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Palak Moong Dal

October 3rd, 2009 |

Author: admin

This is a delicious recipe for Palak Moong Dal. Dal is a thick soup or other Indian dish made with legumes. Palak Moong Dal is normally made with clarified butter or ghee, but plain butter or even coconut oil can be used in place of ghee if ghee is not available. Palak Moong Dal is a very healthy thick soup made with fresh vegetables and dried mung beans. It takes a couple hours to cook and you have to chop a lot of vegetables, but it is worth the trouble.

Start by obtaining all the ingredients from your grocery store. Some of the items you’ll probably have to buy from a health food store – like dried mung beans and fresh ginger root. We make it using organic vegetables.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole mung beans, rinsed clean
5 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
3 cups fresh spinach, cleaned, stemmed & sliced (or a 10-oz pack frozen spinach)
2 cups finely sliced onions (approx. 1 large onion)
4 cups red ripe tomatoes, sliced and chopped into chunks (approx. 3 large tomatoes)
3 cups chopped Anaheim chili peppers (approx. 3 large peppers)
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger (minced with a chef’s knife)
1 tbsp crushed or minced garlic
1/4 cup fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 tbsp whole cumin seeds
4-5 tbsp ghee (or butter or coconut oil if unavailable)

1. Cook the Dal

Measure out 1 cup of whole mung beans into a large cooking pot with lid. Rinse the beans then strain through a mesh colander 5 or 6 times until beans are clean. Add 5 cups water to the pot and then add 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp salt. Place lid on pot and heat over high flame just until the water starts to boil, then turn the flame way down and cook slowly over a low flame for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Cook very slowly over a low flame to make a nice, creamy soup. After the mung beans have cooked for 1 1/2 hours, add the sliced spinach, then cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.

2. Prepare the “Spicy Tomato Butter”

While the dal is cooking, chop all the vegetables and prepare the spicy tomato butter. It is called “spicy tomato butter” because normally, you would use ghee (clarified butter) but you could also use butter or coconut oil if ghee is unavailable. The vegetables are cooked in a large skillet, adding ingredients gradually taking care to time everything very exactly.

Start by adding ghee to the skillet, then bring to a boil and then add the whole cumin seeds. Cook the cumin seeds for about a minute or two until they begin to darken.

Next, turn down the heat to a medium flame and add the sliced onions. Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until the onions are soft and translucent and the flavor of the cumin seeds is infused into the onions. There should also be a very nice aroma of cumin seed at this stage.

Next, add the chopped chili peppers, chopped coriander, ginger and garlic. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon and cook at this stage for a couple of minutes. Just cook long enough at this step to infuse the flavors a little bit.

Next, add the chopped tomatoes, then stir with a wooden spoon and cover the skillet and cook for about 20 minutes until the tomatoes are broken down and a are reddish yellow color. Stir occasionally during this time, taking care not to burn the vegetables. Add a little water if needed and adjust the flame as needed.

3. Add the Cooked Vegetables to the Dal

After the vegetables are cooked and the mung beans and spinach have simmered for 15 minutes, add them to the dal. At this time, add 1/2 tsp of garam masala and perhaps another 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of salt (to taste). Stir with a wooden spoon, then cover the pot and simmer for an additional 15 minutes to marry up all the flavors. Serve hot.

Shown below is a photo of most of the ingredients. Starting from the back row and going left to right: turmeric, chopped garlic, whole cumin seeds, garam masala, 3 large tomatoes, onion, dried mung beans, ginger root, coriander (cilantro) and Anaheim chili peppers.

Shown below is the rest of the ingredients – fresh spinach.

Start by rinsing the mung beans. Rinse them a few times until the water is clear, straining through a mesh colander after each rinsing.

Add 5 cups of water to the rinsed mung beans plus 1/4 tsp. of turmeric and 1 tsp. of salt. We are using sea salt. Place the pot over a high flame then cover and bring to a boil. After it comes to a boil, turn the flame way way down and cook slowly for 1 1/2 hours. Cook it over a low flame to get a creamy texture. Cover it with a lid while cooking.

While the dal is cooking, chop up all the vegetables. Start with the Anaheim chili peppers.

Cut the end off the pepper, then cut the pepper in half.

Remove all the seeds and ribs.

Slice the pepper halves lengthwise into about 4 or 5 slices each.

Now chop into medium sized chunks. Repeat for all three peppers.

Gather up al the chopped peppers into a bowl and set aside for now.

Slice the onion into thin slices. Start by quartering the onion. If you are using two small onions instead of one large onion, you can cut them into halves instead of quarters.

Peel the skin off and slice each part into thin slices.

When the onions are all sliced up, set them aside.

Chop the fresh coriander (cilantro).

Peel the fresh ginger root and slice up into chunks.

Either use a chopper or chop the ginger root with a chef’s knife. Chop it up real fine – nearly minced.

I like to prepare all the chopped ingredients in bowls so they are ready to add when the time comes. Shown below left to right, back to front: ginger root, chopped garlic, coriander and whole cumin seeds. Lately I’ve been doing this a little differently. I place all the chopped peppers in a bowl, then add the coriander, ginger and garlic over the top of the peppers because they are all added to the skillet at the same time.

Finally, chop all the tomatoes and set them aside in a bowl.

Check the dal and stir it with a wooden spoon once in awhile. Keep it covered while cooking.

In a large skillet, add about 4-5 tbsp of ghee or butter over a medium flame. Then add the whole cumin seeds.

Cook the cumin seeds for a minute or so until the seeds start turning dark.

Add the sliced onions, then cook over a medium flame for about 10-12 minutes. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon.

After the onions have cooked for about 10-12 minutes, add the chili peppers, coriander, chopped garlic and ginger root. Cook for 2 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon.

After the chili peppers, coriander, chopped garlic and ginger root have cooked for 2 minutes, add the chopped tomatoes.

Stir all the vegetables together with a wooden spoon.

Cover the skillet and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After the dal has cooked for 1 1/2 hours, add the fresh spinach. I like to cut the spinach into smaller pieces so they aren’t too stringy in the finished soup.

Stir the fresh spinach into the dal until it is completely covered.

Cover the pot with a lid and continue cooking over a very low flame for another 15 minutes.

When the vegetables have finished cooking 20 minutes after the tomatoes have been added, they are ready to be added to the dal.

Add the cooked vegetables to the dal.

Stir the cooked vegetables into the dal and add 1/2 tsp. of garam masala. At this time I like to add about another 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. of salt.

Simmer for about 15 minutes to marry up all the flavors, then serve hot. Serve with brown rice and some naan bread. Naan bread is really good but it can make you hungry so go easy on it.