Dal palak, a healthy combo of proteins with greens tastes genuinely delicious in this winter season. It is just because winter is the season of greens and you find fresh, earthy green vegetables now. I opt to buy loads of green veggies in these 4 months of winter and then scratch my head thinking what to cook. This seems weird but every time I end up preparing something tasty, unique and good recipes. And they are recreated often since then.
Dal palak is the extension of simple dal tadka but with overloaded green goodness it is more healthy. When cooking with greens, it seems so tedious and lengthy. Because cleaning green vegetables with ample amount of water to wash away the pesticides needs quite a lot of time. On top of that chopping the green leafy vegetables isn’t easy and quick. Above all these difficulties, I still love to cook greens just because their contribution to our health.
While cooking spinach leaves it is important to retain the rich green color in the food. If you cook the leaves with water for few minutes they automatically lose the actual color, become pale and dull. This ultimately makes the food not so appealing. So I have learnt a cooking technique where I just saute the spinach leaves in a pan for few minutes and use it up. Believe me, the vibrant green color is preserved in the end product and makes it too attractive.
Dal palak is the easiest chapati side dish which has bit of sourness from tomatoes, flavors of ginger and garlic and the vibrant green spinach leaves. The pigeon pea lentils would get over-powered by the green goodness but it elevates the taste to the next level. If you are brainstorming on what to cook with palak, try this one. You would be thankful to yourself.
Dal Palak | Spinach Dal Recipe
Ingredients
- Palak Spinach leaves- 1 bunch
- Pigeon pea lentils- 1/2 cup
- Onion- 1 nos.
- Tomato- 1 nos.
- Green chillies- 2 to 3 nos.
- Ginger- 2" piece
- Garlic cloves- 3 nos.
- Salt- 1 tsp
Seasoning ingredients
- Cooking oil- 3 tsp
- Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves- Few
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the palak leaves under running water and chop them finely. Discard the stem and use only greens.
- Pressure cook the pigeon pea lentils with enough water till soft and mushy.
Method
- Take the fine chopped greens in a pan along with chillies and in medium flame cook till the palak leaves wilt. Then put them in a mixer and grind to puree.
- Meanwhile peel off the onion and chop it in to fine cubes. Following this, chop tomato, ginger and garlic cloves also finely. Next, heat a pan with oil, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Saute till the cumin sizzle and splutter.
- Next add onion and continue sauteing till they turn translucent. Then include chopped ginger and garlic too.
- After sauteing for few minutes, add chopped tomato and cook till they turn mushy. Now it's time to add palak puree. Cook this mixture till raw smell of spinach leaves subside.
- Finally mash the cooked lentils and pour it over palak mixture. Season it with salt to taste and cook for few more minutes.
- Very healthy and protein packed dal palak is ready to serve with chapati.
Notes
- Sauteing palak leaves without water helps to retain rich green color. So do not cook the greens in water.
- You can add some red chilly powder also to make it more spicy.
- You can use garam masala powder to enrich the taste, I didn't use.
