A creamy, saucy and packed with spinach, this Palak Moong is a great accompaniment to both rice and roti.
My theme for the last week of this month's blogging marathon is 'Dazzling Dals'. Lentils, legumes form a very important part of our diet and I am always looking for new recipes. So when I saw this theme, I took it up to try some new dishes for the family. First up is this 'Palak Moong' that is great to serve with both rice or roti.
This Palak Moong recipe is from Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries cookbook. This dal is made with whole moong (mung beans). I mostly use whole moong to make pesarattu or I sprout them and use in salads and rice dishes. So this dish sounded really interesting to me.
Original recipe doesn't call for soaking the lentils. But I soaked them for 4 hours, this helped in cooking them faster. So, if you have time soak them, if not, it's totally fine - but it will take a little longer to cook.
This dal is as much about the moong beans as it is about the spinach. There's quite a bit of spinach in the recipe - as you all know spinach wilts and cooks down to a fraction of it's initial volume. In this recipe a lot of spinach is cooked along with the dal until its velvety soft and creamy. If you like creamy and delicious dal, do try this recipe and I am sure you will love it.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 88.
Palak Moong
Ingredients
- 1 cup Whole Green Moong dal (Sabut Moong)
- 4~5 cups Spinach, chopped
- 2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 3~4 Green Chilies
- 2 tbsp Oil (or ghee, for a non-vegan version)
- 1 Small Red Onion, finely chopped
- 2" Ginger piece, finely grated
- 1 Large Tomato, chopped
- To taste salt
Instructions
- Rinse moong dal thoroughly and soak in lots of water for 4~6 hours or overnight.
- Combine the soaked dal with 4 cups of water, bring to a boil and cook uncovered, over medium heat. Skim off and discard the foam that forms on the surface.
- Add the spinach, a little at a time to the pan. Cook till the spinach wilts. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the dal is almost tender but still firm-looking, about 20~30 minutes.
- Uncover the pan, raise the heat to medium and continue to simmer the lentils, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly and the spinach starts to look very soft, about 15 minutes.
- While the curry is simmering, coarsely grind cumin seeds and chilies to a paste.
- Heat the oil or ghee in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and ginger, cook until onion is light brown around the edges, 5~8 minutes.Stir in the cumin-chili mixture, tomato and salt. Simmer over medium heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomato softens and gets mushy, about 3~5 minutes. Add the onion mixture to the cooked lentils and mix well and cook for the flavors to mingle, 8~10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve and Enjoy!!
Priya Suresh
Just need some rotis to clean this nutritious, protein packed palak moong, omg seriously very irresistible Pavani. What an incredible vegan dal there.
Usha
I recently started making dals with whole moong. Palak whole moong dal looks so creamy and delicious. Will try this soon.
Vaishali
Paalak in moong sounds like a fantastic combo , we use Chana daal in Paalak but this sounds like a perfect wholesome dish . Definitely a must try .
Gayathri Kumar
Highly nutitious dal recipe. It looks so creamy. Adding spinach is brilliant as it is easier to feed kids with greens when served like this..
Varada
Mung beans and spinach sounds awesome together. We make usal with whole mung beans and I use a coconut cilantro base. I can imagine how flavorful spinach would be. Nice one!
Mayuri Patel
Tasty preparation, I often add spinach to whole moong as that was one way to get the kids to have spinach. I still add some whenever I can as it makes the moong taste so different.
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth
I have that book and I literally sink in it each time I open it! Haha too many choices! The moong dal curry with palak would be lovely to scoop up with some chapathis...
Srivalli
Using whole moong is a great idea, and I am sure this is a filling dal! I am sure this will taste excellent with rotis and rice as well!..wonderful choice Pavani..
Sandhiya
It's my favorite dal recipe with spinach.I have prepared the same way expect whole moong dal, i usually use the split yellow moong dal. Looks so delicious, Pavani.
Renu
Such a simple yet so healthy and comforting Dal... beautiful pics..
Harini
Simple and comforting for sure. I often feel bad that we don't use the whole mung beans as frequently. I am sure this will inspire people like me to cook with mung beans more often 🙂
Sowmya
Just reading the recipe is making me drool. Spinach and moong sounds like a flavourful and delicious accompaniment to some hot rotis.
farah
beautiful pics .....this recipe is super healthy...............will definitely try my luck with my kids........:)
themadscientiststskitchen
Drooling over the pictures. I cannot concentrate on the recipe. Looks delicious
Chef Mireille
a hearty and healthy dal - I love spinach in anything - would love this
sapana
I normally make palak moong with split moong dal but using the whole moong sounds a wonderful idea. Such comforting and tasty dal.
Sanjeev
Very well-balanced recipe except for point #8 in the recipe. There is mention of adding sauce to the lentils. Is there a sauce that we require to add at this stage?
cookshideout
Hi Sanjeev, thank you for pointing that out. 'Sauce' is a typo in that step. It refers the sautéed onion-tomato mixture. I've updated the recipe accordingly. Hope this helps.