Spinach tastes excellent in baked quiche, paalak paneer and paalak fritters(pakoda). But you prepare it as a vegetable, kids will ignore it. With spinach, tomatoes enhance its taste a lot. I always have a liking for paalak ki sabzi. Honestly speaking, I was a good kid with my eating habits probably because at my parent’s house it was compulsory for us to eat everything which was served in meals. My younger sister Nandini was a little rebellious with this rule and to get food of her choice she started cooking at an early age. I guess I was happy by having a variety of food (cooked by Nandini and mother) on the table, so never bothered to trouble myself in the kitchen till I was forced to live out of the town because of my job.
Coming back to spinach, my mother used to prepare daal (lentils) along with spinach. Mostly she used green split moong daal (chilke vaali moong daal) and chana daal (split chickpea lentil). I use chana daal for daal palak. Chana daal is slightly heavy for digestion so I feel that adding spinach will balance it. For tadka (seasoning) in daal I mostly use mustard oil or olive oil, but desi ghee will enhance its taste a lot and you will get wonderful dhaba style daal.
Ingredients :
Chana daal 1cup
Shredded spinach 1/2 cup
Water- to boil daal 4 cups (after boiling if you feel daal is too thick, add some more water)
Salt- 1 tsp (add or reduce as per your taste)
Turmeric powder-slightly less than 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder- 1 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) – 1/8 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) – 1/2 tsp
Green chillies – 1-2
Tomato medium size 2 (chopped, grated or puree)
Grated ginger 1/2 tsp ,
Onion 1 (chopped)
Process, :
Wash nicely and soak chana daal in three cups of water for an hour.
Wash and chop spinach leaves finely.
After an hour mix chopped spinach leaves and soaked chana daal together in a pressure cooker, add salt and turmeric powder and cook it until chana daal is cooked properly.
Now we will prepare our seasoning or tadka for daal. Chop onions and green chillies finely. Grate ginger and tomatoes.
Heat 2 tbsp oil/ghee in a pan and crackle cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add onion, ginger and green chillies till onions are light brown. Now add tomatoes and fry everything till it starts leaving the oil from sides.
When daal is completely cooked, add daal in this tadka, mix it properly and serve hot in lunch or dinner.
It is something that I have on and off. Simple and healthy!
So true!! You can’t beat the taste of ‘ghar ka khaana’.
I’ve never heard of some of the ingredients but it looks like something I’d love!
Thank you very much Alphe, I am sure you will be familiar with these ingredients, Google is at our service .. lol…. Your will sure enjoy this dish!!
That’s true, but Google doesn’t physically deliver foods which aren’t available in my country 😉
Alphe, make plans to take a trip to India😊😊
Looks so delicious!
Thanks a lot!!
Love this delicious & nutritious dal.
Thank you very much Megala
It looks tasty and simple, thanks for sharing
Thank you very much Subbashini!
yummy healthy dish
Feeding kids healthy greens is a challenge, so have to cook these by adding with something they like!!
This is one of my hubby’s favourite dishes. I like it too. beautiful presentation by the way.
Thank you so much! If I am guessing right, your husband is of Indian origin….
Not at all. He is French Canadian from Montreal, like me. He’s a researcher. The last time he went to India he had been invited to present a conference at the Manipal University in Jaipur. Despite the Jet lag, he always enjoy visiting your country. I definitely would like to go with him next time now that the kids are older.
That’s great!! You both look like wonderful couple who are very generous to appreciate others culture and heritage. God bless you!!
😊
Daal palak is such a winter delight
It sure is, thank you Nisha☺️
Nicely penned Deeksha ji
Thank you very much for visiting the blog !
Healthy!
Looks super yum! Would love to try your recipes. 🙂
Thanks a lot! Will be looking forward for your feedback 😊
Delicious recipe
Thanks a lot 😊
Looks Delicious, I make nice Daal, will add Paalak next time. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you very much Sri. 😊