Palak Daal

This is my first comment ever,and I have out done myself cooking this Dhal recipe.It is sooo authentic.I have tried many recipes for this,but you have it goin’ on with this one.
Thank you Heidi!!

We didn’t have the green chile, so we used a small piece of habanero… We’ll use the green chile next time because we were stingy on the habanero, and it wasn’t as spicy as we expected. That said, though, REALLY good recipe. The dish is creamy and warm tasting, and we used ghee instead of butter at the end. Served with steamed rice and naan. Might not be ordering in Indian so often anymore! Thanks for sharing.

Hello Heidi.. it was so exciting to read this post – it’s not common to see Indian recipes on blogs like this – and as an Indian, I was pretty proud and surprised too. I just sent you an email – relating to this – if you might have the opportunity to go through. Thanks again for this one and hope you have more Indian food to enjoy.

I made this last night and was very pleased with it, even though it broke some of the ‘rules’ I have become familiar with, such as adding spinach towards the end of the cooking time. However I don’t think you’d get the consistency you are looking for if you waited to add it. I love the addition of lemon, it just gives it a tang that I enjoy. I topped it with a bit of yogurt and ate it with pita bread, as I had no naan or roti on hand. It was also delicious warmed over for lunch today!

this is great! Just dont accidentally the whole thing 🙂

wow! Heidi, thanks for this!

I love how the spices in Indian cooking are meant to help digestion as well as taste good!

I tried this recipe yesterday because I am not a chef but I cook for a family of ten and I triplicate the recipe and they were delighted with this gentle flavor recipe. Thanks to the person that published it because she is wonderful and on top of that people like me that we don’t need to eat meat every single day is healthy, rich in flavor and presentation was elegant. Please those are the recipe that we need in this blog. Thanks Heidi and thanks Anamika.

hey heidi,
nice to see a subcontinental dish on your blog. my mom makes this dish very often and we simply love it.
@ liz- that dish you described is called dahi bara in urdu/ hindi and most people simply fall in love with it.

This looks so fantastic. Thanks! I will try it with coconut oil.
(@KL Yes, my lentils usually only take 20-25 minutes and they are perfect. She must want them to get really soft, but it’s probably not necessary).

sounds good!!!!!!

My mom wants to try the recipe but is wondering why the cooking time for the lentils is so long. I’ve checked similar recipes and most are within 30-45 min. max.
Thank you for your feedback on this.

KL, for faster cooking times, cook in pressure cooker.. it takes only 10 mins.
As a south indian, growing up 5 days a week for lunch , everyday we eat some kind of lentil. Accompanied with rice and vegetable curry.
And eat meat in weekend. So most of my family is very healthy, no cholesterol or heart problems.

Kasa was one of my top places to grab a quick bite when I lived in the neighborhood– so, this recipe is a treat as I’ve been missing some of my favorite foods. It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to make it this week.

i usually make spinach with chicken or potatoes but now i will definitely try palak daal . Hopefully my family will like it

My family and I, we all simply love lentils, grains and greens. Not that we are vegetarians, but my sister is somewhat vegetarian. And I love to experiment recipes with lentils. They are great and there are so many recipes we can actually try out. I must thank you for the lovely recipes. I’m from Malaysia and our recipes are mostly very spicy and they are simply delicious and hot hot hot.
I’ve tried the lentil burgers earlier. I created the recipe myself. Will share with you one day.

Spinach dal is a very flexible dish to make, and you can keep it simple or be very adventerous and take it to another level. White urad dal can be replaced by tuvar dal with which spinach really goes well. One of the staple thing we make is ground spinach with tuvar dal and garnishing it a blended mixture of coconut, green chili and toasted cumin. Keeping it within the same theme as in this recipe, one can play around with whole red chilis, garam masala, coriander powder (I never use hing), taramind pulp water, and instead of urad, use boiled yellow split peas.

Yum! I know what I’m making for my next book club!

Thanks so much for another delicious recipe! My 18 mos. old absolutely adored this soup (minus green chilis and extra chili powder), and mom & dad just added spice to our bowls. The lemon juice at the end really balanced nicely and the lentils turned out great w/ this combination of spices. A wonderful meal for a cold January night!

I didn’t have the white lentils, used green that I had. And I made it in my crockpot. (I know, I’m one of those annoying people who make changes to the recipe and then comment LOL)
Maybe it was because of the green lentils used instead, but they didn’t use up all the liquid. SO, this was Dahl soup. BUT it is one of THE BEST soups I’ve ever had. How tasty!! I can just imagine the dahl being delicious too. Next time I will try the correct lentil but for now, I’m LOVING my soup!! 🙂

Thanks for another lovely recipe! On your recommendation, I picked up a copy of Julie Sahni’s Vegetarian and Field Grain’s book. It also also a wonderful source for dahl, but, like so many others, I’ll have to search for the white lentils. Anyone in Houston have a suggestion for a good Indian market (preferably close to the SW Freeway). I’ve yet to really look, but sure there must be a good source for fresh, authentic ingredients.

My mother makes this all the time so of course I am partial to her recipe, which uses mug ni daal. It may also be called moong daal, not entirely sure. Probably a variation due to location (we are from the west part of India) as I have never seen white daal before.
Also thank you for shouting out to Kasa! They inspired me to create my own kati rolls, which I now do regularly. While their stuff is good, it is a lot cheaper making it than eating it!

This daal looks just stunning ! Love it

I love it when you give SF restaurant recommendations. I rarely get out of Nob/Russian Hill, so it’s nice to have a different destination.

definitely going to try this one as indian is my most favorite food and i am growing spinach as we speak in my new garden bed! very timely heidi! thank you.

I love Daal! great recipe, thanks.

That looks great! I’ve never seen white lentils before, seems like I’ve been discovering new lentils a lot lately. I picked up a package of black beluga lentils a few weeks ago. Love lentils!
Jenn

I’m going to hope that this will work with frozen spinach. Not sure a half pound frozen is the same as a half pound fresh due to water weight but I am going to assume so. If so, this is perfect as it’s “pantry ready” and I can make it when the cupboard is bare…Also I have some ginger I need to use up while it’s still fresh (I don’t use ginger much so while I’m sure it’s easy for some to go through it all, not so much for me).

Can’t get enough daal. Thanks for the recipe. I’ll make a batch for my freezer work lunches. 🙂

Thank you for sharing, and kudos to Kasa! We have learned over the last few years that really, fresh and spicy, flavorful foods can make for a lifestyle change that is not only good for your diet, but also good for supporting local business. It has become a motivating factor for us in our daily food choices and preparation. We’ll be sure to check out Kasa next time we warm our bones in Big Sur and head to the city.
Ishteh Koob (Bon Appetite)

Hi Heidi —
I saw your reply above to the person who asked about “red chile powder”. I still don’t have a clue what you are referring to. The recipe brought to mind SW/Mexican chili powder, which is red, but not used in Indian cooking to my knowledge. Your answer above made me think of hot paprika. Serranos are green, so I don’t think the powder was made from them.
If you’d like a great recipe for punjabi chana, I have tweaked one to where I like it a lot. So do others.
Peter

Daal palak is indeed good winter comfort food. In my home we make it with toor dal (pigeon peas). If you like to experiment with different greens, you should try swapping the spinach for fenugreek (methi) leaves, salted ahead of time and squeezed out to remove any bitterness. Add a 1/4 tsp of fenugreek seeds when popping the cumin to round out the dish.

A very aromatic dish. In the eastern regions of India we cook this with the yellow mung dal after lightly roasting the dal on a dry skillet (till it gets fragrant). you might like too! give it a try if you can.

Thank you for sharing this recipe! I wouldn’t know where to begin otherwise and this looks wonderful!

Nice recipe. I find that cooking spinach for that long results in an unpleasant texture, that is why I added it 15 minutes before he dish was done.
Oz

Does anyone know if this could be adapted for a slow cooker?

I am going though SUCH a lentil fetish at the moment… And this looks just stupefyingly delicious. Thank you!

it’s not a good idea to leave asafoetida out. i’m from south india and my mom has always taught me that many of the spices used are for medicinal purposes or to counteract something in the food. lentils will cause serious bloating and asafoetida is included to counteract that. happy cooking!

asafoetida is absolutely essential imho!
some background:
classical Indian vegetarian cooking forbids the use of onions and garlic, because they are associated with the cooking of meat. Asafoetida, or hing in Hindi, provides the tang and savory sharpness of onions and garlic, but without the lingering heavy feeling those ingredients can produce. If you find that you love it, try asking for it at your favorite Indian restaurant in lieu of the onions and garlic in your favorite dish. (Chole, or channa masala, is completely transformed by hing rather than onions.)
Another wonderful thing to do with urad dal is to make bada/vada: soak about 1/2 cup overnight, drain, and then grind it to a slighly rough paste along with salt, pepper, hing, and a little cayenne and fresh cilantro, and then fry as you would falafel. Then you can eat them with chutneys, or for a really special treat, immediately immerse the fried bada in a bowl of whisked yogurt, sour cream, or buttermilk at room temperature. The dumplings develop a thick, creamy coating that tastes far more complicated than it is. YUM!

so glad to see an Indian receipe here, it goes well with boiled rice or fried rice and also with Indian bread (plain roti and tandoori roti), The same receipe can be followed with so many other lentils and legumes, The amount of spicyness depends totally on our taste,
I run a small cooking class mostly based on traditional ways, my mamma says that we are a link between the traditionals and the moderns and if we don’t take care of the heritage, it will be gone for everm very soon

So great to see Kasa promoted- we know one of the other partners and are thrilled for their (well deserved) success!
And I’d love to be in the loop if/when cooking classes by Anamika happen again, too.

Thank you for such a delicious Daal recipe. Like many of the other commentators I also had all the right ingredients at hand. I used French Green Lentils and a teaspoon of salt instead of half. I also used a quarter of fresh Meyer lemon juice (which added a nice touch of sweetness). I served it with your Tokyo Five Grain a dollop of yogurt and a scant amount of saffron. It was absolutely amazing. Thank you thank you thank you!

I love Veena and Soma’s suggestions, but I’m also wondering if anyone has tried other types of lentil yet. I’m curious about what types would work and which ones won’t.

I love Kasa! They sponsored our Spooning with Strangers event last year and are awesome people. Thanks for posting this and can’t wait to check out Anamika’s classes!
P.S. congrats on the new book! looking forward to it 🙂

Hi Heidi,
You can put in a tweeny weeny bit of sweetening, just to tease your tastebuds, but not to the level where it’s detectable on the tongue. Usually just the same amount of sugar as salt. Only add sweetening if there is a souring agent like lemon juice added, just to round the sourness.
It makes for a wonderful difference in any indian dhals or curries 😉

I absolutely love Palak and this recipe seems simple enough that I would feel really confident preparing. I may make a Palak Alu following your recipe and just replace the daal with Potatoes.

Thanks for posting something that really is Indian cuisine. I am so tired of spin offs… I have been following your website for a while now, and I love it ! 🙂

great photos! spinach daal is one of my favorite comfort foods! it works really well with toor daal and moong daal as well (which is apparently really healthy for you). mustard seeds are a great addition for a slightly smoky flavor too. a big bowl with a buttered roll is a great lunch…simple and perfect 🙂

I think I actually have everything to make this in my pantry. Sounds so comforting and delicious! Yum!

This looks great! I just learned to make a type of daal at a free cooking class my local co-op offered. It was fantastic. They used clarified butter, which is called ghee, for sauteing the veggies.
Have you used ghee? How does it compare to the regular butter called for here? Thanks!

nice! will try next week. love all ingredients specially lentils. lets see if i find the white ones.

I was just reading about the super health benefits of Indian spices (such as turmeric and cumin), so I look forward to making this nutritious recipe and giving myself a health boost! Thanks for sharing…can’t wait to try it.

This takes lentils in a whole new direction for me. And a neat turn in the road it is!

I adore dhals! Will definitely try this one!

This looks fantastic, Heidi..thank you for sharing…I love lentils and you’ve just inspired me to cook up the bag of lentils in my pantry to make this delicious recipe tonight!

I made this with red lentils tonight. Very delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

This recipe may just be what it takes for me to conquer my fear of lentils, after getting a rock in a bowl of lentil soup ages ago. Sounds delish!

Made this for dinner tonight along with your seeded flatbread recipe which served as kind of a naan bread — everything was FAB-U-LOUS!!! Once again, you’ve provided an amazing recipe that is both healthy & sooooooo flavorful!!! To eat healthy with flavors like this — it’s pure joy!! Thank you, Heidi!!

Hi Heidi,
I’m a big fan of your blog, and many times read it like I would read a novel, just for the pure joy that is your writing. I’m Indian, and I’m excited to see this recipe. Its interesting to see that you used urad dal for this recipe, I’ve never seen that before. I’ve only seen this made with tuvar/toor dal or split pigeon peas. Will try it with urad dal!

I’m obsessed with lentils lately, and this looks like a delectable way to continue obsessing. I have about fourteen daal recipes flagged right now, but this looks more healthy. So thanks for that.
Also, I posted last week about gluten, which you were thinking about a while ago. It’s a really quick recipe that you’d be able to whip up and add your own touches to easily. It makes 6# of product and is a perfect freezer candidate – well labelled, of course. 😉

Ha, I just made my own Palak Daal last night! How serendipidous.

These look so rich with flavour and spices.
Though endless days of rain are hard–be glad it’s not endless days of frigid winter! (Like up here in Canada.) These lentils look like the right thing to warm one up.

Looks delish! Have tried most types of lentils, but not this one. There are many Indian markets in L.A. so I’ll keep my eyes open. In the meantime, I’m making red lentil soup today with leftover coriander- and cumin-roasted cauliflower. Thanks for the morning motivation!

Great recipe. Daal is a staple in our house, and we make lots of it with various types of lentils / legumes. This recipe can also be made with split green mung beans…highly nutritious and with a little extra added protein.
Also, to Elizabeth Hay…the flavor will be different if you use cumin seeds versus ground cumin. In my experience, the seeds will give you a sharper flavor, whereas the ground cumin will be softer and permeate the entire dish.

Palak Daal has always seemed a bit bitter to me at certain restaurants, but now that I have a decent recipe to work with I’ll have to try it and see if it’ll change my mind. It definitely looks divine!

Heidi, you are so true to ingredients and absolutely come up with the best recipes! If I had a piece of naan or paratha in my hand right now, I’d literally start picking at the screen on my MacBook.
I noticed that the time on your recipe is 1.5 – 2 hours… I think I might put the daal in a pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time.

Heidi, this is great, though I can see if I continue this infatuation with your blog, I will need to step up my on-hand ingredients; butter, salt, pepper, olive oil and cider vinegar just aren’t going to cut it anymore. Thanks for the feast!

I was awakened from my sleepy mood by the color of this dish alone. Gorgeous. This isn’t something I would have sought out – but as usual your images and words have seduced me.
Mmmmm…..

I can’t wait to try this! I’m trying to get legumes on the dinner table at least a couple times a week, and I’ve experimented with dal a couple of times. This one looks fantastic. I’m kind of afraid to cook with the asafetida, though. I’m intrigued by it, but I’m concerned that it will permeate my kitchen!

This looks delicious and somehow I have all of the ingredients in house — something to try on a soggy Sunday in Santa Cruz!

Just tried this one out for dinner, and it’s great! I used green lentils because I that’s what I had in the cupboard, but they worked just fine. Thanks for another great recipe, Heidi!

Thank you so much for posting this recipe. Lentils hold the flavors of spices so well and I am a devout fan of Indian food.

Sounds absolutely lovely…. just great!

Hi Heidi,
This looks delicious. You have inspired me to use dried beans–so much better than canned.
I made white beans last weekend that I used all week, and this weekend I used them for your white bean and kale recipe in your book and your marathon cookies. Heidi, those cookies are a revelation! They might be my favorite recipe of yours ever, and I love quite a few. It’s amazing that such a delicious cookie comes from beans and no butter at all.
The bean and kale dish was wonderful too, and left my stomach feeling so full in a healthy way. Your food truly fills my mind, body, & spirit Heidi–thank you so much!

Thanks very much for this recipe…the spin on dahl that I was looking for! This will be my lunch for the days I am in College! Yum!! I’ll be so smart and will feel great. hee hee.
You are such a beautiful girl to give us all these gorgeous recipes…If we all ate this food imagine how good the world would feel.

Two of my favorites in one spot: Lentils & Kasa!! Kasa remains one of the few Indian establishments in SF whose daals I approve of; even other eateries with otherwise stellar dishes seem to miss the mark on lentils. What other local spots do you scope out for Indian-style lentil dishes? I’d love to know! (and ps, still trying to figure out which pizza joint you allude to in your Best Pizza Dough Ever post of Jan 2006…)

This sounds SO lovely. I’m a big fan of dal already, and a great heap of spinach could only make it that much better. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, I so want to try these lentils, they are gorgeous…. I’m afraid that unless I special order them through the net, I won’t find them in my town
I love daal, but somehow only have it in restaurants, never made it myself

I made (and wrote about) something very similar this past week—lentils, spinach, sweet potato curry, with lime and cilantro. I adore it (but my kids not so much)—to me it’s comfort food of the best sort.

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I recently found some urad daal in an Indian spice shop and bought it, but haven’t used it yet. I think maybe I’ll try this this week. 🙂

Mmmmm!
🙂

Fab, I bought white lentils a while back, now I know what to do with them.

Urad dal, cooked, has a mucilaginous taste that many people love and that I hate. I would substitute my favorite red lentils/masur dal.
Just in case anyone else has the same reaction.

Can’t wait to try this recipe I love Indian food !
Let me know if you or anyone has a recipe for Aloo Chat it is a cold potato salad, the best one I ever had used tamarind and was more vingar like where some use yogurt.

I’ve been looking to incorporate more lentils and grains into my diet as well as spices. This looks like an excellent recipe, and is full of antioxidants! I look forward to checking out Kasa blog!

Heidi you read my mind on what i am dying to cook! I recently ate a spinach side dish from an indian restaurant that i am trying to recreate. And yesturday a friend made masala doce (i think that’s how its spelt) with these very thin pancake like roti but made with urad daal (lentils) and they were delicious!!
So you have combined both of my recent addictions into what i can imagine will be my next addictive recipe from you!!
xx

I’ve been looking to incorporate more lentils and grains into my diet this year as well as spices. This looks like an excellent recipe, flavorful and chock full of antioxidants! I look forward to seeing more recipes from Kasa!

indian food is by far my favourite and i love this kind of dishes – so comforting, especially in the cold winter days. (we are experiencing the longest winter of my life here in germany and it pretty much sucks.)
i am trying this for sure!

Use hot water to wash spinach. It gets the mud off more efficiently.

I have never made a dal before, but this one looks simple, and has flavours that are right up my alley. I can’t say I’ve ever seen ivory lentils before, but I’ll keep my eye out.

@Katie Other than for taste, Asafoetida is usually paired with all lentil dishes in India — not just daal, even in variations like Sambha — mainly for its digestive and anti-flatulent properties. Lentils by themselves are not the easiest food types to digest, hence the addition.

Looks amazing! I was just saying that I needed to make some lentil dishes next week with the stock pile of lentils in m pantry (including white urad daal).
I’ve bought these lentils at a local Indian food shop. I was unsuccessful at finding them at any of the natural food stores in town.
Also, a few restrictive diet notes that may help others out. This dish is gluten free if you eliminate the asafetida. The asafetida commonly found in the states is a powder mixed with wheat flour.
This dish is vegan if you use oil instead of butter to make the tarka. I always make my tarka this way (even though I’m not vegan) because of how I was taught.

I love this recipe. Looks simple and not too spicy. I love spicy food but not too much.

this is a gorgeous bowl of lentils. wow!

Daal is one of my favorite fast, easy, tasty meals to make. I don’t eat wheat or dairy or soy, and indian food is some of the only really great food left for me! I will definitely be trying this recipe soon! I have asafetida, but I am not really sure what kind of taste it gives to the dish. I bought it for an ethiopian dish I made a while ago and haven’t used it since!

I must admit, now a huge fan of Indian food but if we are being honest, I never really gave it a fair shot. This recipe looks pretty tempting, I must admit.

ooo! my husband will be so happy when i make this for dinner next week. i’m not usually a fan of indian food, but this looks like something that could really tip the scales for me and help me appreciate the flavors he already loves. thanks for this!
loving your blog- it’s absolutely beautiful, and so informative.

This is practically an everyday dish for me, but the way you make it look with your photography – as something unique, beautiful and exotic, is fantastic.

This looks so great. I would love if my fave restaurants offered cooking classes. People are often amused that I teach cooking classes, without having taken any- just so tough to find the good ones that focus on delicious, healthful and simply recipes. Thank you, as always, for sharing this one.

Heidi. THis looks good but I can’t get cumin SEEDS here. Can you substitute ground cumin? If so, how much? Thanks. I have never tried any of your recipes that I didnt love!

I love daal but it never turns out great when i make it. I will definitely give this a try soon. Daal is total comfort food.

I live in SF and adore Kasa. I will definitely make this.

Those ivory lentils are gorgeous! I was tickled recently that I finally found French green lentils and red lentils locally, and now here’s a goregous new lentil to look for ;-).
This recipe sounds delicious. We don’t have Indian food anywhere remotely near where I live, but the spiciness of this sounds right up our alley so I’ll give this a try. Thanks!

Little different than what I’m used to…but something different is good.

Palak Daal is one of my favourites! This is a nice simple version and I will give it a go soon.
@ Katie – asafoetida gives a flavour similar to onion/leeks. I have friends who are Jain and don’t eat onion, garlic, leeks so I have started using hing (asafoetida) a bit in my cooking so I can feed them along with everyone else. It stinks in it’s powder form so have a good airtight container for it once you open the pack. I keep mine in a jar inside a ziplock bag.

Will check on Kasa next time I’m in SF. I make a super easy version of daal similar to this on those evenings when I cannot muster but a pinky to cook – a ten minute meal using canned lentils. I add more veggies such as diced carrots, which gives it a little more texture. And, thanks for the link on asafetida.