Toor dal/ toovar dal/ Yellow lentils with spinach(palak)/Palakura pappu

NOTES

• Dried beans, peas and lentils, known collectively as "dal," form a large part of the average Indian diet.
• The protein supplied by dal soups and stews is especially important given India's large vegetarian population.
• Dal dishes are called sambar in southern India, where they are spicier than in the North and made primarily with lentils such as toor dal.
• Split peas dishes are usually served with bread, whereas dishes made with lentils are more often served with rice.
  Sometimes spelled daal or dhal.
  

Ingriedents:

Spinach frozen.....................1cup

if you are using fresh then add 1 bunch of fresh washed and cut into small pieces

Toor dal (Kandi Pappu).............1cup

Tomatoes small sized..............4

Onion big size..........................1 cut into pieces

Indian variety green chillies............ 7 to 8

Turmeric (pasupu).................1tsp

Very small size ball tamarind (Chinta pandu)

water...................3 cups

Coriander leaves for granishing.

For popu or tadka:

1 tbsp of oil or ghee

1 teaspoon of each - cumin, mustard seeds,

2 pieces of minced garlic,

few pieces of curry leaves and dried red chilli pieces

Recipe:
1)Add all of the above ingredients except onions.You need to add 3/4 chopped onion in the cooker .Rest of onion you are supposed to use it for tadaka.
2)After pressure-cooking .Add salt as per taste and with a whisk or a wood masher make a paste of spinach dal.
2)In a saucepan, add one tbsp of oil or ghee .After oil is heated then add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
3)Once they start to spluttering add the finely chopped onion,red chilli pieces and curry leaves with minced garlic slightly fry them.
This is called “Popu” or “Tiragamata”in Telugu. Without the Popu the dal is not ‘dal’, so don’t even think about skipping this step. Popu not only adds wonderful fragrance to dal, hot oil or ghee with all other toasted ingredients makes the dal more palatable, sort of like dressing it up.
4)Add the spinach dal to the popu and combine them together. Serve the dal with rice or with chapati/roti.