The Back Yard Lemon Tree

I’ve been going through my old recipe folder and unearthing old recipes from my collection of old newspaper clippings, handwritten recipes and photocopies. In the days before online recipes, any home cook worth anything had one of these folders or notebooks stuffed with family favourites and a lot of recipes that were firmly in the category of ‘to be tried one day’. I used to make this spinach chana dhal on fairly regularly rotation but for some reason it fell from favor.

This is one of those one pot all in one dhal meals, which isn’t all that authentic but is incredibly homey and comforting. Serve with rice or naan bread but even on its own it makes a brilliant one bowl meal, complete with protein, greens and carbohydrates. If you want to get a bit fancy you could serve it with a yoghurt raita and pickle but really it doesn’t need anything extra to make a satisfying mid-week winter meal.

Spinach Chana Dhal

Adapted from Jill Dupleix via the Sydney Morning Herald

Serves 4

• 200 grams of chana dhal, yellow split pulses or yellow split peas
• 1.2 litres of water
• 500 grams of spinach leaves well washed (I use about 2 bunches)
• 2 tablespoons light olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 200 grams potatoes, peeled and diced
• 200 grams of canned chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of coconut or raspadura sugar (Optional)
• 1 large green chillies, sliced
• 1/2 ground tumeric
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1-2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
• 1-2 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 tablespoons fresh coriander
• wedges of lemon to serve (optional)

1. Soak dhal for 30 minutes and drain. In a large saucepan bring dhal and 1.2 litres of water to a boil. Skim foam from dhal, reduce heat, and simmer gently, partly covered for 20 minutes.
2. In a large saute or frying pan with a lid, cook spinach with a little water until wilted. Drain, chop roughly and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large high sided saute or frying pan and fry onion, ginger and cumin seeds for about five minutes.
4. Add potato and green chilli, fry for a couple of minutes then add tomato, coconut sugar, tumeric, cayenne, coriander and salt, mix well. Stir into the dhal and simmer, uncovered for about thirty minutes until potatoes are soft. Add extra water if necessary.
5. Before serving stir in garam masala and mix well, add chopped spinach and simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Before serving scatter with coriander and serve with rice. A wedge of lemon squeezed over the top of the dhal is also very nice.