Dat Pakal
Today पालक दाल, or Dat Pakal. Saturday at the market I found the first spinaches of the season; I could not leave them there, at all, and this morning I started bustling about in the kitchen quite early: preparing for the whole week, as I won’t have time to cook.
Ingredients:
spinaches
chickpeas
salt
pepper
yellow mustard seeds
coriander
cumin
extra virgin olive oil
onion
garlic
lemon
soya cream
hot pepper oil
Method:
First of all, clean and wash the spinaches, and boil them. Once ready, blend them coarsely, and cook them in a pan with oil, onion, garlic, an abundant handful of cumin and coriander, as well as salt and pepper, and maybe a drop of hot oil. When done, the juice of half a lemon will correct the flavour and donate brightness. Meanwhile, prepare the chickpeas (I use the split and toasted ones, they remain more compact: roasted chana dal), soaked overnight; cook them in a pressure cooker (you can also add, at your will, other vegetables as well, or some diced potatoes); they’ll be done in five minutes. Once spinaches and chickpeas are ready, here it comes the highlight of the dish: the mustard. Take a large pan, add a little olive oil and a generous handful of yellow toasted mustard seeds; when ready, incorporate the spinach (you can try this dihs with Swiss chard as well: I’ve tried it) and chickpeas, and let it cook. In the winter version, towards the end, you can add a generous tablespoon of soya cream: the result is hot and soft, tender and crunchy… you’ll love it!
Chef: FranciBB from VeganBlog
I fancy an Indian taste for today, this is a good idea you know