Two-Minute Cooking School 7: Daal Paalak

Daal Paalak (Click for bigger pic)

Come on over for dinner! :-)

Recipe for Daal Paalak:
Daal curry is the ultimate in North Indian comfort food. Daal paalak is a yummy variation of the plain daal curry, which contains spinach. In English it may be called lentil-spinach curry, daal being lentils and paalak being spinach.

Ingredients: Toor daal (yellow lentils), fresh washed spinach leaves, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, chopped green chillies, coriander / cilantro leaves, mustard seeds, jeerige (cumin), turmeric, salt, oil, ginger-garlic paste, fresh lemon juice. Red chilli powder, if required.

Cooking steps:
Start by cooking the toor daal in water. Use enough water so that when the cooked daal is mashed with a spoon, it turns into a thick liquid. Different people like their daal curry at different consistency levels. Use water accordingly.

In a cooking vessel, heat the oil. Add mustard seeds to the heated oil. When they begin to pop, add cumin seeds. Take care not to burn them. Then, add the chopped green chillies and fry them. Next, add the chopped onions and fry them also. You can add the chillies and onions at the same time. But I like to add the chillies first so that the oil absorbs the hot spicy taste some more.

Just when the onions start getting light brown, add the ginger-garlic paste. Fry for half a minute more.

Then add cooked daal, spinach leaves, chopped tomatoes, salt and turmeric powder. Mix and boil well.

Finally, add the fresh lemon juice. You may also add some red chilli powder at this point, if you want the daal to taste more spicy. Mix well. Boil for a minute or two.

Hot, yummy daal paalak is ready. I like to eat this mixed in with hot white rice and some ghee. Spicy hot pickle on the side completes a great comfort meal.

Reference: Lentils Reference Page
Related: Two-Minute Cooking School: Prospectus