Recipe card
Dal palak curry
Dal is lentil and palak means spinach in English. A flavorful vegetarian and vegan curry prepared using fresh spinach leaves, coconut, dal or lentil of your choice with canned beans or chickpeas. The combination of these ingredients gives this dish a unique taste. Palak curry can be served with steamed rice, Mangalorean neer dosa, ragi mudde, any Indian flatbreads, or Idiyappam. This is my variation of classic and traditional Konkani Palak ambat or vali ambat.
Ingredients
Spinach: 1 bunch of palak for the recipe.Beans: Use any canned beans like white beans, kidney beans, rajma, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, etc.Coconut: For authentic taste, use fresh coconut. Dry or frozen will also work.Dal: Toor dal is used to make dal palak, but you can use lentils that are easily available. Check out the visuals of Indian dal. Read the recipe card for the full list of ingredients.
Step-by-step instructions
Pressure cook the dal
Wash and add the toor dal to the pressure cooker along with onion, green chili, ginger, and approximately 2 to 2 ½ cups of water. (Water should be at least ½ inch above the toor dal.) Pressure cook for three whistles or until the dal becomes soft—one whistle on high flame and two on medium flame. Once the pressure drops, open the lid, whisk the dal, and keep it aside.
Making of the coconut paste
Grind the grated coconut, dry red chilies, tamarind, and cashews with very little water to form a thick, smooth paste.
Making of the spinach lentil coconut curry.
Add the ground paste to the cooked dal and bring it to a nice boil. You can add water for desired consistency and salt as needed. Add spinach, canned beans or chickpeas, and tomato, boil them, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice, neer dosa, and any flatbreads, and enjoy.
Tips
Rinse and drain the canned beans to reduce the amount of sodium. Vary the amount of dry red chili as per your taste. In India, we use toor dal while making gravy like dal palak. Feel free to use any lentil of your choice. Taste and cooking time will vary accordingly. This recipe is inspired by vali ambat (malabar spinach curry) from konkani cuisine. I will share the recipe for the same soon.
More coconut lentil recipes
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