Test cook Becky Hays makes Palak Dal (Spinach Dal with Cumin and Mustard Seeds).
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If I serve this in my home, someone will hit me in the head. Tadka served seperately is a big No-No.
This is phenomenal. I've tried and failed to make authentic tasting Indian food in the past – but finally success! This is fairly easy and the result is amazing. I substituted basil leaves for the curry leaves (don't have them) in the tadka and loved the result. It's nice that you can adjust spiciness by choosing to garnish the dish with the peppers from the tadka or not.
Lame – doesn't include the recipe.
This looks so good.
This is so ridiculously delicious and easy. I just taught my teenage son how to make it.
Palak is Hindi for Spinich (not any greens). Greens would be Hara
1.5 cups of red lentils
1 tbsp ginger
4.5 cups of water
3/4 tsp turmeric
Cook lentils 18-20 mins
Tadka
1 onion chopped
6 cloves garlic sliced
Serrano halved lengthwise
15 Curry leaves
4 dried Arbol chilis
1.5 tsp cumin seed
1.5 brown Mustard seed
Cook with ghee 3 tbsp
sizzle spices for 30 seconds
Add onion cook for about 5 mins
Add chilis curry leaves and garlic
Add spinach to lentils
Add 1.5 tsp to lentils, add salt
Plate with cilantro
Pretty bland overall, unfortunately. Recommend adding cumin and extra salt and doubling the size of the Tadka. Too many lentils to tadka as written. I’d make again, but would use a more traditional recipe.
Dear "tadka chef" of America test kitchen,
It is not pronounced "tad-ka" rather "tar-ka".
Use curry leaves and mustards for garnish… The garnish should be popping.
If using masur daal (red lentils like you did) fry the onions in ghee and then put the red lentils in after the onions have browned a bit. Cummins and turmeric goes in seconds before the onions.
Everything else is good..
And the curry leaves and mustard seed part… Use vegetable oil in a small pan… Heat the oil till smoking hot… Drop in the curry leaves and mustards within 5 seconds and cover with a lid. While still popping drop in the tarka.
Wow it looks very bright and appetizing. 👌
At first I was suspicious of this video but you know what, it's a great recipe! well executed, agree with other commenters saying you should stir in the tadka directly into the dish right before serving but besides that, excellent!
1:26 "use 3:1 ratio of WATER to lentils"
This is also a dish I love thus I will also provide a set of instructions as well.
DO MORE INDIAN DISHES! EXPLORE PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESH FOODS!
When you pour out the lentils, pour them into a pot that you will cook in. Look for little rocks in there and clean. Pour water into the pot and swish the lentils with your hand and pour away most of the water, if you have a lid for the pan then put the lid on and let the little bit of water slip through and out and tada your lentils are clean and you wasted less water.
You can use just ginger but for people who eat this on the regular we just buy a thing of ginger+garlic paste and it never goes bad, add a tablespoons worth of that in because GG is always good.
Tadka is also known as Bahgar depending on language and region.
I could hug her right now! Ghee bahgar is completely different from the oil version but remember ghee is butter and has its own strong taste that takes away from the other flavors. The curry leaves don't have to be torn up like that, the garlic should be cut a bit thicker and the onions a bit thinner. Garlic thicker because your putting it into fat to cook so it will brown and burn fast which tbh tastes good in daal but a crunchier bigger piece is nice. The onions need to be fried in oil or butter and through that the water goes away and it sweetens.
The arbol chilies should have been added into the oil first to let it release and flavor the oil then the cumin seeds and mustard. Depending on the region I guess the onion amount is too much as the bahgar is usually something you add at the very end on the top to give it a gloss and shimmer of extra different layered flavor.
Use a hand blender and puree it, it's daal a soup not a gritty oatmeal.
In all its a very different dish from the Palak daal I grew up eating but maybe the region she picked this version from does it like this.
Everyone should try lentils, just go for it.
I love this woman
The red lentils can be easily replaced with any other dal . like toor or moong. I absolutely love the moong dal combination
God, her voice…..
I’ve enjoyed all of your 'cooking at home' the less scripted and less swap outs lets the viewer see you don’t have to be perfect.
Thank you for these
I love that you threw the lentil on the floor! Ha, would have done the same 🙂
Nice to have this dal-palak recipe on ATK!
But tadka is typ not individually spooned in bowl… we mix it together for all…
Also I would put in chilies before onions. I think they fry better that way
And – one of these days, maybe we will learn how to say ghee properly. And palak. And basmati. And tadka. These words aren’t difficult to say. We just need to want to say them correctly! Cmon now!
Wonderful recipe.
I also think that adding the hot tadka to the legume gives it a bit of flavor, as in refried beans in Mexican cuisine. I guess one advantage of adding it separately for an American palate is that each person can add as much or as little as they want based on their preference since many Americans cannot handle very much spice or heat in their food (though I think this is slowly changing across the country.)
I usually like ATK but this woman is annoying.
That's an easy way to make it, I can't wait to try your method.
Delicious and nutritious!
LOL
Becky with the good hair cooking dal !
now i've seen it all !
Curry leaves
Should you take off the stems on the dried arbol?
Love that they're making more Indian dishes. Indian food doesn't get nearly the amount of recognition that it should in the United States
very helpful, but please talk correctly.
You mentioned keeping the chiles in your freezer: what are other common ingredients one can keep in the freezer and how long do they keep?
It is nice that you now include ethnic cuisine in your recipe/instructional videos. There is another good food trend happening that would be good to include. It’s called a whole food plant based diet. People eat this way to maintain a healthy weight, prevent and reverse serious yet common illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, auto-immune disorders and more. This isn’t a fad. In fact doctors can become board certified in lifestyle medicine now, and the lifestyle includes a whole food plant based diet. It would be excellent if you included recipes for this way of eating. Thanks!
Wow my mouth is watering right now. Thank for explaining Ghee I have always wondered what the difference was.
Fancy!!!
LoL
It looks like poo
Looks good but the the onions should be thinly sliced instead of diced and they should be browned and there needs to be more fat in the tadka.
Another white woman showing how to make indian cooking. You couldn't hire a POC from the region to do this? Disliked and unsubscribed. I wish the dislike counter was visible.
I am so sorry my dear, but your recipe is a complete abomination. This is definitely not the way Palak Dhal is made. You did great until you got to the tadka, after that you did a complete detour from the way dhal is made and served. Please check out Vahchef’s channel on YouTube, you will definitely get an authentic dhal method here. I understand that there are different variations on a recipe, but this was something totally different that you made.
One of the best vegetarian dishes,
Palak means spinach not green. The topping goes directly on the daal while it is in the pot.
I love Becky! Such fun in the kitchen. Such a fabulous video, I'll b trying this one for sure.
can dried curry leaves be used? thanks
Romero rosemary) and Tumeric, super Healthy
You made it your own👍🏽. Consider skimming the foam when lentil comes to boil. Skim as much. It is bitter and doesn’t add but detracts😊. After skimming, add turmeric.
Every Tarka is per the cooks preferences, so I will defer to you. 🙏🏽🌻
Loving the natural way you cook. Not sanitized. Makes me feel welcomed
One of my favorite ATK chefs showing me a new dish! I know it'll be good because Becky as always explains everything so well.
Looks great! Hail to the ghee!😎
I'll do whatever Becky wants me to do.
Becky, you know how to get my mouth watering! I'm going to have to try it.
With all love this was the most westernised tarka I have seen – used as a topping.
This is all blunder you are doing in making of tadka. This is not a side dish which you adding on top of daal and rice while serving. Follow this process: After the ghee is hot, add mustard, cumin and garlic after popping up of seeds. Once the garlic is little pink, add onion, curry leaves and chillies. Once its brown, you can add some chopped tomato or if not, add all the daal directly in to this tadka. Prepared daal should be available beforehand.