Vegan Spinach Curry with Lentil and Coconut | Dal Palak Curry

This spinach curry is an easy-to-make, flavorful side dish that can be served with rice, flatbread, or dosa for a complete meal. The spinach is cooked with beans or chickpeas in dal and coconut curry.

Recipe card

Vegan Spinach Curry with Lentil and Coconut | Dal Palak Curry

Kushi

This spinach curry is an easy-to-make side dish that can be served with rice, flatbread, or dosa for a complete meal. The spinach is cooked with beans or chickpeas in a flavorful dal and coconut curry.

5 from 12 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6

Calories 195 kcal

Equipment

• ▢
  Pressure cooker

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 Bunch Spinach or Palak a small bunch roughly chopped
• ▢ 1 can White beans or chickpeas
• ▢ 1 Tomato chopped

For the coconut paste

• ▢ ½ cup Grated coconut fresh, dry or frozen
• ▢ 3 to 4 Dry red chilies; can use red chile powder instead
• ▢ Tamarind small ball approx ½ tbsp
• ▢ 4 to 6 Cashews optional

For pressure cooking dal

• ▢ ½ Onion chopped
• ▢ 1 Green chilli slit
• ▢ 1 inch Ginger grated
• ▢ ½ cup Toor dal split pigeon peas or any lentil
• ▢ Salt to taste

Instructions

 

Pressure cook the dal

• Wash and add the toor dal to the pressure cooker along with onion, green chili, ginger, and approximately 2 to 2 ½ cups of water. (Water should be at least ½ inch above the toor dal.)
  ½ Onion chopped, 1 Green chilli, 1 inch Ginger grated, ½ cup Toor dal
• Pressure cook for three whistles or until the dal becomes soft—one whistle on high flame and two on medium flame.
• Once the pressure drops, open the lid, whisk the dal, and keep it aside.

Making of the coconut paste

• Grind the grated coconut, dry red chilies, tamarind, and cashews with very little water to form a thick, smooth paste. 
  ½ cup Grated coconut, 3 to 4 Dry red chilies; can use red chile powder instead, Tamarind, 4 to 6 Cashews

Making of the spinach coconut lentil curry.

• Add the ground paste to the cooked dal and bring it to a nice boil. You can add water for desired consistency and salt as needed.
  Salt to taste
• Add spinach, canned beans or chickpeas, and tomato, boil them, and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes.
  1 Bunch Spinach or Palak, 1 can White beans, 1 Tomato
• Serve hot with steamed rice, neer dosa, and any flatbreads, and enjoy.

Notes

• Rinse and drain the canned beans to reduce the amount of sodium.
• Vary the amount of dry red chili as per your taste.
• In India, we use toor dal while making gravy like dal palak. Feel free to use any lentil of your choice. Taste and cooking time will vary accordingly. 
• This recipe is inspired by vali ambat (malabar spinach curry) from konkani cuisine. I will share the recipe for the same soon. 

Nutrition

Calories: 195kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 9gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.3gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.5gSodium: 239mgPotassium: 517mgFiber: 8gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 401IUVitamin C: 37mgCalcium: 70mgIron: 3mg

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Dal palak curry

Dal is lentil and palak means spinach in English. A flavorful vegetarian and vegan curry prepared using fresh spinach leaves, coconut, dal or lentil of your choice with canned beans or chickpeas. The combination of these ingredients gives this dish a unique taste.

Palak curry can be served with steamed rice, Mangalorean neer dosa, ragi mudde, any Indian flatbreads, or Idiyappam. This is my variation of classic and traditional Konkani Palak ambat or vali ambat.

Ingredients

Spinach: 1 bunch of palak for the recipe.
Beans: Use any canned beans like white beans, kidney beans, rajma, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, etc.
Coconut: For authentic taste, use fresh coconut. Dry or frozen will also work.
Dal: Toor dal is used to make dal palak, but you can use lentils that are easily available. Check out the visuals of Indian dal.

Read the recipe card for the full list of ingredients.

Step-by-step instructions

Pressure cook the dal

• Wash and add the toor dal to the pressure cooker along with onion, green chili, ginger, and approximately 2 to 2 ½ cups of water. (Water should be at least ½ inch above the toor dal.)
•  Pressure cook for three whistles or until the dal becomes soft—one whistle on high flame and two on medium flame. 
• Once the pressure drops, open the lid, whisk the dal, and keep it aside.

Making of the coconut paste

Grind the grated coconut, dry red chilies, tamarind, and cashews with very little water to form a thick, smooth paste. 

Making of the spinach lentil coconut curry.

• Add the ground paste to the cooked dal and bring it to a nice boil. You can add water for desired consistency and salt as needed.
• Add spinach, canned beans or chickpeas, and tomato, boil them, and simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Serve hot with steamed rice, neer dosa, and any flatbreads, and enjoy.

Tips

• Rinse and drain the canned beans to reduce the amount of sodium.
• Vary the amount of dry red chili as per your taste.
• In India, we use toor dal while making gravy like dal palak. Feel free to use any lentil of your choice. Taste and cooking time will vary accordingly. 
• This recipe is inspired by vali ambat (malabar spinach curry) from konkani cuisine. I will share the recipe for the same soon. 

More coconut lentil recipes

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Note: We originally posted this vegan spinach curry recipe in Aug 2015. It has now been modified in Jan 2024 with Expert Chef Tips, FAQs, Storage Instructions, etc.