• Wash, drain, and keep the lentils aside. And if you soaked the lentils, drain and keep them aside.

Stovetop Instructions

• Heat a heavy-bottomed cooking pot.
• Add oil, bay leaves, cumin seeds, chopped ginger, and chopped garlic when it is hot.
  1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon garlic, 1 tablespoon oil, 2 bay leaves, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• Add chopped onions and cook for a bit.
  ½ cup onion
• Put in washed lentils and spice powders - turmeric, cumin, curry powder, coriander, garam masala, and salt. Mix it well so that spice powders are coated well with the lentils.
  1 cup brown lentils, 1 teaspoon curry powder, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon salt
• Pour water and cook the lentils on medium heat for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you are using soaked lentils, it might take less time. 
  2 cups water
• If lentils soak up all the water, add more water.
• When lentils are nearly done, add finely chopped spinach and coconut milk.
  3 cups spinach, 1 cup coconut milk
• Let it cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes on low heat. 
• Once the lentils and spinach are cooked as you like, your creamy and tasty spinach lentil curry is ready to eat!

Instant Pot Instructions

• Start the Instant Pot in saute mode.
• Once it is hot, add oil, bay leaves, cumin seeds, chopped ginger, chopped garlic, and let them splutter.
• Then goes the finely chopped onions. Let the onions soften a bit for a couple of minutes.
• Now add washed lentils and mix it well.
• Stop the Instant Pot and add spice powders - turmeric powder, ground cumin, curry powder, ground coriander, garam masala powder, and salt. Mix everything well.
• Add water and close the instant pot with its lid.
• Start the Instant pot again in manual or pressure cook mode and cook it for 10 minutes under HIGH pressure.
• Once the instant pot finishes cooking, wait for 10 minutes and manually release the pressure. Or let the pressure release naturally.
• To this cooked lentils, add finely chopped spinach and coconut milk.
• Mix everything well. Close the Instant pot for about 10 minutes, and the residual heat will cook the spinach. If you are out of time, you can use saute option and cook it for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Creamy and delicious Instant pot lentil curry is ready to serve!