Spinach Dal With Green Mango

I saw a recipe on the internet for a green mango dal and thought I must try it someday.. So I bought a few green mangoes with the intention of trying it out. I had two bundles of spinach with me, one of which I used to make spinach rice (check my blog for the recipe). I know that spinach dal is something that's been made before.. so I thought, lets combine all three and see what we get! Turned out really nice...So here's the recipe.

Spinach  Dal With Green Mango

Ingredients:
1 bundle of spinach, washed and cut very fine
1 and a half cup of toor dal, rinsed in water
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
1/2 tsp of salt
pinch of asofetida
6 cups of water

2 small green mangoes. Cut into square pieces, leaving the skin on.
2 stock cubes

For the tadka (final tempering/seasoning):
2 tbsps. of ghee
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 dried whole Kashmiri red chillies
4 garlic cloves chopped fine
handful of curry leaves, washed and wiped dry
pinch of asafetida

Method:
Put the washed dal in a pressure cooker, along with the finely chopped spinach, salt, turmeric powder and asafetida. Add in the water, and cover and close the pressure cooker. Turn the heat on to the highest setting and when it whistles, lower and time for 15 mins.

Once the timer is finished, take the cooker off the heat. Pressure cookers are dangerous and need to be handled with care so this is what I usually do when I need to open it; to release the steam you need to lift off the counterweight gradually and bleed off the steam, I usually do this by levering the weight with a fork and adjusting it to let out the steam gently or just run the sides of the cooker under water until it has suffficiently cooled down to reduce the pressure in the cooker.

Do NOT attempt to open the cooker without letting off the steam as this could result in some serious steam burns.

Put the opened pressure cooker back on a medium heat.

Add in the mango pieces including the seed. Add the stock cubes. I used two (one small box) of maggi cubes. The stock cubes I used were chicken, but you can substitute it for a vegetarian one, or just use salt. Cook further for another 10 minutes. If you feel the dal is too thick add more water to it. Prepare the tadka.

Tadka:
Heat ghee in a small pan. When hot, add in the whole red chillies, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the chopped garlic and pinch of asafetida. Make sure the oil is not too hot, as you do not want to burn the tadka.

Add while still hot to the dal. Give it a good stir, check for seasoning and serve.