Palakura Pappu

Palakura Pappu or Spinach Dal is an easy, healthy yet tasty curry. In winter, I always have a bag of frozen spinach in my freezer.

Ingredients

Spinach - 1 Bunch
Toor Dal - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 3
Onion (medium) - 1
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - Lemon sized ball
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 2
Garlic Cloves - 2
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig

1) Wash dal and pour 3 cups of water. Start boiling dal on medium heat.
2) Chop spinach leaves and slit green chillies.
3) Soak tamarind in warm water for a minute and extract the juice out of the same.
4) After the dal is half cooked, add chopped spinach leaves, chopped onion, turmeric and green chillies.
5) Let the spinach and dal cook well (make sure you donot over mix the curry).
6) After it is almost cooked, add tamarind extract and salt. Let the curry cook for 5 more minutes.

For tempering/popu/tadka

Add 2 tbsps of oil to a container. After the oil heats up, add avalu(mustard seeds), red chillies, jeera, urad dal. After the mustard seeds start to splutter, add curry leaves and chopped garlic to the same.

Spinach dal, rice and ghee with usirikaya pickle is an awesome combination.