Palakura Pappu | Spinach/Palak Dal

This is a very basic recipe and is quite common in every house hold.The recipe might slightly vary from home to home with few ingredients.This is the basic dal recipe which I follow and it works for few vegetables and greens.I have mentioned variations in the notes to convert this dal according to the vegetable or greens.

Spinach/Palak Dal | Palakura Pappu Recipe:
(yields for 3-4 persons)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Toor dal
1 big bunch of Spinach/Palak(2 cups palak,chopped)
1 medium Onion,roughly chopped
5-6 Green chillies,slit
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
2 tsp Oil
Salt to taste

for tadka:
1-2 tsp Ghee
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
3-4 Garlic pods
1 Red chili,broken
a pinch of Asafoetida
a sprig of Curry leaves

Method:

• Wash and soak toor dal for 10 mins.
• Heat oil in a pressure cooker add slit green chillies and fry for half a minute.
• Add chopped onions and fry well and chopped palak and fry well until the leaves wilt.
• Add soaked toor dal(removing water) and fry for a minute.
• Add turmeric powder,coriander and cumin powder and fry for a minute again.
• Add salt and enough water(roughly 2 cups) and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
• Once the pressure drops remove the lid and keep the dal on low-medium flame and simmer for 5-6 mins to the consistency you need.You can use a dal masher and slight;y mash the dal at this stage.If you want it thin add more water,otherwise let it thicken until the desired consistency.Switch off the flame.
• In a small tadka pan heat ghee and crackle mustard seeds,jeera and crushed garlic pods and fry well.Add curry leaves,red chili and asafoetida and fry for half a minute.
• Add the tadka to the prepared dal and give a nice mix and cover it with lid.

Serve it hot with rice or roti.

Notes:

1. You can replace moong dal or masoor dal with toor dal in the above recipe and follow the same procedure.
2. This dal tastes nice without any sour factor from tamarind or lemon.If you want sourness in the dal add tamarind juice after the dal is cooked and when boiling it for the second time.
3. You can follow the same procedure to make the dals like yellow cucumber,ridge gourd,bottle gourd and methi just by replacing the palak with chopped vegetables/greens.
4. For a Vegan version replace ghee by equal amounts of oil in the recipe.