Moong Dal with Mushrooms & Spinach (Green Gram Lentils)

Doc and I are at the point in our lives where it seems like every week brings a new happy announcement from friends.  Babies, marriages, vacations, new houses, graduations, engagements, promotions.  It's been a giddy time.  

Last week one of my college buddies posted about some aversions she was having during her pregnancy, in particular how she was struggling with meats and dairy.  I offered up some of the dal/bean recipes I've posted.  As I went through them I realized that I had a few more I wanted to add, including this one for mung/moong dal (also called green gram).  So her happy news is good for all of us because it means a new post.

(I won't Piro-rant you with excuses about infrequent posts this spring.  The long and short of it is that I've been enjoying salads and fresh veggies more often than not.  I feel silly posting salad recipes and I don't delude myself that anyone is anxious for the next installment, so I've been waiting for recipes that I felt were worth sharing.)

Moong Dal with Mushrooms & Spinach

Total Time:  2 hours soaking (can be done while at work / overnight) + apx. 1 hour cooking the beans and ~30 minutes making the flavorings.  The process can be sped up by cooking the beans and flavorings at the same time or using a pressure cooker for the beans. 

Weirdest Spice:  Fenugreek leaves.  Can be substituted (fenugreek powder, celery seeds, celery salt, lemon leaves) or omitted.  

Credits:  I can't say I have a base or inspiration recipe for this one.  It bears a resemblance to my basic tadka dal, if that counts.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup green gram (moong / mung dal)
• 3 cups boiling water
• 1 tsp oil or ghee
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 0.5 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1.5 tsp chili powder or paprika (optional, adjust to taste)
• 2 cups pureed tomato
• 2 tsp fenugreek leaves
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cream or coconut milk (optional, adjust to taste)
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly in a fine-mesh sieve under warm water until the water runs clear.
2. Pour the boiling water over the lentils in a heat-proof bowl.  Set aside to soak for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Transfer the lentils and water to a large nonstick saucepan and heat on the stove on medium-high.  When the water boils, turn the heat down to low and simmer approximately 1 hour or until lentils are soft.  Stir occasionally, adding more water if needed in order to keep the lentils covered with a small amount of water (see pictures below for an example).
4. While the lentils are booking, heat a second saucepan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add the oil.  When oil is shimmering, add the cumin seeds.  Allow to cook for 10-30 seconds or until fragrant.
5. Add diced onions and a dash of salt.  Saute 5-10 minutes or until translucent.
6. Add ginger & garlic pastes, saute 2 minutes.
7. Add the mushrooms, saute 5 minutes.
8. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, and chili powder.  Cook 1-2 minutes or until fragrant, stirring constantly.  Add a small splash of water if needed to keep spices from burning.
9. Add tomato puree and stir until onion paste and tomato puree are well-mixed.  Turn heat down to low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until tomato darkens and loses its raw flavor.
10. Add fenugreek leaves, garam masala, and spinach.  For maximum flavor, use palms to crush the fenugreek leaves before adding.  Cook 5-10 minutes or until spinach is wilted and flavors are incorporated. 
11. When both the lentils and the tomato sauce are cooked, stir them together over low heat.  Salt to taste.
12. Optional:  add cilantro and cream or coconut milk.
13. Serve hot over rice or with flatbread.

What I like best about this lentil recipe is that it's as decadent or as simple as you want to make it.  The difference is the addition of cream or coconut milk at the end.  No cream makes it almost rustic, whereas adding it in makes it restaurant-style in richness.  Or you can shoot for somewhere in the middle, as I usually do.

The first step is to wash and soak your beans.  You can quick-soak in 2 hours by using boiling water, or do it overnight / while you're at work.  

Use 3:1 water to lentils to ensure that they're well-covered and have room to expand.  When you're done soaking you can either use the soaking water or rinse them again and use vegetable stock to cook them instead.  Up to you.

Place the lentils and the cooking water in a large saucepan and dial it up to medium-high.  Ignore the urge to add salt here as that will only increase the cooking time.  

It should take about an hour for the lentils to get soft and for most of the liquid to cook off.  Stir every 5-10 minutes.  Keep an eye so that the lentils don't get dry.  At the end you want a little water/stock in with them but not a huge amount.  Like so:

See how they're soupy but not drowning?  That's the goal at the end.  Add in more liquid as needed if they get much drier than that as they're cooking.  Depending on how dry/old your lentils are it might take more or less than an hour.  It's hard to predict because every bag of lentils is different.  For me it took about an hour and fifteen.

While the lentils are simmering, get the flavoring put together.  

It starts with a second saucepan on medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add the oil, and when the oil is hot, add your cumin seeds.  Ghee is also an okay choice if you're not going for a vegan dish.

The cumin seeds only need about 10-30 seconds in the oil before you'll smell them.  Immediately add in your sliced onions and stir so that the cumin seeds don't burn.

After about 5-10 minutes you'll find the onions have softened up and gotten a bit translucent.  That's the time to add the ginger and garlic pastes.  For some reason, I missed getting a picture of that.  Sorry guys.

Cook the ginger and garlic, stirring occasionally, for about 2-3 minutes.  Then add in the mushroom slices.

About 5 minutes is what it should take for the mushrooms to soften up.  When they are soft add in the spices.  Also toss in a splash of water or stock if the mixture is looking dry in order to keep the spices from burning.

Stir the mushroom-onion-spice mix about 1-2 minutes to cook the spices.

Next up is the tomato puree.  You could use canned or fresh, whatever makes you happiest.

Stir the onion mix and the tomatoes together until they're well incorporated.

Turn the heat down to low to keep the tomatoes from scorching.  Stir from time to time as well.

It'll take about 20 minutes or so for the tomatoes to cook through and lose their raw taste.  They'll also darken up a bit, as you can see here:

The spices in the above photo are fenugreek leaves and garam masala.  Fenugreek leaves get a big boost in flavor from crushing them between your palms just as you add them in.  If you don't have any, go ahead leave them out.  You could potentially replace it with makrut leaves or celery salt for a similar flavor, but it's not necessary.

This is also when you'll want to add in the spinach, which until it wilts will probably seem like an absurd amount.

It'll take about 5-10 minutes for the spinach to wilt and mix into the tomato sauce.  After that it's time to pour the tomato sauce into the cooked lentils.

Stir it well so that the tomato sauce is completely incorporated into the lentils.  Add salt to taste.

If you're a fan of cilantro you can add in a little at this point.

And if you want a richer, creamier flavor you can add in either heavy cream or coconut milk (according to your tastes).  I only go with a small splash.  Start small, is my recommendation, and taste as you go if you think you want a lot of cream.

Stir it all up and you're good to go!


I have a preference for rice rather than rotis, but mung dal go equally well with either.

I served them up with some fresh cucumbers for crunch and some masala eggplant for kick.

Dal Makhani (Creamy Lentils)

It's hard to believe how fast time passes.  It was just over three years ago, around Valentine's Day, that Doc and I got engaged.  We'd been kicking around the idea almost as long as we'd been dating (about four years at that point) and had finally decided to throw in the towel and settle down.  Our lives and differences in culture being what they were, this was an adventure for both of us -- not just in the idea of merging our very different views or lifestyles, but in telling our relatives.  I don't think anyone was shocked, exactly: we'd been living together for a few years and weren't springing anything on them suddenly, but it was still nerve-wracking for both of us since it was very much a first for both families.

We kept the secret to ourselves for about a month, until Doc's family came down for a visit over spring break: just a small party of his parents, grandfather, and four aunts & uncles on an eight hour road trip.  We had a sense that they'd be arriving around noon on Saturday, but then again maybe not.  They were going to eat lunch with us, or then again maybe on the road.  No, definitely on the road.  On second thought, though, they were only an hour away at this point so they'd drive straight through and have lunch with us after all.

Luckily, I anticipated that they might show up hungry (or at the very least that I should have something on the stove when the entourage arrived), so I put on some dal makhani, or creamy lentils.  It was one of the few Indian dishes I felt halfway confident about at the time, so I hoped it just might help seal the deal.

I think in the end everything turned out okay.  Nobody died of food poisoning or a broken heart that week, and that's pretty much the best outcome we could've hoped for with seven houseguests.

Concise recipe at the bottom, as always.

Dal Makhani (Creamy Lentils)

Total Time:  Around 1.5 - 2 hours, most of which is simmer time.  This is unfortunately a dish that takes some time to do, so think of it like a good chili: a day project that you can make in big batches to freeze later (or bring to a party).
Credits:  When I was first learning this recipe I relied heavily on Sanjay Thumma's Dal Bukhara video, though at the time I didn't realize there were measurements in the doobly doo and so found myself quite frustrated over instructions like "a little bit of turmeric" or "extra chili powder," because I had no sense of scale.  After half a dozen tries I ended up with a process that mirrored his but a set of measurements that were more or less guesswork.  It was only after I'd gotten my own groove that I discovered the intended measurements in the original recipe, so please feel free to use those instead.  I can't pretend to compare with a trained chef here.
Weirdest Spice:  Fenugreek leaves.  Unlike a lot of recipes, I'd say that for this one the fenugreek leaves really make the dish.  They're very aromatic and earthy, and until I add them the dish just doesn't smell right.  That said, I'd say if you're making this for the first time and are unsure if you want to spring for a weird spice just for one recipe, go ahead and make it without.  You'll also find some other recipes here (turkey curry, khichuri, egg curry) that use fenugreek, too, in case that helps you use it up once you've got some.

Traditionally this recipe is made with red kidney beans and black gram lentils ("urad dal"), though as often as not I just use the black turtle beans (frijoles negros) that are more commonly available in local supermarkets.  You've got two options here:  used canned or boil up some dried beans.  The dried option is cheaper and has less in the way of added salt/preservatives, but honestly this dish already takes quite a while to make so no judgment here if you decide to go with canned.  One can of each should do the trick, or else you can do what I did and use 1 cup each of black beans and kidney beans:

If going the dried beans route you'll want to either soak them overnight or quick soak them.  How long they take to cook through will depend on the age of the beans -- generally I plan on 1-2 hours for this part.  If you're using a pressure cooker then go with whatever setting you use for kidney beans.  Either way, you'll want to cook them until they squish between two fingers but not to the point they're completely mushy:

And then set them aside.  Save some of the liquid if you'd like (see below for discussion of re-using bean liquid).

In a separate pan you'll want to do the medium-high heat + 0.5 tsp oil + 1 tsp cumin seed routine that I'm sure you're a pro at by now:

Give the cumin seeds 10-30 seconds to sizzle, then add 2 tsp each of ginger paste and garlic paste:

Stir that about for around 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.  Then add 0.5 tsp turmeric:

And stir that all around for another minute or two to "cook" the turmeric.  Next up is around 3 cups of tomato puree (use canned if you prefer), and turn the heat down to medium-low.

Let this cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.  It takes that long for the tomatoes and turmeric to lose their raw flavor and begin to turn into a tomato sauce.  Just be sure the heat isn't too high because you don't want your tomatoes to scorch.

After that, go ahead and add:  1 tsp red chili powder (or to taste), 0.5 tsp paprika, and 1 tablespoon coriander (yes, that much):

Stir that up and let it simmer for another 10 minutes on medium-low, stirring now and then to prevent burning.

This next part is where the "makhani" part of the recipe comes from, makhani meaning "butter" (cf. murgh makhani, butter chicken).  If making this recipe vegan I think you can honestly skip the butter altogether.  The purpose of the butter is to add richness to the sauce.  In the original recipe he uses about a quarter cup of butter, which makes for a very rich but also very calorie-dense sauce.  I usually skimp and max out at around 2 tablespoons of butter:

You can see how the cooked tomatoes changed color there, too.

Stir the butter around until melted.  Next up is 1 cup of liquid.  The original recipe calls for using liquid left over from cooking your dried beans.  (Note: please don't use the liquid that comes with canned beans, because ew.)  I did that at first, too.  The bean liquid brings a smoothness and density to the sauce that's hard to achieve otherwise.  At the same time, I find that cooking black beans means that the water turns black and I just can't shake the feeling that it's also maybe full of what specks of dirt I couldn't quite rinse off the beans, even though I'm pretty obsessed with rinsing them very, very thoroughly.  I think you'll be 100% a-ok if you use the bean water.  But if you're using canned beans or if the dried bean water creeps you out, then you might do what I do, i.e. use 1 cup of vegetable stock instead:

You can see there that I'm using some veggie stock that I'd frozen a while back.  Water would also do in a pinch here if you don't have stock on hand.

Dial up the heat back to medium-high and let that stock cook in for about 5 minutes or until it achieves a slow, gentle boil.  (Don't forget to stir every few minutes.)

Then, at long last, it's time to add in the beans:

Along with 2 tsp fenugreek leaves and 1 tsp garam masala:

Stir that up, dial the heat back down to low, cover it, and let it simmer for at least half an hour, stirring occasionally.  You can let this cook on a low simmer for longer, if you'd like.  As with chili, the longer it slow-cooks the deeper the flavors will be so don't be shy if you want to pop this dish on the stove in the early afternoon and let it do its thang for an hour or two.

The very last step, just before you serve, is to drop in 0.25 cup of cream and garnish with an optional dash of fresh cilantro.

Salt to taste and you're done!

I've never subbed in nondairy milk (e.g. soy, coconut, almond), but I think if you wanted to experiment that probably would be a nice way to keep the creaminess of the dish without jacking up the calories.

At any rate, this dish freezes exceptionally well (as do most bean dishes) and is a nice way to get some vegetarian protein.  Personally I love it atop rice and alongside a simple salad.

Dal Makhani

Ingredients:

• 1 cup each of red kidney beans and black beans (either urad dal or black turtle beans), soaked over night, rinsed, and cooked until just mushy enough to crush easily between two fingers
• can sub 1 can of each, if preferred
• optional: reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid [dried beans only, not the liquid from canned beans] to use in place of vegetable stock, below
• 0.5 tsp oil or ghee (clarified butter)
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 cups tomato puree (fresh or canned)
• 1 tsp red chili powder (optional, adjust to taste)
• 0.5 tsp paprika
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional, adjust to taste)
• 2 tsp fenugreek leaves
• tip: crush these between palms before adding to release extra flavor
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 0.25 cup cream
• scant handful fresh cilantro (optional garnish)
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a large pan on medium-high until warm.  Add oil.  When shimmering, add cumin seeds.  Allow to cook 10-30 seconds or until sizzling.
2. Add ginger & garlic pastes, saute 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.
3. Add turmeric, saute another 2 minutes.
4. Add tomato puree and turn heat down to medium-low.  Cook on low, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
5. Add butter, stir in until fully melted.
6. Add vegetable stock (or bean liquid, if using).  Return heat to medium-high and cook until just barely beginning to gently boil, stirring occasionally (around 5 minutes).
7. Add cooked beans, fenugreek leaves, and garam masala.  Stir to mix, then turn heat down to low.  Cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Before serving, remove pan from heat and add cream, cilantro, and salt.

Rice & Lentil Porridge (Khichdi / Khichuri)

I'm always fascinated to hear about ways that cultures can be both wildly different and yet ultimately similar.

For example, when I'm sick I've got a set of comfort foods that immediately come to mind:  ginger ale and saltines for an upset stomach, orange juice and chicken soup for the flu, hot water with ginger and lemon for a sore throat or cough.  If, heaven forbid, I were to ever come down with pneumonia again I imagine I'd want white peach gelatin and bananas (no vigorous chewing required, y'see).

Through my experiences both living in Japan and spending time with my in-laws, I've found that in other parts of the world rice porridge is the food of choice for the sick.  In Japan, for example, there are even different words for porridge made from uncooked versus cooked rice.

Khichuri is a type of south Asian rice porridge that has the advantage of including lentils (dal) for an extra little protein punch.  It was one of the first Indian foods my in-laws trusted me to eat -- back when we were all still getting to know each other -- and perhaps not coincidentally was also one of the first Indian recipes I remember seeing in print.  I was introduced to it at their house over one particular visit when I was feeling under the weather, so the recipe caught my attention when a few months later I was handed an Ayurvedic cookbook by a girl at Boston Pride.

Rice porridges are great for infants, sick people, and the elderly because they're easy to digest, relatively flavorless, and often come close to mimicking the kind of food that people would be eating in that culture anyway, meaning that it's not scary-looking or insulting (as baby foods and nursing home purees so often are).  In the west I suppose the closest we come is oatmeal, porridge, or plain grits, depending on where you live, though those are breakfast foods and don't often contain any protein or vegetables.  That's where khichuri has an advantage since it's made with lentils and common variants include peas, cauliflower, and spinach with carrots.

You'll notice this version of the recipe is very plain and relatively bland -- sort of the South Asian equivalent of a saltine.  That's on purpose.  There's nothing stopping anyone from jazzing this up into a regular dal recipe, just as you can put all kinds of snazzy things atop a plain cracker.  But for me, when I'm sick and not feeling up to cooking this falls close enough to the "meal" category.  Plus it saves me the hassle of chewing, which is nice when I'm all out of energy.

And hey, if you're into Ayurvedic cooking or if you're looking for a "detox" (again, keeping in mind that detox is a ritual rather than a medical reality), there are some claims that khichri will cleanse your karma or some such thing like that.  Either way it won't hurt you, and is fairly nutritious so long as you work in a side salad or some other kind of greenery with it.

Khichuri - Rice & Lentil Porridge

This one's gonna fly by, I promise.  The overview is:  0.5 cups lentils, 1 cup rice, 3-4 cups water or stock, a tiny bit of flavoring, and boil until mushy.

Here goes.

First off you'll want to pick out your lentils.  Aim for smaller ones since they'll cook up faster.  Personally I chose half masoor dal (the orange ones) and half val dal (the white ones), though mung/moong dal (green ones) are very popular for this dish.  Chances are whatever you have on hand will probably work fine, though French lentils may never truly break down into mush.  That's fine, just be aware that your consistency will be different.  You can use all one kind or mix and match according to your tastes.

Rinse your half cup of lentils and cup of basmati rice in warm water using a fine mesh sieve until the water runs clear.  Soak them for 15 minutes or more in warm water to help the rice start plumping and get the lentils softened up a tad.  You can do all this together in the same bowl since we're going to cook everything together anyway.  This recipe is all about cutting down on effort.

While the lentils and rice and plumping, get a deep saucepan going on medium heat.  Add 1 tsp oil (ghee is the traditional choice here, but I find it hurts my stomach when I'm sick so I opted for olive oil instead), heat until shimmering, and then add 1 tsp cumin seeds.  I didn't bother to photograph this process because it's fairly straightforward and we've seen it here and here and here and here and here already, so if you're unsure go ahead and check any of those links.  If you'd like to add a bay leaf or substitute mustard seeds (such as seen here), then please feel free.  I like the smokey flavor of cumin seeds, but it's not written in stone.

Anyway, when the cumin seeds get fragrant -- this will take less than a minute -- add a finely diced onion.  I had frozen onion puree hanging around so I used that to cut down on cutting time because I was feeling pretty darn ill and just wanted to eat already.

After about 10 minutes of sauteeing the onion I added 2 tsp ginger paste, which I forgot to photograph.  Trust me, though, it's in there.  Cooked ginger has the added bonus of containing a compound called shogaol which is an anti-inflammatory.  So that's nice.  Every little bit counts when you're sick.

When the onion & ginger were cooked up I drained my rice & lentils and added them on top:

Followed immediately by 3-4 cups of liquid.  I used vegetable stock.  You can use water or broth if you'd like.  The more liquid, the more squishy yours will be.  I erred on the side of less water for the stick-to-your-ribs effect.  There's really no wrong way to do this, though.

Hard part's over!  Dial it up to medium-high, bring it to a boil.  When it boils, turn it down to low, cover it, and let it simmer until everything's gooey.

Val dal and masoor dal break down fairly fast, so mine was ready in just over half an hour.  The beauty of this is that you can let it simmer on low more or less indefinitely -- it'll just keep getting more and more goo-like the longer it's on the stove.  Once it was juuuuuust about to the right consistency I added two tsp dried curry leaves (optional, you could sub a different spice if you'd like):

And one tsp turmeric powder (also an anti-inflammatory):

I stirred all that up, covered it again, and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so to "cook" the spices, salt to taste, and that was that!

If you want to add veggies or other/additional spices, some common ones are:  hing (asafetida), cumin powder, coriander powder, fennel powder, fenugreek powder, bay leaves, cloves, fresh cilantro, mint, cinnamon, cardamom, black peppercorn, red chili powder (naturally), green chilies, peas, cauliflower, spinach, eggplant, and carrots.  That's not an exhaustive list, obviously, but should give you a nice jumping-off point to get creative on your own.  I like mine as plain as possible so that it doesn't give my tummy too much thinking to do when I'm feeling low, but as I mentioned in the intro there's nothing at all stopping you from making this into a regular dinner.

Not entirely certain what's up next.  I've got some Mardi Gras recipes, St. Patty's recipes, and a few Japanese favorites in the pipeline for sometime between now and early March, though, so be sure to stay tuned.

Khichuri - Rice & Lentil Porridge

Ingredients (can easily be multiplied or halved):

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 0.5 cup small lentils (e.g. mung/moong dal, val dal, masoor dal)
• 3-4 cups water or stock (or more, if a thinner consistency is desired)
• 1 tsp oil or ghee
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• can sub or add: mustard seeds, bay leaf
• 1 small onion, finely minced
• frozen / pureed onion also ok
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp curry leaves
• see paragraph just below the last picture, above, for substitute ideas
• 1 tsp turmeric powder

Directions:

1. Thoroughly rinse lentils and rice in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear.  Soak in warm water for 15 minutes or longer (up to several hours or overnight).  Drain and rinse again.
2. While lentils and rice are soaking, heat a large stockpot on medium heat.  Add oil, heat until shimmering.  Add cumin seeds and heat until just fragrant -- less than 1 minute total.
3. Add onion & ginger paste.  Saute 10 minutes or until onion is translucent and soft.
4. Add drained lentils & rice along with stock (or water).  Turn heat up to high and bring to a boil.  If adding vegetables, place them in the pot at this time (with the exception of spinach, which should be added later, with the curry leaves & turmeric).  
5. Once the pot boils, turn the heat down to low, cover, and let simmer until the rice and lentils begin to break down.  How long this takes will depend on the type of lentils used, but could take 30-60 minutes or longer.  
6. Uncover, add curry leaves & turmeric powder.  Replace cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
7. Add salt to taste and serve.