A true comfort food, palak dal makes for the best accompaniment with hot rice and subzi on a weeknight. The apartment we live in right now is very convenient to buy basic groceries and vegetables. On every Sunday, a van full of the freshest vegetables from the farmer’s on the outskirts of Hyderabad come to the road below our place and people flock to it to buy their week’s worth of vegetables. They are cheaper than the stores too! I rush down each time I see the van and although I buy 1/10th the amount of vegetables others buy, the vegetable vendors treat me well 😀
I bought a bunch of palak yesterday and have been wondering what to make with it. I considered palak paneer, but I didn’t have any paneer in hand and was too lazy to buy paneer or make my own. I always have a stock of dal (of course) and decided to take the easy route and make some palak dal instead. No regrets!
Palak Dal Recipe
Ingredients for Palak Dal:
Serves 2
Toor dal/Yellow lentil – 1 cup
Fresh green spinach, chopped – 1 cup
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Garlic – 4 cloves
Red chillies – 4
Curry leaves – one strand
Oil – 2 tbsp
Salt – to taste
How to make Palak Dal:
1. Pressure cook the dal and spinach with some turmeric for 2-3 whistles.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai, crackle some mustard seeds, add the crushed garlic and red chillies and fry for a minute.
3. Add the cooked dal-spinach and mix well.
Serve hot with rice or rots. Palak dal also goes well with jeera rice or other mildly spiced rice dishes.
Anon – thanks for trying out my recipes 🙂 My husband is a vegetarian-who-eats-egg so I don’t cook non-veg at home anymore. I do have it occasionally when we go out for meals.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t be posting any more non-veg dishes. When I go home to Kottayam on vacation, you will see some recipes coming up 🙂
Next time, please do leave your name!
Hey Nags, I love palak in my dal. Your recipe is a little different than mine. Will try yours sometime.
Thats a lovely click. Is the secret a new camera??? Palak daal (especially the one my MIL makes) is an all time comforter. I just love the texture.
I love spinach dal, made in anyway. Thanks for sharing your version.
Spinach dal is one of my favourite dals and you are so right, it goes down really well with some rice (and achar!) 🙂
There is something so soothing about lentil and spinach. Its always been my all time fav. I also love it with masoor dal.
hOw come you retained the colors of dal and palak? looks yum!
Pure comfort food..Any time of the day , i am readdy to have it …really healthy food.I mostly have dal with rice ….
Your dal looks nice.
I know spinach has a lot of things going for it, including old Popeye’s endorsement, but I’m afraid spinach is something I give a wide berth to! I’d rather get my iron from other green veggies.
I like palak in any dish and this is also the right time for trying out palak dishes as we get the best palak during winters