Add ghee, cumin seeds, turmeric, green chili, garlic, curry leaves, tomatoes, lentils, salt, and water. Give a quick stir.
Place the tall trivet inside the pot. Add rice, salt, and water to the stainless steel pot and place it over the trivet. Note: This step is optional.
Close the Instant Pot with pressure valve to sealing. Select Pressure Cook(Hi) and adjust the pressure cook time to 5 minutes.
Allow 5 minutes of natural pressure release and then release the remaining pressure manually. Open the Instant Pot and carefully take out the rice bowl and the trivet.
Mix the lentils with a spatula. Add more water, to bring the lentils to desired consistency. Dal will thicken as it cools.
Add chopped spinach and mix well. Cook on Sauté mode until the daal comes to a gentle boil.
Substitute Masoor dal with moong dal or Toor dal. If using Toor dal or Chana dal increase the pressure cook time to 10 minutes.
You can also make dal without pot-in-pot rice.
If you like to temper the spices, heat the ghee in saute mode. Then add cumin seeds and saute for 30 seconds. Then add garlic, green chilies, and curry leaves and saute for another 2 minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients and follow the rest of the recipe