Spinach and Roasted Tomato Dahl

Recipe: Spinach and Roasted Tomato Dahl

Indian spiced dahl is one of the most versatile dishes you can make

It’s easy to find many Indian Dahl recipes online, all delicious in their own unique way. But to produce an outstanding batch, care during the cooking process is essential. Slow cooking the onions, frying spices until fragrant but not burning them, keeping the lentils with bite and not turning them into mush through over-stirring, these are all important factors when standing at the pot.

Adding flavour to Dahl

Once your cooking technique is under control you can start adding different flavours with each new pot as dahl is a very adaptable dish. Green beans, roasted pumpkin, additional spices, roasted garlic or garnishes such as flavoured yoghurt or marinated feta.

In this recipe of Spinach and Roasted Tomato Dahl, roasted tomatoes and zingy lemon juice give the lentils a juicy and fresh Mediterranean touch. Serve with rice or Homemade Flatbreads.

Vegan version

Substitute regular yoghurt for vegan yoghurt

Spinach and Roasted Tomato Dahl

Print Recipe

Spinach and Roasted Tomato Dahl with fresh lemon and yoghurt

• Author: Flaevor
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 4 – 6 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Cooking oil such as sunflower oil or vegetable oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 heaped tbsp ginger, minced
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 Tbsp turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 green chilli, chopped fine
• 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 200g small Romana tomatoes or regular tomatoes chopped into chunks
• 300g yellow lentils
• 1200ml vegetable stock
• 150g baby spinach
• 1/2 lemon for juice
• Yoghurt for serving (or vegan yoghurt)
• Good olive oil for drizzling

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C / 180°C fan-Forced. Rub tomatoes in a little oil, season with salt and then roast for 15 – 20 minutes or until soft and collapsed.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan and fry onions until soft, then add garlic, cumin, coriander powder, turmeric, garam masala, green chilli and cook gently for 2 – 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Make sure onions and spices don’t dry out as this will burn the flavour. Spices should always stay hydrated, so add a splash more oil if needed to keep them moist.
3. Next place roasted tomatoes into the pan and cook down gently until reduced. Add tomato paste and on low heat let the paste cook down, darken and become thick and sticky.
4. When the tomatoes have melted into the sauce, add the red lentils along with vegetable stock and fenugreek leaves. Combine well and bring to the boil. Once boiling turn to simmer, cover and cook gently for 25 – 30 minutes (you may need to occasionally check to ensure the lentil’s don’t cook too fast. They should be soft but retain bite and texture) If your stove heat is too aggressive and the dahl starts to dry out, add a small amount of water to loosen, but be very gentle stirring it though so you don’t turn the dahl to mush.
5. Open the lid, gently place baby spinach on top of dahl. Replace lid and cook for 1 minute. Remove pot from heat and let it sit, with the lid on for a further 2 minutes. You can then remove the lid and gently stir the wilted spinach through the dahl. (If using defrosted spinach, separate clumps and stir through dahl evenly, then heat through gently for another minute.
6. Finish by squeezing in lemon juice and adding salt if needed. Divide dahl into bowls, drizzle with olive oil and serve with yoghurt on the side.

Notes

1. If you want an extra rich version, spoon in one heaped tablespoon of butter at the end of cooking.

2: If you like dahl with a creamy texture, before adding the spinach blend half the dahl with a hand blender. This will give a creamy texture with a mix of firmer lentils.

Keywords: recipe, food, cooking, dahl, red lentil dahl, indian dahl

Where to source ingredients:

Spices can be purchased online at:

UK: Spice of India

USA: Desi Basket