Spinach Dal is a nutritious, economical and tasty soup or curry inspired by Indian dal palak.Based on yellow split peas, with whole and ground spices, a little tomato plus lots of fresh spinach, I think it’s a wonderfully vibrant mix.
In a final flourish, cumin seeds and chilli are sizzled in butter, ghee or coconut oil then poured over, adding even more flavour.
Make the Spinach Dal thinner or thicker by adding more or less water, according to taste.
Enjoy as a soup with bread for dipping or eat as a curry with rice and salad.
Great topped with a poached egg or spicy chicken too!
Boil or pressure cook the split peas in advance and the dal can be made in around thirty minutes.
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DAL & DAL PALAK
There are so many types of dal (and different ways of spelling it: daal, dahl, dhal) it can be quite confusing.
In India, dal is the name for all members of the dried pea and bean family AND the dishes made from them.
Here in Britain, to people without Indian heritage, dal usually means a mildly spiced soup or thinnish curry made with split lentils, peas or beans.
The inspiration for my Spinach Dal is the Indian dish dal palak where palak means spinach.
In my version, I’ve used yellow split peas as they’re widely available.
To speed things up, I first soak the split peas in boiling water for about 3o minutes.
After draining, they’re then simmered in fresh water with a little ground coriander and turmeric. Don’t be tempted to add salt at this point as it will toughen the peas.
Cooking on top of the stove will take around 35-50 minutes. The exact time will depend on the age of your split peas (older pulses take longer) and how soft you want them.
I like the peas to be very soft which takes about 20 minutes in my Instant Pot pressure cooker.
If more convenient, you could cook the split peas in advance and store in the fridge. You’ll then only need around thirty minutes to make the dal.
INGREDIENTS FOR SPINACH DAL
I was inspired to make this Spinach Dal when I got some beautifully fresh organic spinach in my Moorland Veg Box delivery.
With lots of tender baby leaves, all I had to do was remove the thickish stems on the bigger ones.
If you only have frozen spinach, then you can use that. Don’t bother to defrost first, just follow the recipe as written.
The other ingredients you’ll need are:
- tomatoes: ideally fresh, but half a standard tin of chopped tomatoes can be substituted.
- onion: yellow, red, or white, it doesn’t matter.
- garlic: I include 6 fat cloves, but you can reduce this if preferred.
- ginger: did you know it stores well in the freezer? Just scrape off the skin, grate as much as you need then pop it back in.
- chillies: I’ve used green here, but red are fine too.
- fresh coriander: I like a lot so use a whole bunch, including the stems.
Many of the recipes I’ve seen for traditional dal palak have very few spices. Often, it’s just turmeric and ground coriander in the dal itself, then some chilli and cumin seeds fried and stirred in at the end.
But I wanted my Spinach Dal to be a halfway house between the mild tasting dal I’ve eaten in restaurants and a quite spicy curry.
So, I’ve used seven different spices in addition to salt and pepper.
These are: black mustard seed, cumin seed, ground coriander and fenugreek, turmeric, chilli flakes, plus the ready-made mix known as garam masala.
As you’ll see later, I use more cumin seeds and chilli flakes to finish the dish at the end.
MAKING SPINACH DAL
To make Spinach Dal you’ll need one more ingredient: a frying medium.
Ghee (Indian clarified butter) or a vegetable oil would be traditional. However, for the dal in this post I used half butter and half groundnut oil. I sometimes use coconut oil as a substitute for ghee which also makes this dish suitable for dairy-free and plant-based diets.
Whichever you use, start off by heating the fat, then briefly sizzle the mustard seeds and some cumin seeds.
Chopped onion goes in next and is cooked for around ten minutes until starting to soften. Then the garlic, ginger and chilli are added and cooked for a few minutes more.
The deseeded and finely chopped tomatoes (I don’t bother to skin them) are cooked down a little and then the spinach (shredded) is stirred in. I add about half the coriander at this point too, including all the stems.
It’ll only take a couple of minutes to wilt the leafy green stuff. You can then add the cooked split yellow peas, the ground spices plus some salt and pepper.
You’ll need to add water at this stage too. It’s really up to you how much, depending on whether you want a soupy dal or a thicker, curry-like one.
I’ve gone for the thick version here so only needed to add 150 ml of water. But you can double that for dal soup.
A further ten minutes of gentle bubbling should be enough to cook the rawness out of the spices.
Have a taste and see if you think it needs more salt or garam masala.
When it’s just right, add a squeeze of lemon and the rest of the coriander.
You’re now ready for the final flourish which I think makes Spinach Dal even better.
ADDING A TARKA
To take this dish to the next level, I add a tarka.
Sometimes called a tadka or chaunk, a tarka is a combination of spices, heated in ghee or oil, then stirred into a dish at the end. This is probably most familiar as the restaurant favourite tarka dal.
For this recipe, the tarka is super-simple. Just cumin seeds plus chilli flakes or chilli powder sizzled in the same type of fat you used to cook the dal.
The ghee or oil takes on the colour of the spices and I think it makes a wonderful contrast with the golden split peas and green spinach and coriander.
Of course, it adds bags of flavour too swirled through the dish.
SERVING SPINACH DAL
If you’ve made the thinner soup version, then Spinach Dal is a wonderful lunch dish or starter.
Indian style breads such as chapati would be perfect alongside. Or you could make a batch of my No-yeast Quick Flatbreads, substituting wholemeal for some of the white flour.
But I’ve been eating my rich, thick dal with all sorts of things!
Why had I never thought before to top spicy dal with a poached egg? I love the combination of chilli and egg so made extra tarka to pour over as well as stir into the dal. Heaven!
You can also incorporate Spinach Dal into larger meals.
Here I sat a spice-marinated and pan-fried chicken breast on leftover dal which acted as a sauce. Alongside are basmati rice and a crunchy salad also finished with a tarka of mustard, cumin and chilli.
NUTRITIOUS, ECONOMICAL & DELICIOUS
With relatively simple ingredients, Spinach Dal makes a nutritious and economical meal.
But with a variety of spices, and that final rich tarka, it’s incredibly tasty and satisfying too.
Cook the split peas in advance, and you can have an easy, lovely bowlful on the table in around half an hour.
HAVE YOU MADE SPINACH DAL?
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Spinach Dal
Nutritious, cheap and tasty, Spinach Dal is based on yellow split peas and is finished with a spicy butter or oil tarka. Add more water to eat as a soup, less for a thicker, curry-style dal.
Once the split peas are cooked, the dal is made in around 30 minutes.
CourseSoup, Main Course, Lunch
CuisineIndian, Vegetarian, Vegan, plant-based
Keywordsoup, lentil soup, split peas
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Soaking time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes
Servings 4
Author Moorlands Eater
Ingredients
For the split peas
- 200gsplit yellow peas
- 1tspground coriander
- 1tspground turmeric
For the dal base
- 30gghee or coconut oilor 1 tbsp any oil + 15g butter
- 2tspcumin seeds
- 2tspblack mustard seeds
- 1mediumonionfinely chopped
- 6clovesgarlicfinely chopped
- 2green chilliesfinely chopped
- 8-10ggingerfinely chopped or grated
- 3mediumtomatoesdeseeded, finely chopped
- 200gfresh spinach, any tough stems discardedroughly chopped
- 40-50gbunch of corianderroughly chopped (chop stems too but keep separate)
- 2tspgaram masala
- 1tspground coriander
- 1tspground fenugreek
- ½tspground turmeric
- ½tspground black pepper
- ½-1tspchilli powder or flakes
- salt
- 150-300ml water
- ½lemonjuice only
For the tarka
- 15gghee, coconut oil, or 50:50 butter and any oil
- 1tspcumin seeds
- ½-1tspchilli powder or flakes
Instructions
Cook the split peas
Put the split peas in a large heatproof bowl.
Pour over boiling water from a kettle and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
Drain, rinse, drain again, then transfer the split peas to a saucepan.
Cover with at least twice their depth of water and stir in the ground coriander and turmeric.
Bring to boil then turn down to a simmer. Cook until very soft, adding more water if necessary (35-50 min).
Drain off any excess water and set aside.
Can also be cooked in a pressure cooker (15-25 min).
Make the dal base
Heat the ghee, coconut oil or oil and butter mixture in a large frying pan over medium high heat.
Stir in the cumin and mustard seeds and cook until they pop and sputter.
Reduce the heat to medium then add the onion and cook until it's becoming soft and translucent (10-12 min).
Stir in the garlic, chillies and ginger and cook for 2 min, stirring often and making sure they don't burn.
Stir in the tomato and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the spinach, plus the coriander stems and approximately ½ of the coriander leaf. Cook for 2 minutes.
Stir in the cooked split peas,1 tsp of the garam masala, the ground coriander, fenugreek, turmeric, black pepper, chilli flakes or powder, 1 tsp of salt plus 150ml of water (add more water for a thinner dal).
Continue cooking and stirring until any rawness is gone from the spices (8-10 min).
Add the remaining coriander and squeeze in the lemon juice. Taste and add more salt and/or garam masala if needed.
Take off the heat.
Make the tarka
Put the ghee, coconut oil, or butter and oil in a small saucepan over medium high heat.
Add the cumin seeds and chilli powder or flakes.
Sizzle the spices for 1 minute then remove from the heat.
Pour the contents of the saucepan over the Spinach Dal, stir through and serve.
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 2 days.
