🍲 Palak Dal (Spinach Lentil Curry)
Palak dal is a North Indian everyday dish of lentils simmered until soft and creamy, then cooked with chopped spinach. It is finished with a tadka, a sizzling tempering of ghee, cumin seeds, garlic and dried chilli poured over the top. The result is earthy, green and gently spiced, and it is eaten with rice or flatbread as a comforting main dish.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g yellow lentils (toor or moong dal)
- 200 g spinach, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 dried red chillies
- 1 tbsp ghee
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 800 ml water
Method
- Rinse the lentils and simmer them in the water with the turmeric for 25–30 minutes until soft; whisk lightly.
- Stir in the spinach and salt and cook for 5 minutes until wilted.
- Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle.
- Add the garlic and dried chillies and fry until the garlic is golden.
- Pour the tempering over the dal and serve hot.
How to make it lighter
- Ghee is concentrated fat: 1 tbsp ≈ 120 kcal, so one spoon for the whole pot is enough.
- Add more spinach to make the bowl larger with few extra calories.
- Lentils are filling; pair with a modest portion of rice to stay within budget.
History
Dal, in many forms, is one of the staple foods of the Indian subcontinent, and adding greens such as spinach is a common home-style variation found in kitchens across India today.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →