Daal Palak / Daal with Spinach

This for me a wonderful two-in-one option. On days that I don't want to a daal and a vegetable, this nifty daal comes into play. It has the goodness of toor daal and the lush green seasonal spinach. Its an easy preparation and can be paired with rice or rotis. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup toor daal
2 cups packed chopped spinach
1 medium onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 green chilies, tops cut off and slit through the middle
1 inch knob of ginger, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Salt
Lemon

Soak the toor daal for half an hour and drain. Pressure cook with fresh water for two whistles. Let the pressure release naturally. 

In a wide saucepan, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the onions along with the chilies and ginger. Saute them while stirring occasionally. When they are translucent, add the tomatoes. Cook them till they are soft. Now add the chopped spinach and saute while stirring. The spinach will shrivel and darken in colour as it cooks. Cook it for 5-7 minutes. We will be cooking it with the daal so we don't want to cook it a lot right now. 

When the pressure cooker has cooled, stir the daal it to coarsely mash it. Now pour the daal into the onion-tomato-spinach mixture. Add the salt and turmeric and bring to a boil. Add water to adjust consistency of the daal. If you are planning to have it with roti, thicker daal is fine, with rice, slightly thinner is better. 

Serve the hot daal with a wedge of lemon.