Masoor Palak Medley spiced with Garlic (A very light Veggie and Lentil Combo)

Masoor Palak Medley, originally uploaded by Anupama 72.

This weekend was one devoted to hogging everything in sight. It started on Friday evening itself when I had friends and their kids over for a high tea. I made Paneer Tikki with Chole,(It was all eaten up before I could take any snaps), Banana Muffins and Yummy Biscuit Rolls. Everyone loved all the goodies.

We had the leftovers as Saturday Brunch. On saturday a friend invited us over for a sleepover and made a very delicious continental meal of Oat Cakes topped with grilled Chicken and drizzled with garlic sauce from the Schwartz range. This was accompanied by sauted Vegetables and mashed potato. Yum Yum Yum!!!. I even had 2 glasses of wine.

Then dawned Sunday, a beautiful sunny and cold crispy day. We all went for a nice drive and ended up at a cute little pub called The Bell Inn. So lunch there was Smoked Haddock and Mozarella Fish Cakes drizzled with Sweet Chilli Sauce. I even managed to polish off some Brownie and Vanilla ice Cream which my son could not finish. So after stuffing myself for 4 consecutive meals Sunday night had to be something light.I know I know you all are probably thinking that this woman should be fasting for the next whole week after all that hogging but I had to make something for the family, didn't I? Can't have them starve . So after all those English meals I turned Desi again and we had a light supper of Dal Palak which I have very stylishly named Masoor Palak Medley.(Nice name though isn't it?) accompanied by plain Jeera Rice and a Salad.

I am sure you guys are thinking that this female has eaten all that delicious sounding food and and what does she put up on the blog, some plain old dal palak. But its really delicious and very wholesome and the simplest thing in the world to make.

What you need:

1 cup Masoor dal (Split red lentils), 2 cups tender spinach leaves blanched, 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tspn Cumin seeds , 1/2 tspn sugar, 1 tblspn lemon juice , 1/4 tspn turmeric powder, chilly powder to taste, Salt to taste.

• Cover the masoor dal with boiling water and continue cooking until the dal turns mushy. It will turn yellow on cooking.
• In a pan heat the oil and add the jeera and hing and then the chilli, and turmeric powders. After a few mins add the blanched Spinach and the masoor dal and mix the two gently together. Add the lemon juice, sugar and salt.
• Prepare a tempering of hot oil and chopped garlic and pour this over the daland palak mixture. For a hotter version add a few dried red chillies to the tempering.
  Serve with hot rice, or parathas.