Ever since they’ve taken raw spinach out of the stores and advised us to throw away any in our fridge, I’ve developed a powerful hankering for a fresh spinach salad. This is not helped by the news showing fields of tender young baby spinach every time they do a spot on the e. coli subject. I planted our own winter’s crop of spinach about a week ago, but it’s going to be a long time before I fork into my first home-grown spinach salad. When that day comes, I think I’ll toss in some bacon bits and crumbled bleu cheese . . . ::drool::
In the meantime, what else will satisfy this craving? Wouldn’t any young greens (like baby salad greens) be vulnerable to the same problem? Around here, those greens would all becoming from the same Salinas valley/San Juan Bautista area.
You think you’ve got it bad? I pretty much eat a spinich salad every night for dinner. And yesterday, I watched Rachael Ray making dinner with Mariel Hemingway, who has a marvelous-looking spininch dressing! I even looked up the recipe on the Food Network site. Tell me this doesn’t make you drool:
Mariel’s Amazing Salad Dressing
4 cups fresh organic spinach, washed and dried
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
Pinch organic sweetener (recommended: Stevia)
1/2 cup yellow mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
10 kalamata olives, pitted
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use. Mixture can be used as salad dressing or marinade.
A viewer, who may not be a professional cook, provided this recipe. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe and therefore, we cannot make representation as to the results.
Yeah, I eat it at least every other night. I’m bereft and I’ve gained two pounds. I can’t bring my self to eat lettuce (colored water) and I’m getting tired of asparagus and broccoli. I’m buying it again the first day it’s back on the shelves, e. coli be damned…
I also dearly love cooked spinach, but they’re saying you shouldn’t even indulge in that. It’s true that I barely cook my spinach – I just give it a toss in a skillet for a minute or two with olive oil and garlic – but what if I give it a more prolonged cooking? Can’t I even eat well-cooked spinach?
I don’t know where y’all are, but around here (central Oregon), you can still get spinach. It’s not available in the big grocery stores, but the little farms (most of them “organic”) that you find every 85 feet or so here all sell it.
Since they grew it rather than importing it from a distributor, there’s no more risk to eating it than there ever was, and you can question them about their farming methods. (And don’t assume “organic” == “healthy.” Studies don’t bear that out, and at least a couple have shown that organic greens are much more likely than standard ones to be contaminated with fecal matter. You want greens NOT fertilized with manure, whatever the growth method).
Some of the “co-op” type stores out here sell locally grown spinach as well.
It’s still on the shelves here and I’ve been eating it. :eek: I’m eating the baby kind and we’re pretty far from California but just in case…it’s been nice knowing everyone!
I belong to a local Community Supported Agriculture program, and we were supposed to get spinach this week. Because of the E. coli scare, they decided not to supply it, even though it’s grown locally and they know their suppliers. Dammit!
I don’t believe you’re right about organic produce being more likely to contain pathogens. Organic growers are not allowed to apply any manure within 90 days of harvest (120 days if the crop touches the soil, as does spinach). Conventional growers are not required to abide by these regulations. Properly composted manure, which is required under organic growing regulations, does not harbor E. coli. This article has a much more complete assessment than I’ve read in other news sources. I know that organic farming is no guarantee of “healthy” food. However, sustainable agricultural practices would really cut down on a lot of these problems. Right now, the “organic” growers in the Salinas Valley are using a lot of factory-farm methods - huge monoculture, questionable sanitation procedures for their field workers, giant factory dairies that feed their cattle grain (making them much, much more likely to harbor acid-resistant E. coli - cite) and have inadequate facilities for dealing with the incredible quantities of manure they produce. The processing facilities used by the company that apparently distributed the contaminated spinach are also a problem, since spinach from one contaminated field is mixed in with the spinach from other fields. We’re seeing the same issues here as we did when the focus was on E. coli-contaminated ground beef from large production facilities. Small, local organic farms are much less likely to have these problems. Of course, there’s some reason to doubt that small, local organic farms are adequate to feed the entire U.S. population, but that’s another thread.
You can kill E. coli by cooking spinach (or any food) to 160 degrees for 15 seconds. The entire mass of spinach has to reach that temperature, so it must be well-mixed. Washing will not get the bacteria off. Unless you’re using it in another well-cooked dish, we’re talking creamed spinach the way Grandma used to make it. Stir-frying is not going to cut it, and it takes frighteningly few bacteria to make a person ill. And don’t forget to disinfect your sinks, pots, pans, and countertops just the way you would if you’d been dealing with raw meat.
I work at a restaurant. It serves spinach dips, mushroom caps stuffed with spinach, a few pastas containing spinach and a few pizzas with spinach. I pointed out, as the prep guys were spooning several tubs of deliciously cheesey premade spinach mix into the garbage, that E. coli is killed through cooking. He just kept scooping.
In fairness, you have to cook it for a couple minutes at 160 degrees (F, for those who have overcome avoirdupois) or higher to kill it, which is pretty easy with meat but is borderline abusive for spinach unless you’re boiling it into mush.
On the other hand, maybe I’m thinking of salmonella, so take that number with a grain of salt.
InternetLegend, please don’t think I’m ignoring your points, but the organic/vs. conventional health debate is tangential to this thread, and I probably shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. I’m content to let it die here, unresolved.
Well, I’m off to the farmers’ market today, and if anybody is selling spinach, I’m going to live dangerously and get some. I can’t live another day without my spinach, I tell ya.
Anyone heard from gigi since yesterday?
I’d love some, too, but it’s all gone. I love some baby spinach leaves in a salad. Didn’t realize how mush I’d miss it.
You could look at this as a chance to try watercress. I don’t believe it is anywhere near spinach in flavor, but I imagine it is comparable nutritionally. I have never had watercress, myself. One thing I would like to try, someday.
Now I’m in the mood for spinach. A nice spinach salad with some random veggies and a balsamic vinnaigrette. Or nice boiled spinach drenched in low fat margarine.
Stupid e.Coli bugs. Should’ve never let them immigrate.
