Keerai Masial (Mashed Spinach)

          Keerai Masial or Mashed Spinach, this is a very easy and healthy dish, and a favorite in my home. It's literally fat free, not even a drop of oil is used but still tastes really good. I have used sirukeerai ( a type of greens) available in India but you can do this with regular spinach too. Everybody has their own way of doing this masial, even I do it a couple of different ways, give this a try if you like the flavors of pepper and garlic..

Need To Have

• Keerai Or Spinach - 1 big bunch
• Garlic - 5 cloves, chopped
• Tuvar dal - 2 tablespoons
• Black Pepper - coarsely ground, 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

Method
          Clean the keerai and wash it well, no need to chop them. Pressure cook the tuvar dal.

          Cook the keerai ( spinach) with the garlic, salt and a little water ( about 1/4 cup). Once the spinach is cooked, add the tuvar dal and the pepper powder, mix and switch off the stove. Cool and take it in a blender, pulse it a couple of times, do not grind it into a paste, there should be some texture. Remove and serve it with rice.

Note
I have chopped the garlic and coarsely ground the pepper before adding it to the spinach, so that I need not grind it longer later and end up with a spinach paste.
Do not overcook the spinach, it'll loose it's nice green color, you can cook it without covering it with a lid.
Traditionally we use a clay pot and a wooden masher to do this instead of the electric blender, and it tastes definitely even better that way.
If there is a lot of water after the spinach is cooked, let it evaporate a little before adding the dal, the final dish should have a spooning consistency. If you want to have this as a soup, then you can have it watery, adjust  the salt and pepper.
Tuvar dal is split pigeon peas.