As a child growing up I ate dal at most meals. Dal are dried and split pulses or lentils that are very common in South Asian cooking. My mother cooked lentils on almost a daily basis to serve with fried spinach and fish curry. I did not actually like dal growing up, as I was a very picky eater!

As I’ve got older I love and in fact crave the taste and feel of dal. In addition, dal is just plain healthy as it is very rich in protein and other nutrients. Many others also love dal, and all my social media posts featuring them get a lot of attention!

Below is one of the dal dishes that I cook often. I can’t wait to bring you more dishes like this one in the future.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow split pea (Channa or booter dal)
• 1/2 cup red lentils (Mosoor dal)
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 tbsp. each ginger and garlic, minced
• 6 fresh Thai chili
• 1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seed
• 1 tsp. onion seed
• 1/3 cup chopped yellow onion

Instructions

Soak the lentils in 3 cups of water for about an hour. Drain the water and wash the lentils in several changes of water will water runs clear.

Transfer the lentils to a saucepan along with 3 cups water, ginger, garlic, chili, tomato sauce, turmeric and salt.

Stir all ingredients together with a spoon or spatula. Cover.

Bring the lentils to boil in medium heat. Keep an eye so the lentils don’t boil over. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Simmer lentils covered for 20 to 30 minutes till soft. Stir often. Once lentils are cooked, stir in the spinach. Turn off the heat.

In a separate skillet heat 1 tbs of oil, when hot add the mustard seed and onion seed. Once the seeds start to crackle, add the onion. Cook the onion till light brown.

Pour this mixture over the cooked lentils. Stir well. Taste to see if more salt is needed.

Chilly peppers can be eaten if you want an extra kick! Take them out if that’s not for you.

Serves 4

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram. If you would to be notified of upcoming posts, please consider subscribing to my blog!