Palak Dal?South Indian Style

When I was a little girl, I loved spinach.

I loved it raw, I loved it cooked, I ate it frozen or canned.

It didn’t matter. It was my favorite vegetable. (And not just because Popeye loved it, either. I just loved the taste of it.)

So, it should come as no surprise that when spinach comes into season in the spring, I buy bunches of it and eat it in salads and cook it as many ways as I can think of. (But I do have to admit that Zak only likes it raw in salads, so whatever I cook is usually only eaten by myself, Morganna, Brittney and sometimes, Kat. But that is okay–so long as Zak is happy and the spinach is eaten, it doesn’t bother me what form in which it is eaten.)

Last night, I had about a half-pound of spinach that needed to be cooked, and I decided to make good on my promise to start learning to cook more South Indian recipes. I love the Northern Indian style dals with spinach, so I decided to try my hand at making South Indian palak dal.

In India, both in the northern regions and the southern dals are flavored with a technique called “tarka” or “tempering.” This involves heating ghee or oil, and cooking spices, herbs, and/or aromatics like onions, garlic and chilies until everything is brown and toasty. Then, just before the dal is served, the entire pan full of flavored ghee or oil along with the spices and such are stirred into the pot of dal.

This makes a delicious, amazingly well-flavored vegetarian dish that, I swear, will convert people who swear they dislike Indian food or vegetarian food. I know it worked with both of my parents–they like “that Indian lentil soup you make” as they call it. And the bonus is–if you already like lentils or vegetarian food or Indian food, a good dal will make you feel cozy and homey inside–happy, secure and full of goodness.

I know that when I am feeling under the weather, I like to eat a nice, highly-flavored dal full of vegetables and spices, because it is like being wrapped in the warm embrace of my grandmother’s quilt. It is highly comforting, and it has the added bonus that the flavorful spices and aromatics can help fight bacterial infections that can cause sore throats, and their strong flavors and aromas can help clear stuffed sinuses.

The differences between South and North Indian dals seems to be in the spicing, and in some cases, the types of lentils used in them. While both often use whole spices in the tarka, as well as ground turmeric, and onions, garlic and ginger are common, I have found that a combination of mustard seeds, fresh or frozen curry leaves, asafoetida (hing), and fresh or dried chilies are hallmarks of South Indian dals. Tamarind is also common, giving a fruity, tart flavor, although I have to admit that sometimes I substitute lemon juice if I don’t happen to have tamarind.

For this recipe, I used a combination of masoor dal and split unskinned moong dal because that is what I had the most of in the house! I like the combination, because the moong dal gives texture and bits of color to the smooth, pale yellow masoor dal. And they both have a nice, earthy flavor that goes with the nutty mustard and cumin seeds and the musky, smoky aroma of the curry leaves.

The proportions of dal to spinach in this recipe are variable. You can make it with more lentils and less spinach like I did, or you can make it with more spinach. You can also make it thick and hearty like I did or thin and soupy, which is also really tasty and satisfying. If you want it thinner, add more water when you cook the lentils. You can also use frozen spinach instead of fresh, but if you do, after you thaw the spinach out, squeeze the extra water out, by taking handfuls of spinach and squeezing it as hard as you can in your fist and shaking the water away. If you leave the water in the spinach, you risk watering down the flavor of your dal, and you don’t want to do that!

Anyway, here is my easy spinach dal with flavors reminiscent of the regions of South India. Cook up a pot of it, and taste something fresh, spicy, earthy and delicious.

South Indian Style Spinach Dal

Ingredients:

1 cup masoor dal, picked over and rinsed

1 cup split unskinned moong dal, picked over and rinsed

water as needed

big pinch of asafoetida

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger root

3 tablespoons ghee, canola oil, coconut oil or butter

2 cups thinly sliced onions

1 teaspoon salt

5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1 fresh hot chili–whatever kind you like, thinly sliced

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons mustard seeds

10 whole curry leaves, fresh or frozen

dried chili flakes to taste–optional

8 ounces fresh spinach leaves, rinsed and dried, large veins and stems removed

1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate or 1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt as needed to taste