Peanuts and Yellow Split Peas with Spinach

Peanuts, called “groundnuts” in India (because when the plant flowers, the peanuts bury themselves just below the ground), are grown in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, home of the bustling metropolis Mumbai. At the onset of the monsoons, a flood of peanuts in their muddy shells overflows from many a street vendor’s gunny-sack in Mumbai’s marketplaces. I loved to eat bowlfuls of the sea-salted boiled peanuts that my mother cooked in a pressure cooker. This highly nutritious pe