I need to eat healthier, and I know having more vegetables is a good place to start. I love making salads with spinach, and I’m a huge spinach fan in general. What else can I do with spinach, besides salads and delicious-but-naughty spinach dips full of cheese and sour cream? Anyone have a good spinach pie recipe, like those wonderful soft, warm pita dough triangles that Greek restaurants sometimes have? How do they spice the spinach filling just right? Is it okay to buy frozen spinach? What about canned – is that an abomination?
I like broccoli, but not as much as I like ribs or lasagna or pie. I wouldn’t mind eating more of it, though, and CHILI’S, of all places, makes the most delicious steamed broccoli. I ordered that stuff instead of fries with my burger recently, and it was too good. I think they use garlic and probably a little butter, which I know is not ideal, but if I could do interesting and fun things with broccoli, or at least make it as good as Chili’s, I’d eat it all the time. So can I get away with using frozen broccoli, or do I have to buy fresh? Take me through the steaming process like I’m an idiot – even though I can cook pretty well, I don’t have enough veggie experience. Help me make the tastiest green vegetables ever, so I can eat them a couple times a week, love every mouthful, and not get bored.
Toss the spinach in a little smoking bacon fat, just long enough to wilt it. Then toss it with a little balsamic.
Broccoli also: smoking skillet. Little patches of carbonized black on broccoli that is still basically crunchy almost raw is the only way to eat it. Slivered radishes tossed in the skillet with them adds a nice touch.
Simple trick to make green vegetables bright and tasty: lemon juice. When I want a quick side dish, I steam broccoli florets and toss them with a dab of butter, a healthy squeeze of lemon juice, and a dash of salt.
I was never much of one for broccoli, but somehow I love a good Broccoli Salad – this recipe is pretty close to the way my mom used to make it, give or take a few ingredients. There are lots of varieties out there.
Okay, so granted the recipe includes bacon, and the whole thing is tossed in a light mayonaisse dressing, but still – wow, this’ll make you want to eat broccoli.
I would avoid canned spinach pretty much as a reflex; maybe I’m missing out on a tasty treat. I doubt it.
Frozen is OK if you thaw it and squeeze it in your fist to get out the excess water.
On of my favourite ways to eat spinach is combined with any sharp, salty white cheese and a little grated nutmeg, then rolled into balls and used as a pizza topping. It’s also good on combination with eggs; in a quiche, for example.
This works equally well with spinach or brocolli: Boil until nearly cooked (2-3 minutes for spinach, longer for brocolli). Plunge into cold water to stop the cooking. You can do this well ahead of time. Then heat some butter or olive oil with some chopped garlic, and add the spinach/brocolli with some chili flakes and salt. Sautee for a minute or two and bingo!
I like throwing spinach into pasta sauces. It’s especially nice with any cheesy pasta - lasagna, ravioli. Both spinach and broccoli are nice on pizza. I sometimes saute some spinach, garlic, and portobello mushroom slices in a bit of oil or butter, and then top with lots of fresh grated parmesan, yum.
Actually, I like uncooked spinach in a salad. Cooked spinach is a creation of the Devil, in his guise as Popeye.
I loathe broccoli, but it becomes tolerable if flavored with something else. Broccoli witrh cheese at least tastes like broccoli-tainted cheese. Broccoli stir-fried in teriyaki sauce is different.
I agree with many previous posters here: Lemon is the key to healthy and very flavorful veggies.
For broccoli: Your rice cooker should have come with instructions for cooking veggies. Put frozen broccoli cuts, not chopped, into your cooker bowl with about a half-inch of water in the business end of the cooker. I’m not sure about the time of course, but steam until the stuff is bright green. Army drab green is overcooked. I toss my steamed broc with Fat Free butter spray and lemon juice or Lemon & Herb Seasoning. Tres yummy.
For spinach: If you don’t want to spend a bundle, use frozen. I prefer whole leaf, as most of it won’t go down the drain during thawing, unlike chopped spinach (which is good for dips & soups). Take a whole bag of leaf spinach & place into a colander. Rinse gently with cool water until there aren’t any spinach-bergs left. Squeeze the shit out of it to get the water out & place into a heated pan with a little olive oil and cooked diced onions. Toss around in the pan until the spinach has lost more water and is heated through. Again, use some butter spray and lemon stuff for flavoring OR some ground nutmeg. If you want to go southern style, use some vinegar for flavoring.
If you want to get a bit fancier, use fresh spinach. But one bag will serve just yourself. That stuff is like a freaking magic trick, it cooks down so much.
Chop spinach roughly. Fry garlic in bit of oil in frying pan. Throw in spinach and some white wine till spinach is just wilted. Add toasted pine nuts. Maybe a bit of black pepper. Serve on pasta. Grated Parmesan cheese to top it off.
I don’t like nutmeg in this recipe but agree with **Mangetout ** that it is usually the best pairing for spinach.
I’ve made a pseudo-spanakopita spinach puff thingy several times, and everyone loves them. I rinse baby spinach and wilt it in a pan with a little lemon juice, then add diced water chestnuts, feta cheese, a little garden vegetable-flavored lowfat cream cheese, minced or crushed garlic to taste, and sometimes some diced grilled chicken. Then I take little scoops of the spinach mixture and wrap them inside crescent rolls (the refrigerated kind that come in a can). Bake until the crescent roll is golden brown and serve. I usually serve them as finger food for parties, but sometimes I make a bunch of them for dinner.
I agree with you about the steamed broccoli at Chili’s: delicious. We go there a lot, and I also substitute a black bean patty for the regular beef patty on their burgers. They’re fantastic; much more flavorful than the actual meat and with about 500 fewer calories. My husband is suspicious of most “health” foods and he prefers the black bean patty purely for flavor reasons.
A staple in my diet is Mann’s Broccoli Colelsaw. You can usually find it in the “pre-packaged” salad section. I toss it into salads, or use it as the main ingredient in wraps.