This masala spinach curry Indian recipe uses fresh spinach leaves and dal in its preparation along with spices and its a perfect healthy, delicious side dish with rice or Indian flatbread like chapathi, poori etc.
Spinach is also known as palak in North India and as keerai or cheera in South India and most often you can find spinach dishes prepared with different kinds of dal.
This dish is vegetarian/vegan and can be used for lunch, dinner or breakfast as a side dish as I mentioned above.
Here is another spinach curry with coconut which is also very delicious, easy to make and goes great with rice.
Spinach dal curry using moong dal (yellow mung beans) is also a very popular dish in India, but in this recipe we use toor dal (yellow pigeon peas which is used in sambar recipes like this spinach sambar recipe which is another South Indian style curry that uses spinach and toor dal ) in preparation.
Toor dal or yellow pigeon peas is high in protein and used in a lot of Indian vegetarian recipes.
In this masala spinach curry with dal, we use toor dal to make the dal curry along with fresh spinach leaves.
I have also made this easy spinach dal curry or dal palak with masoor dal, which is even more simple recipe!
You can use fresh or frozen spinach and either regular spinach or baby spinach leaves can be used in this recipe.
You can chop the leaves if you wish, I didn’t chop them as I wanted to use the whole leaves.
Either way, the dish is very healthy & yummy and makes a great side dish for rice, chapathi or dosa, although this is more popular as a side dish with rice.
This spinach dal curry can be prepared in different ways, here is how I made it following this easy spinach dal curry recipe .
As you can see, I served this delicious spinach dal with rice, but it also goes great with Indian breads like chapathi, poori, naan bread etc.
How to make masala spinach curry with dal?
We use the following ingredients to make easy, delicious Indian style masala spinach dal curry.
Ingredients to make masala spinach dal curry
4 cups spinach leaves
1 large onion
4 tomatoes
1.5 cups toor dal
salt as required
4 cups water plus more if required for gravy
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste or use fresh or dry garlic and ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons garam masala powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
5 dry red chilies broken
Step by step instructions
Wash the toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) and add this to a pressure cooker.
Add salt and water and close the pressure cooker with the lid and safety valve in place and cook the dal for about 8 to 10 minutes (after the steam begins to release) or about 3 to 4 whistles.
After 10 minutes of cooking, switch off the cooker and wait for the cooker to cool down.
Meanwhile wash the spinach and dry the leaves (you may use a paper towel) and keep aside.
Chop the tomatoes into small pieces and keep aside.
Peel the onion and slice finely, keep aside in a different bowl (apart from spinach and tomatoes).
Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.
When the cumin seeds are fried, add the broken dry red chilies and fry for a few seconds.
Add the sliced onion and saute for few minutes until the onions turn transparent or lightly browned in color.
Add the salt and ginger garlic paste, and saute for another 2 more minutes.
Add the tomatoes and spinach leaves and saute for another 3 to 4 minutes and then cover the pan and cook in low heat for another five minutes or until the tomatoes and spinach leaves are cooked enough.
As the tomatoes and spinach leaves are cooked and soft, switch off the stove.
As soon as the pressure cooker is cooled, open the cooker and see if the dal (pigeon peas) is cooked enough and soft.
You can gently mash the dal with a ladle if needed.
Add the tomato onion spinach mixture to the cooked dal in the cooker and mix everything well (If you have used a small cooker and if your pan is big enough to hold all contents, you can also add the dal to the spinach tomato onion mixture and make the dish in the pan, if you wish. It works both the ways).
Mix all contents well together and add all the spices to the mixture, and stir well.
At this point, you should add more water to the dish if you need more gravy.
If there is enough water left after cooking the dal, which is enough to make the gravy for the dish, you may not need to add more water.
However if there is no water left or if the water is less to make the gravy, feel free to add little more water to the mixture just enough for the gravy.
Turn on the stove and cook in low to medium heat for another 2 to 3 minutes so the contents will blend together with the spices.
Masala spinach dal curry or cheera/keerai parippu curry with garam masala is ready to serve!
Enjoy the dal curry as a side dish to rice or as a side dish with chapathi or dosa for breakfast, lunch or dinner as you wish!
Below you can get the recipe for masala spinach curry with dal in detail.
Spinach Curry Indian Recipe, Spinach Dal Masala Curry
Ingredients
- 4 cups spinach leaves
- 1 large onion
- 4 tomatoes
- 1.5 cups toor dal
- salt as required
- 4 cups water plus more if required for gravy
- 2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste or use fresh or dry garlic and ginger
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 2 teaspoons garam masala powder
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 5 dry red chilies
Instructions
- Wash the toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) and add this to a pressure cooker.
- Add salt and water and close the pressure cooker with the lid and safety valve in place and cook the dal for about 8 to 10 minutes or about 3 to 4 whistles.
- After 10 minutes of cooking, switch off the cooker and wait for the cooker to cool down.
- Meanwhile wash the spinach and dry the leaves (you may use a paper towel) and keep aside.
- Chop the tomatoes into small pieces and keep aside.
- Peel the onion and slice finely, keep aside in a different bowl (apart from spinach and tomatoes).
- Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.When the cumin seeds are fried, add the red chilies and fry for a few seconds.
- Add the sliced onion and saute for few minutes until the onions turn transparent or lightly browned in color.
- Add the salt and ginger garlic paste, and saute for another 2 more minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and spinach leaves and saute for another 3 to 4 minutes and then cover the pan and cook in low heat for another five minutes or until the tomatoes and spinach leaves are cooked enough.
- As the tomatoes and spinach leaves are cooked and soft, switch off the stove.
- As soon as the pressure cooker is cooled, open the cooker and see if the dal (pigeon peas) is cooked enough and soft.You can gently mash the dal with a ladle if needed.
- Add the tomato onion spinach mixture to the cooked dal in the cooker and mix everything well (If you have used a small cooker and if your pan is big enough to hold all contents, you can also add the dal to the spinach tomato onion mixture and make the dish in the pan, if you wish. It works both the ways).
- Mix all contents well together and add all the spices to the mixture, and stir well.
- At this point, you should add more water to the dish if you need more gravy. If there is enough water left after cooking the dal, which is enough to make the gravy for the dish, you may not need to add more water. However if there is no water left or if the water is less to make the gravy, feel free to add little more water to the mixture just enough for the gravy.
- Turn on the stove and cook in low to medium heat for another 2 to 3 minutes so the contents will blend together with the spices. Masala spinach dal curry or cheera/keerai parippu curry with garam masala is ready to serve! Enjoy the dal curry as a side dish to rice or as a side dish with chapathi or dosa for breakfast, lunch or dinner as you wish!
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