I was delighted to read Roopa Gulati’s new cookbook, Indian Kitchens: Treasured Family Recipes from Across the Land (Bloomsbury, 2025; Amazon / Bookshop). It reads like a deeply soulful love letter to the kitchens of India, kitchens that tell stories, hold memories, and reflect the incredible diversity of communities across the country.
Chana Dal with Spinach
It’s usual to use chana dal for this dish, but you could also make it with split yellow peas. Both have a robust, almost meaty flavour, which stands up well to leafy green vegetables. Add the softened spinach at the last minute, so that it retains its fresh grassy-green colour. This dal is finished with a fried tarka flourish, made with sizzling spices, garlic, ginger and the sharpness of green chillies.
- Yield: 4
Ingredients
7 oz [200g] split Bengal gram (chana dal ), washed and soaked in hot water for 2–3 hours
¼ tsp ground turmeric
12 1/4 oz [350g] baby spinach leaves
juice of ½ lime
sea salt
FOR THE TARKA
1 3/4 oz [50g] ghee or 5 tbsp sunflower oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 dried Kashmiri red chilli
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 oz [30g] ginger root, peeled and finely grated
2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped
1 tomato, diced
Instructions
- Discard the soaking water from the Bengal gram and transfer the dal to a pressure cooker. Cover with water by a depth of 4 cm. Add the turmeric and cook under pressure for 30 minutes, until the gram is soft and has broken down. Roughly crush the dal with a potato masher against the side of the pan.
- Aim for the consistency of thick soup. If it looks a bit watery, boil the dal for a few more minutes without any pressure. Alternatively, put the Bengal gram and turmeric in a medium pan and cover with water to a depth of 4cm. Half-cover the pan and cook the dal on a medium heat for about 1½–2 hours, until completely tender, adding extra water if needed to prevent it from becoming too thick. Roughly crush the dal in the same way with a potato masher. Keep the dal warm.
- Heat a sturdy, dry pan on a high heat and add the spinach. Cook, stirring all the time, until the leaves start to wilt – this should take 1 minute. (You may need to do this in batches.) Scoop the leaves into a colander set over a bowl and leave to cool. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze any excess liquid out of the leaves with the palms of your hands, then roughly chop them. Leave to one side.
- For the tarka, heat the ghee or oil in a small pan on a medium–high heat and add the cumin seeds and Kashmiri chilli. Swirl everything around for about 20 seconds, until the cumin releases its nutty fragrance and the chilli swells and becomes darker.
- Turn down the heat to medium and add the garlic, ginger and green chillies and fry for 1 minute. Stir the diced tomato and cook for another 2 minutes, until softened.Tip this tarka into the hot dal, season generously with salt, then stir in the chopped spinach. Reheat and finish with the lime juice before serving straight away.
