Dal palak ( lentils with spinach)

Hello everyone!  I am back today.. Due to ill health could not update my posts here. Now to start off my today's recipe seems very common and I have had read and tasted many versions of this dish. But the one which really caught my attention was this one. Some months back I had seen this delicious and easy recipe at Deepa's blog  HAMAREE RASOI
I thought wow this has to be very yummy and tasty version and I tried it then only. I had modifed slightly from deepa's post and since then I have made many times. I know many kids do not like spinach but made this way they love it..First hand experience of me.. haha

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup toor dal/arhar dal
• 1 bunch of spinach leaves
• 1tsp haldi/turmeric powder
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• 1tsp amchoor powder or juice of one lemon
• salt to taste
• water as required

For Tadka:

• 1 onion sliced
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 1tsp chopped ginger
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 green chillies chopped
• 2tbsp cumin/jeera seeds
• 1 whole dry red chilli
• few spinach leaves 
• 1 tbsp kasoori methi
• 2-3 tbsp ghee
• a pinch of asafoetida/hing

Method:
Wash the dal and soak it for  30mins to 1hour. In pressure cooker, add dal,  water, salt and turmeric and cook it till 1 whistle.  When steam goes down open the cooker to check if dal is done.  If not done cook it some more mins. Lightly  mash the dal with big spoon and add red chilli powder and amchoor or lemon juice. In the mean time, chop the spinach leaves roughly and wash them. Dry them slightly and keep aside. Add a handful of spinach leaves to dal,mix and cover it.
In another pan, heat ghee, add hing. After half a min add jeera and let it splutter. Add onion and saute it for a min and add garlic cloves and ginger then. Slightly saute and add green chillies chopped, then add dry red chilli and  tomatoes to the pan.  Add a pinch of salt  and mix well. Toss in the remaining spinach leaves and kasoori methi and fry it in the pan. The tadka is ready and immediately put it in dal mixture. Adjust consistency of dal and switch the gas off.   Your dal with palak is ready.  Serve it hot with roti chapati or even rice.
The crunchiness of palak with soft dal just added a great flavour and plus the tadka on top made it look real lovely. I made it bit thinner to have with rice. Hope you like this dish.

Posted in: dal,gravy,gravy dish,spinach