dal) | Cook time: 30-35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup moong dal (washed and soaked for 3-4 hours)
- 3 cups chopped spinach – roughly chopped
- 2 medium onion – thinly sliced
- 1 medium tomato – thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves – finely chopped
- 2 green chillies – finely chopped
- 3 Tbsp – Oil
- 1.5 tbsp – cumin-coriander powder
- 1 tsp – turmeric powder
- ½ tsp – red chilli powder
- 1 tsp – garam masala
- 1.5 tbsp – lemon juice
- Salt as per taste
Tempering:
- 1 tbsp – ghee (you can also use oil)
- ½ tbsp – jeera (cumin seeds)
- ½ tsp – hing (asafoetida)
- 1 dry red chili
Steps:
- Heat oil in a deep pan/kadai. Add chopped garlic and onions to it. Saute them on medium heat.
- Once the onions turn translucent, add chopped chillies and tomatoes to it. Continue cooking them on medium heat.
- When the tomatoes seem cooked (become soft), add all the spice powders (cumin-coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and garam masala).
- Mix everything properly and add about 1.5 cup of water. This allows the spices to properly cook without getting burned.
- After about 3-4 minutes, add soaked dal and 4 cups of water. Mix all well, close the lid and let the dal cook for 20-25 minutes on medium heat.
- After about 25 minutes, add chopped spinach. Mix everything properly, cover the pan and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Now add salt as per your taste, tempered ghee (or oil), and lemon juice. Dal Palak is ready to serve.
For Tempering:
- Heat ghee (or oil) in a saucepan (tempering pan).
- Once ghee is heated, add dry red chili, jeera (cumin seeds) and hing (asafoetida).
- Once the jeera starts crackling, add the tempering to the palak dal.
Dhara thank you so much for this Moong Dal palak recipe. I love it. Easy to cook and turned out to be awesome.
Clubbed it with your pulao recipe. Keep them coming. Waiting for some more awesome additions.
Thank you for trying Ritesh. I am glad you liked it.