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Instant Pot Aloo Palak Dal. Spiced Potato Spinach Lentils made in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Saucepan option. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Nut-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
Whenever I have loads of greens to use up, I make Indian Subzi (vegetable side) with them in combination with potatoes, or just plain ginger and garlic. This veggie subzi is like my skillet Aloo Palak, with added lentils to make it into a meal.
The meal comes together quickly and then its a wait for the pressure to release. Make it in an Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker or a Saucepan. Use sweet potatoes, cauliflower or other hearty vegetables, use cooked chickpeas instead of lentils. Use a combination of greens such as chard, arugula, mustard greens etc. Add some coconut milk for creamier curry. Add more spinach of greens for a Dal Saag Aloo. So many variations and options! Serve it as a stew or with rice or flatbread.
Served above with Rotis- Indian flatbread made in Rotimatic, which is a machine that makes Rotis with one button. Add flour, water, oil, set preferences and press start. Read my experience with the machine here.
More Easy Indian Meals
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies – Veggies in sesame coconut sauce GF
- Mushroom Matar Masala GF
- Bombay Potato and Peas GF
- Tofu in Spinach Curry – Saag Tofu GF
If you try this Potato Spinach Lentil curry, let me know in the comments how it turned out!
Instant Pot Aloo Palak Dal - Spiced Potato Spinach Lentils
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup uncooked brown lentils (sabut masoor)
- 1 tsp oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 inch ginger, minced
- 1 hot green chile, chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 medium potatoes, cubed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup water
- 5 to 6 oz Spinach or a combination of greens.
Instructions
- Soak the lentils for at least an hour else they will not cook within the time and the potatoes will get over cooked in the more time needed to cook lentils.
- In saute mode over medium, add oil, ginger, garlic, chile and cook until translucent. Add tomato and spices and cook until tomatoes are tender. Mash the larger pieces. 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add the potatoes, drained lentils, water, salt and mix in. Add in the spinach or greens and mix in. Close the lid and cook on Manual (high pressure) for 7 to 8 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.
- Open, taste and adjust salt and spice. Add more spices or garam masala if needed. Garnish with cilantro, pepper flakes and lemon and serve over rice or with roti/flatbread.
Notes
Adjust water to make less or more curry.
Add half coconut milk instead of water for a creamier curry.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thanks for the recipe, there’s just something I don’t understand;
when you say to close the lid and cook for 7 minutes, do you leave it on sauté? Or you put it on “manual” for 7 minutes? Thanks.
yes manual for 7 minutes. i’ll change the instructions. for stove top pressure cookers, it would be cook over medium for 7 mins.
I made this last night using sweet potatoes, and it is delicious! I did add more spice and extra tomatoes at the end (and ran it through the IP for another minute, along with frozen spinach). Really delicious as leftovers today. Thank you!
Awesome! yes adjust the spices to taste. I usually add them lightly for everyday meals.
Thank you so much for this Richa. I sometimes make an aloo sabzi similar to this with tomatoes, but the addition of lentils and greens is SO great and your ideas and recipes are wonderful. Had a lovely dinner of this tonight with brown basmati rice. Easy and delicious, thank you thank you!
Awesome! glad it worked out so well!
As I have trouble eating fiber-rich foods, I have to soak dal (even the ones you usually don’t have to soak; the ones you have to soak, I need to soak 2x as long), then cook it in saucepan 2x as long as normal, and then have to use food processor or immersion blender. After that, I can eat it safely, in just about any normal recipe. My question is, would an Instant Pot help with this? Does it break down the dal or disintegrate it well (so maybe I could also skip the last step)?
Yes pressure cookers break down the lentils and beans easily. Just cook them a few minutes longer than the given time. And When you open the instant pot, mix vigorously with a spatula and the lentils will break down. If you see Indian dals, many look like thick blended up lentil soups, but they are not actually blended, they just over cooked until the lentils and split peas break down.
The problem in this recipe would be that the veggies will also get overcooked. You might want to just cook the lentils separately and cook thepotatoes and spinach in a skillet. Mix them once the lentils break down.
Thanks so much! If it worked that well, I wouldn’t mind too much cooking the dal separately.
Just wanted to let you know that I tried your suggestion when making masoor dal in an Instant Pot. I cooked it separately, with some chunks of ginger, for 20 minutes, and let the pressure become down by itself. I stirred it like you said, and it just fell apart. I’ve been eating it the last few days, and it seems to be okay for me. Now I’m looking forward to trying other dals. Thanks so much!
Great! Many other split pulses like Moong Dal, split peas etc break down easily.
Great meal! I cook these or similar 3 times a week, the rest of the time sardines/ mackerel, salads (typical fare for Andalusia) I always do in the saucepan over slow gas, and use whatever available such as canonigos , carrots etc
This turned out perfectly cooked and delicious. I added a small chopped onion and used a combination of magenta spreen, lambs quarters, and spinach for the greens.
Awesome!
I made this tonight. We all enjoyed it, “we” being 5 adults and one 4 year old. I doubled it and used just 1 Jalapeno pepper, about 4 inches. It was enough heat for most of us. One problem for me was the timing. I am not a professional and chopping 5 large cloves of garlic, 2 inches of ginger, lots of tomatoes (from the garden; they were small), 1 pepper and peeling and chopping 3 large potatoes took close to an hour for me. So I got impatient and released pressure after about 10 minutes and it was fine. I also stirred in the spinach after it was done and still hot. Served over rice. Very nice! Thanks.
Awesome! I usually use a food processor when chopping larger amounts. So the jalapeno, garlic and ginger would be processed. There is also some inactive time in between which I use for chopping the rest of the ingredients. The Pot does take time to get to pressure and then release the pressure. You can release it in 10 minutes for most recipes. I also use the cook time to mean active kitchen time.
Do you chop the chili or put it in whole and saute? Especially if you like food on the mild to medium spiced side.
Thanks so much! I love my Instant Pot and just got a second one and glad to found your site!
chopped finely. to control the heat, you can remove the seeds from the chile before chopping.
Thank you so much!
Made this tonight. Came out so good!