Moong Dal With Spinach

 We are a big fan of spinach in my house. I try to cook spinach every week in some form or the other. As my son is a very poor eater, I try and include a lot of vegetables in our diet - not just as the dry sabzi but also in the protein part of our meal. Dal is something that is very easy to make and I make it every day. So, using spinach while making dal is one of my favorite ways to include this leafy vegetable in our diet. Another point in its favor is that my son loves eating dal rice with ghee in it! Add in the spinach there and I have a wholesome meal, one that my little one enjoys!

I usually make spinach with split moong dal or with masoor dal. I was looking for an alternative, when I came across this recipe in Manjula's Kitchen. The fact that it has no onions also helped me out as I was out of onions today. This recipe uses split moong dal with skin. It turned out pretty delicious and provided a nice variation in taste from my usual dals. Just a simple difference as using the dal with its skin made a lot of difference in flavor from using split moong dal without its skin!

Soaking Time: 30 minutes       Preparation & Cooking: 10 minutes       Serves:4
Ingredients:
Split Moong Dal with skin - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 cup, chopped fine
Ginger - 1 teaspoon, minced
Turmeric/Haldi Powder - ½ teaspoon
Garam Masala - ½ teaspoon
Lemon Juice - 2 tablespoons
Salt - to taste
For Tempering:
Clarified Butter/Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida/Hing - a pinch
Whole Red Chillies - 2
Red Chilli Powder - ½ teaspoon

Method:

• Soak the moong dal in water for about 30 minutes. Rinse and drain.

•  Pressure cook this dal with spinach, turmeric powder, salt and minced ginger till the dal softens and is a bit mushy.
• Once the steam is let out, open the pressure cooker, mix in the garam masala and lemon juice.

• In a tempering pan/vessel, heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds. When the crackle all the rest of the tempering ingredients and give it a good stir.Then add about a teaspoon of water so that the red chilli powder does not burn. Pour this tempering over the dal.

Moong dal with spinach is ready to be served. It serves well with rice as well as rotis.