This easy Spinach Chana Dal or Dal Palak is an incredibly tasty Indian lentil curry recipe. Fresh spinach and an assortment of fragrant Indian spices are blended with creamy chana dal.

Spinach Dal is a must try if you are looking for a flavourful Indian recipe that is naturally vegan and gluten-free.

Spinach chana dal is in a big cast iron pot, topped with cilantro and lime wedges.

You cannot go wrong with a comforting bowl of dal and rice for dinner. Quite possibly the staple dish of India, dal is eaten by everyone. It is a versatile dish that is cheap to make and yet filling.

Dal can come in so many different forms, from a traditional Gujarati Dal, to a royal creamy and smooth Sultani Dal to an innovative Garlicky Dal with Carrot Greens to Whole Masoor Dal.

This Dal Palak (spinach) recipe is a delicious Indian curry or stew made from yellow chana dal and fresh spinach. There are various ways of making dal palak and often households will use toor dal (or arhar daal/tuvar or split pigeon peas) and tomatoes. This particular recipe is made without tomatoes.

What I love about this dal is that the spinach is finely chopped/crushed meaning the spinach incorporates into the dal rather than having whole spinach leaves floating around.

The dal is quite thick and has a creamy texture. Why not add an extra flourish with a second tadka/tempering to enhance the flavours further.

Ingredients

Let's discuss a few of the important ingredients in this recipe. For exact measurements, please see recipe card below

Chana Dal

Chana Dal or Bengal Gram is made from split black chickpeas which have been skinned. It is always useful to keep chana dal around because it doesn't require soaking as many other lentils do prior to cooking. Of course if you have the time, you can always soak one hour beforehand!

For a quick recipe try Instant Pot Gujarati Chana Dal which uses basic ingredients but has that authentic sweet adn sour Gujarati food zing.

Spinach we have used fresh baby spinach but you can use normal spinach too. Use frozen if you cannot find fresh. We used a food processor to coarsely crush the blanched spinach.

Have leftover spinach? Try making Spinach Rotli with your next curry or add in this Paneer Palak Kofta Curry.

Onion, Green chillies, Ginger & Garlic the golden quartet in Indian cooking. These ingredients give a delicious depth to the dal and are an important ingredient in a lot of North Indian cooking

Indian spices warm masalas like red chilli powder, ground cumin and coriander and garam masala are needed for this dal. We have also used kasoori methi which always gives a restaurant-style flavour to this dal.

What to serve with Dal Palak

This dal is made with onion so it is not mild in flavour but punchy and robust. I would probably not eat this with another spicy curry as the flavours can become overwhelming.

Personally, I would enjoy the incredible flavours of this dal alone or with a very mild curry that is not made with onion and garlic.

Whilst the dal is cooking away, you can quickly make this Easy Potato Chips Curry or Bombay Potatoes as this curry uses only basic spices and is so quick to make.

I also love my dal with round and soft Gujarati rotlis

For a fresh zingy salad, try an Indian style salad such as kachumber - finely chopped salad with a lemon juice dressing.

An overhead shot of spinach chana dal in a cast iron pan with a wooden serving spoon.

Can I freeze Spinach Chana Dal?

Spinach Dal freezes really well. Once the dal is cooled, place in a freezer-safe container. Once defrosted, simply reheat again on the stove. You may need to add a few tablespoons of water to loosen it.

I like to add another vaghar or a pinch of garam masala as it revives the flavours and the dal seems as if it has been freshly made.

Make some Dal Paratha if small amount leftovers.

How to make Spinach Chana Dal

Tips for the best dal

The trick to getting the tastiest and creamiest dal is to ensure the lentils are cooked until they are very tender and breaking apart.

In this recipe, we have cooked the chana dal separately until it is mushy and soft which dal is then added to a vaghar or tadka of cumin seeds.

Cook the chana dal in the instant pot or in a pan.

Also, we have blanched fresh spinach and ground into a coarse paste before adding it to the dal. See recipe card below to see how to blanch spinach.

For the best tasting dal, use fresh ingredients where possible.

Method

In a thick bottomed pan heat oil.
Add cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Cumin seeds and asafoetida added into the hot oil for vaghar

Add roughly chopped onion, saute on low heat until it turns light pink.
Then added crushed ginger, garlic and green chillies. Saute for a few seconds.

Chopped onion added into the cumin seeds temper to make dal

Crushed chilli,ginger and chillies added to the onion and cumin tempering

Now add all the spice masalas and kasoori methi.
Mix well, add boiled chana dal.

Four Indian spices masala added to the onion garlic mixture

Mix, let the dal cook for 5 minutes.
Add coarsely ground spinach, mix well.

Coarsely ground spinach added to the chana dal

Adding salt in spinach chana dal in a pan

Mix well, simmer the dal for 5 minutes more. If very thick add little water. Turn off the heat, add lemon/lime juice. Garnish it with fresh chopped cilantro/coriander before serving.

Spinach chana dal served in a cast iron pan on a grey backdrop next to dark grey kitchen napkin

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

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Other Dal/Lentil based recipes