Red lentils, or masoor dal, are a weeknight dinner superstar: They’re inexpensive, quick-cooking, and endlessly versatile. “I often cook a lot of masoor dal over the weekend to quickly flavor during the week for last-minute meals,” says cookbook author and Brooklyn Delhi founder Chitra Agrawal. “This dal palak packed with spinach is one of my go-to ways to use it.” If you’re strapped for time, Agrawal suggests throwing in baby spinach straight from the package rather than washing and chopping mature spinach leaves. For an extra savory note, add a big pinch of asafetida to the melted ghee when you add the seeds.
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What you’ll need
Large Straight-Sided Skillet
$200 At Amazon
Mesh Sieve
$13 At Amazon
Medium Saucepan with Lid
$36.99 At Amazon
Citrus Juicer
$20 $15 At Amazon
Microplane
$18 At Amazon
Ingredients
4 Servings
1
¼
1
1½
2
½
½
½
1
1
2
1
3
Preparation
Step 1
Rinse dal in a fine-mesh sieve. Transfer to a medium saucepan and pour in 3 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. (Watch carefully as the water can boil over quickly.) Cook, skimming foam from surface, until mixture stops foaming, about 3 minutes. Stir in turmeric. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer until tender, 25–30 minutes. Remove from heat and squeeze in juice from a lime half, then stir in 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt.
Step 2
Meanwhile, melt ghee in a high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add mustard, cumin, and fennel seeds and cook (a matter of seconds) until mustard seeds start to pop and oil around other seeds is sizzling. Reduce heat to medium. Add chile and stir to coat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally to coat, until translucent and softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add spinach and ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt and cook, stirring often, until wilted but still bright green, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and squeeze in juice from remaining lime half.
Step 3
Add spinach mixture to dal; season with salt. Divide rice and dal among bowls. Top with cilantro; serve with lime wedges.
Leave a Review
Reviews (68)
Back to TopDelicious! A fabulous weeknight dinner. Makes great leftovers, too! Kept the spinach and lentils separate.
RonnieB
Calgary, AB
3/11/2023
I liked it a lot, my partner wasn't that into it. I wish I made double the spinach mix!
leila
chicago
11/2/2022
Very good. Because everything that’s boiled takes longer at this altitude, used pressure cooker after adding turmeric, which reduced cook time to 10 minutes. Because of this, required only 2.5 cups water. Released pressure manually. Increased all spices by 50%. Worked well with 2 cups chopped frozen spinach, thawed before adding. Keeper.
Fran
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
9/28/2022
One of my favorite Bon Appetit recipes to date. Made the dish as written, and it was fantastic.
MC
Detroit, MI
9/21/2022
It certainly is a good recipe however, I would add another veg like zucchini to add more texture
Gillian
Toronto Canada
5/3/2022
Absolutely delicious. Do keep an eye on the cook of the lentils and be careful not to burn the seeds but it's easy and fast to make. I serve it with salmon which is actually a really good flavor combination. The really beautiful thing is that it requires almost no salt but still has tons of flavor.
Lisa E
4/19/2022
Simple, precise and delicious. Perfect comfort food for Sunday night dinner with bonus leftovers for the week.
Kajal
4/17/2022
Great comfort food. Red lentils come in various sizes, if you're using the tiny ones, cut the cooking time in 1/2.
Anonymous
St. Helena, CA
1/14/2022
I thought it was going to be soup but it wasn't after another five minutes of cooking. Very nice texture and delicious over rice. The use of whole seeds instead of ground really makes this a special dish. Leave out the chile if you don't like it hot or someone in your party has an intolerance.
Lisa E
12/5/2021
Check your lentils for doneness well before 25 minutes! I neglected to do that, and my lentils turned into complete mush. Otherwise, this was tasty. I did double the seasonings as suggested by another reviewer.
Anonymous
Seattle, WA
12/2/2021
Not bad. More like a lunch rather than a weeknight dinner. I will make this again because I'm always looking for different ways to use lentils!
LA Kitty
Los Angeles, CA
11/19/2021
We enjoyed this. Used some chopped kale and some baby spinach. Our end result was much less vividly yellow, though. Reminded me how good dal can be!
Buckysmom
Houston, TX
11/15/2021
This was an easy and healthy weeknight dish, but mine was not nearly flavorful enough. I used a whole bag of baby spinach -- could that have diluted the flavor? Going to make it again and double or triple the spice quantities.
Anonymous
NYC
11/8/2021
We loved this recipe. The return on flavour is double that of the preparation. So flavourful and warming. I made it for the first time last night and it disappeared so made another batch for lunches this morning. Highly recommended!
Anonymous
Toronto, Canada
11/4/2021
I subbed lime for with tamarind paste because for some reason limes are a dollar apiece recently and it was delicious. Previous commenter Helen asks if it can be a 1 pot meal - my opinion is yes, it will work - but the techniques used do change the flavors. If I were to simplify, I'd cook onions/ginger/fennel in advance, then add lentils and water (skim as best you can until they stop foaming) and add turmeric/salt/lime after skimming - then put spinach on to steam at the end - but I'd still fry mustard/cumin/hot pepper/garlic in ghee or oil separately and add last (look up Tadka). I always use the same small cast iron skillet for this step and just wipe it out afterwards so cleanup is super easy.
Sarah
Kalamazoo
11/2/2021