Dhal Spinach /Palak Dhal /Spinach Gravy with Lentils

My family prefers to have rasam,potato fry for a simple and comforting food.If I want to make the comforting meal more nutritious my choice would be some lentil and vegetable based kootu.

As my kids love spinach,I prefer to make kootu.I have shared my version of spinach kootu here and here.

But this version is slightly different and I had in my friend's place and it quiet interesting.It tasted awesome with the flavor of ghee.Also the use of mixed lentils with spinach makes a balanced meal with roti or rice.So I tried it for the protein rich theme, as it has used variety of lentils.

As ghee has natural fat its good to use in moderate quantity.If you want a vegan version then go ahead and use oil for the tempering.Off to the recipe...............

Dhal Spinach/Palak Dhal

Basic Information

Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 20 minutes

Serves 4(generously)

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Spinach/palak	4 cups(tightly packed)
Channa dhal/kadalaparuppu	1/2 cup
Toor dhal/thuvaramparuppu	2 tbs
Moong dhal/paasiparuppu	2 tbs
Onion( finely chopped)	1 medium size
Green chilly/pachamilagai	2 (slit lengthy)
Tomato	1 (medium size)
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder/milagai podi	1/4 tsp
Garlic/poondu	3-4(finely chopped)
Salt	3/4tsp
Coriander leaves(finely chopped)	1 tbs
Oil	1 tbs

For tempering

Ingredient	Quantity
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds/jeeragam	1 tsp
Red chilly /varamilagai	1 (broken)
Asafoetida/perungayam	a pinch

Method

Wash and rinse the dhals,take the dhals,spinach,chopped onion,tomato,green chilly,salt,turmeric powder,red chilly powder in a pressure pan.

Mix it well and add around 2 cups of water and pressure cook it for 2-3 whistles.Put off the flame and once the pressure subsides remove the lid.

Meanwhile do the tempering with the given ingredients and fry the garlic.Add in a pinch of red chilly powder and put off the flame.Keep it aside.

Now add in 1/2 cup of water to the cooked spinach and dhal mix and keep it on the flame.After one boil,add in the tempering and mix it well.Put off the flame.