Palak Masala Khichdi/ Spicy Spinach Khichdi

Imagine the wholesomeness of this dish as it has all the proteins via lentils/dal, all vitamins, minerals and fiber from spinach and carrots and all the wonderful subtle aroma borrowed from lovely indian spices...yeap thats whats for dinner tonight, lovely Palak masala khichdi and jeera chaas along with papad and aachaar.
P, loves anything with lots of veggies and is a die hard fan of rice, so I thought of making nice biryani for him but then I said lets add some protein in form of dal and make khichdi instead of biryani. It was just few days back when I was surfing for some nice palak recipes I read this recipe at foodatarian.com, find the recipe
here

Secondly after nupur announced MBP #1 Cookers
here
I had to get busy and jump in to be a good sport.

This one pot dish is easy to prepare and light to digestive system.
So here's the recipe for this tantalizing palak masala khichdi... enjoy.


Ingredients:
1 cup Basmati rice
1/2 cup Mung dal
1 bunch palak/spinach chopped and washed thoroughly
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 green onion roughly chopped
1 small carrot peeled and chopped roughly
1 medium tomato or 1 tbs tomato paste
2 green chillies slit and cut in half
1 inch piece of ginger grated
3 pods of garlic grated
1 tsp turmeric/haldi powder
1 tsp red chili powder (i used kashmiri lal mirch powder)
1 1/2 tsp garam masala/ all spice powder
salt to taste
Handful of chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

For tempering
1 tsp oil
1 tbs ghee/clarified butter
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1/2 tsp rai/mustard seeds
1 pinch asafoetida/hing
2 dry red chillies


Method:

On a medium flame heat pressure cooker, add oil, ghee and once they start to smoke add all other tempering ingredients.
Add in all veggies and ginger-chili-garlic, except palak. Add all other masalas and sautee for 30 seconds and then add in palak. Let the palak shrink in sized and then add in rice and dal
Add 3 1/2 cups of water.
Closed the pressure cooker with its lid and cook on medium flame for 3 whistles and then on low flame for 5 mins.
Let the steam subside before opening the pressure cooker.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with plain curd or gujarati kadi or punjabi kadi or masala chaas... anything made of curd goes fine with this khichdi.


Tips:
If you prefer more tangy flavor, grind curd along with handful of coriander leaves and add this to khichdi just before serving.