# I cooked my leftover spinach salad with eggs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749 "2008-06-30T07:33:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/1 "2008-06-30T07:33:18Z")
It was brilliant, if you ask me. I want to ask if anyone else has ever done this, which might make it into a poll, but it really is mundane and pointless so I’m posting it here. But I hate throwing away leftover salad, and it goes bad so quickly, even without dressing on it. I also am always looking for easy ways to get dark greens in. When you cook spinach, it gets so much smaller because of all the water in it. Sooooo…tonight when I was going to have eggs, I realized that if I just dumped the whole leftover salad from two nights ago into the pan with olive oil, and then some eggs, I would have a very yummy egg/spinach/artichoke heart/red onion/tomato scramble. It was so good, got rid of the salad, and I got to eat greens w/o trying too hard. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/2 "2008-06-30T08:07:51Z")
Eggs Florentine is nice, but that’s spinach with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. Yours sounds far less hassle to make and as delicious. I’d leave out the artichoke though, I don’t like them. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/3 "2008-06-30T12:44:02Z")
I do the low-carb diet thing, and a yummy, filling breakfast is a double handful of spinach (nuked to wilt it), chopped, and folded into an omelette made of eggs or eggbeaters. Optional additions are chopped nuked mushrooms or bits of ham. Spinach and eggs are a natural together, and there’s barely a carb in sight. I like to keep one of those big plastic boxes of spinach greens on hand for this and salad purposes. Even Safeway carries them. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/4 "2008-06-30T16:24:29Z")
I have always scrambled a couple of eggs in with cooked spinach. Had never considered cooking leftover salad (never had leftover salad), but makes perfect sense. Enjoy! Don’t forger the bacon salt! ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/5 "2008-06-30T17:31:06Z")
If you run it through the blender together and then cook a certain vegetarian meat substitute on the side, drum roll, you get Green Eggs and Wham (basil works nicely, also) ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/6 "2008-06-30T17:34:54Z")
[QUOTE=tesseract] When you cook spinach, it gets so much smaller because of all the water in it. Sooooo…tonight when I was going to have eggs, I realized that if I just dumped the whole leftover salad from two nights ago into the pan with olive oil, and then some eggs, I would have a very yummy egg/spinach/artichoke heart/red onion/tomato scramble. It was so good, got rid of the salad, and I got to eat greens w/o trying too hard. [/QUOTE] Sounds tasty. Some doper will be around to correct me if this is wrong, but isn’t spinach nutritionally worthless before it’s cooked? Seems I saw that on a TV cooking show somewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I like the taste of it raw. But if it’s a health perq you’re looking for, cook it. Sounds tasty…don’t forget lots o’fresh pepper, coarse-ground or fresh-ground. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/7 "2008-06-30T18:21:29Z")
This weekend I had a bunch of leftovers that went into the Sunday morning scramble. This week it was spicy turkey sausage, asparagus, and bruchetta. It was outstanding with a bit of cheese sprinkled on top and some hot sauce to go for the ride. Leftover Scramble is one of my favorite meals to cook each week since it cleans out the fridge and makes for interesting breakfasts. I just make sure to chop everything up real well first and I’ve never had one go wrong on me. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/8 "2008-06-30T21:08:59Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Some doper will be around to correct me if this is wrong, but isn’t spinach nutritionally worthless before it’s cooked? Seems I saw that on a TV cooking show somewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I like the taste of it raw. But if it’s a health perq you’re looking for, cook it. [/QUOTE] :eek: and I was feeling so good about eating spinach salad every day. Drat–I don’t like it very much when it’s cooked. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/9 "2008-06-30T21:24:26Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Some doper will be around to correct me if this is wrong, but isn’t spinach nutritionally worthless before it’s cooked? [/QUOTE] Wiki says this: “In popular folklore, spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron (slightly more when eaten raw).” > **[Spinach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach)** > > Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a leafy green flowering plant native to Central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common vegetable consumed either fresh, cooked or after storage (using preservation techniques like canning, freezing, or dehydration). The taste differs considerably between cooked and raw: the high oxalate content may be reduced by blanching. > It is an annual plant (rarely biennial), growing as tal... ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/10 "2008-06-30T21:36:21Z")
> **[Everyday Health: Trusted Medical Information, Expert Health Advice, News,...](https://www.everydayhealth.com/)** > > Everyday Health inspires and empowers people to live their healthiest lives, every day, through trusted, medically reviewed information and expert health advice from the nation's leading healthcare providers and patient advocates. Learn more about... _Eating about one cup of raw spinach offers roughly one-third of the nutrition as half a cup of cooked spinach (which is actually equal to about three cups raw)._ So 1 c raw has 1/3 the nutrition of 1/2 raw, which is made from 3 c raw…no change. > **[Everyday Health: Trusted Medical Information, Expert Health Advice, News,...](https://www.everydayhealth.com/)** > > Everyday Health inspires and empowers people to live their healthiest lives, every day, through trusted, medically reviewed information and expert health advice from the nation's leading healthcare providers and patient advocates. Learn more about... p5: _Although spinach is in fact a good source of both calcium and iron, it’s important to note that certain compounds found within spinach, called oxalic acids, block the absorption of these two minerals._ _If you’re a vegetarian and are looking to get both of these minerals from non-animal sources, this could potentially pose a problem. However, this is easily remedied by pairing spinach with a food high in vitamin C to aid the absorption of the calcium and iron._ Maybe it had something to do with that. There’s some “asterisk” about the nutrition of cooked vs. uncooked, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cooked-my-leftover-spinach-salad-with-eggs/454749/11 "2008-07-01T13:44:40Z")
Off to Cafe Society!