OK. I know how insane it sounds that, at 40yo, I’m just discovering I like spinach. All, I can say is that I had a really bad experience with it as a kid and swore the stuff off for life.
Anyway, I’ve recently discovered I like it now. I tried it on pizza and thought: “Hmm, not bad.” Then I got braver and put some in my salad at Jason’s Deli. Thought it was great.
So, I’m hoping some of you Dopers out there can help this “Spinach Newbie” expand his palate.
Any recipes or ideas guys?
Thanks.
Well, cooked spinach is far different from raw spinach. Cooked, it can be slimy and gross; no wonder nobody likes it growing up!
I’d suggest putting a few leaves on sandwiches, if you’re a sandwich person.
Even though I don’t care for cooked spinach at all, I adore spanakopita, which is heavily seasoned <well, the way I make it is> and has feta cheese; somehow it all comes together and tastes pretty good, with minimal sliminess.
Ooo you need to make a spinach casserole with plenty of cream and cheese. This looks good (but I haven’t made it).
My go-to on making spinach at home is to barely cook it in a skillet with hot olive oil, garlic and grape tomatoes. I sautee the tomatoes a couple minutes with the garlic, to ensure that they’re lightly cooked and then toss in the greens. They go from Giant Pile to Small Flat Nothing very very quickly, so keep tossing them and at the instant of wilting, remove from heat. Salt and pepper to taste.
A friend of mine used to cook chopped onion, then added a little minced garlic, in a bit of olive oil in a pan. Then she added chopped spinach (I can’t remember if it was fresh, or frozen, thawed, and drained nearly dry), sauteed for a few minutes. Then she would cover with a handful of shredded mozzarella, put the lid on till it melted, and serve right out of the pan with Italian bread. Sorry the recipe is so vague; it was SO good! Be sure you wash/wash/wash rinse/rinse/rinse any fresh spinach very thoroughly, nothing worse than spinach full of sand.
IF you like the flavor of cooked spinach…
Sauteed Spinach
put the olive oil and garlic in a pan and heat slowly (start low and go up to medium high) over a period of about two minutes… the garlic will infuse in the oil. add in red pepper flake if you choose. remove the garlic chunks. toss in the spinach until it wilts by half and each piece is nicely coated in garlicky oil. hit the pan with fresh lemon juice and toss once or twice. salt and pepper to taste. serve hot.
I make cheaty quick creamed spinach. Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a pan, and throw in 2-3 cloves of minced garlic, then immediately (before the garlic burns) one bag of frozen cut spinach and one package of frozen artichoke hearts. Cover and let cook for 5-10 minutes, till the vegetables are hot. Add at least 1/4c half and half and 1/4 c grated parmesan cheese, stir to combine, salt to taste.
Or sauteed spinach… do the same with oil, garlic, and a bag of frozen cut spinach (artichokes not included). When the spinach is hot, drizzle it with balsamic vinegar and salt to taste. Yum.
There’s a quick spinach curry, too… ditto oil, quite a lot of fresh grated ginger instead of garlic, then the same steps up until the spinach is hot, when you throw in a huge handful of fresh cilantro, mix it all up, and salt to taste.
Here is a recipe I put wrote out in another thread… I just cut and pasted, since I am still learning this whole search/quote/multi-quote blarg…
Easiest, Cheapest, and best dip you will ever make:
1 box frozen chopped spinach
1 can artichoke hearts quartered (in water)
1 box cream cheese
1 bag shredded italian cheese mix (part moz, part parm, etc…)
1 cup mayo
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder (must), and Pepper flake to taste
Put the spinach in about 3 inches of boiling water, and toss in the artichokes after giving them a rough chop. Once the spinach is completely defrosted, drain in a collander and give it a push with a spatula to get the water out.
Put the cream cheese, mayo, and half to two-thirds the bag of cheese in a bowl. Stir in the spinach and artichoke mixture. The heat from the spinach and artichokes will soften the cream cheese and melt the other cheese. Mix really well.
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder and Red Pepper flake to taste. But the garlic powder is a must. It provides the savory background.
Put the entire mixture in a oven-safe casserole dish. Cover the dip with the remaining half - third bag of cheese. Bake at 350 until the cheese is melty on top and the dip is bubbly. Serve with tostitos chips, or pita chips, or bread slices. This dip is a huge hit!!!
If you have leftover dip (rather unlikely), boil up some pasta. Throw the remaining dip on the drained pasta and add some of the cooking water to thin it out a bit. Add some cooked chicken if you want. Best on-the-fly pasta dish ever!
Spinach (chopped frozen spinach, defrosted) is actually a standard ingredient for me. I’ll throw some in anything with a sauce or suchlike.
Two improvised recipes that have turned into standards here chez twicks:
White pasta sauce (alfredo or cheese sauce) with big chunks of mushrooms, sauteed; an onion, diced and sauteed; Italian sausage, crumbled and browned; and thawed spinach. Heat through; serve over pasta.
Chicken spinach curry: cook chicken thighs for five hours or so in a crockpot, low temp, with a can of chicken broth. Once the meat is coming off the bone, remove the skin and and bones, shred the meat. Add a couple of tablespoons of curry powder to the broth; put the shredded chicken back in; add 12 oz. or so frozen spinach (no need to thaw), a bag of dried cranberries, and three or four apples, peeled, cored, chopped into biggish chunks. Cook for half an hour or so. Serve over rice.
Cut up some bacon and brown it in a pan, then wilt the spinach in the drippings with a pinch of salt, pepper, and a dash of Tabaso sauce. You’ll thank me for it later.
Spinach and bacon is a match made in heaven.
Saturday I made palak paneer (saag paneer) from this recipe. It was really delicious. I used two regular sized bags of baby spinach from the salad section at the grocery store, and it worked well.
I forgot about beans 'n greens:
1 T oil in a pan, heat up, 2-3 cloves pressed garlic, 1 bag cut frozen spinach, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 can cannelini beans, sprinkling of dried basil. Cook till vegetables are hot. Salt to taste. Super nutritious, great on toast.
I am a huge fan of this Spinach and Basil Pesto.
Spinach squares! My mom used to make them for dinner when I was little, and even though I detested vegetables as only an elementary schooler can, I enjoyed spinach squares.
I don’t have her exact recipe on hand, but a quick google search brought up a recipe that looks similar: spinach bars.
I will often thaw some frozen spinach, squeeze the excess water out of it, and mix it in with hamburger, bread crumbs, egg, and spices for meatballs and spaghetti. So good you’ll find yourself just eating the meatballs by themselves for leftovers.
Kind of old school, but spinach salad with a bit of goats cheese, tonnes of poppyseeds, a nice simple vinaigrette (I add lots of tarragon dijon mustard) and toasted walnuts or hazelnuts is so fantastic.
Chicken Spistachiola
2 cups water
8 oz fresh spinach
1 cup + 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
6 oz + 2 oz crumbly gorgonzola
4 oz shelled roasted salted pistachios, chopped
5 or 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp cooking oil
Drop the spinach in boiling water to wilt (< 2 minutes) and remove to a chilled bowl. (Retain the water you used.) Combine the spinach, 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs, about 6 oz gorgonzola and most of the chopped pistachios.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Butterfly the chicken breasts, spread open and place on top of a sheet of plastic wrap. Spoon the filling mixture into the center of the breast until it can barely be folded over. Using the plastic wrap to hold it together, roll the breast into a tight cyllinder. Carefully remove the plastic wrap, cover breast with seasoned bread crumbs and place in a roasting pan lightly greased with oil. Repeat for all breasts. Roast for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken (not the stuffing) reaches 165F.
While the chicken is roasting, make green gravy using the pot liquor from the spinach and 2 oz of the gorgonzola. I like to serve the chicken with corn cakes and steamed sugar snap peas. (You can use any leftover stuffing to toss with the peas.) Garnish each dish with chopped pistachios.
Microwave frozen bagged spinach, put it in a pan with a few eggs then cook until the eggs are done.
Breakfast!
Simple, but effective: spinach & feta omelette.
mmm
Ellen’s right on the money with this one (the more garlic the merrier, and canola oil works just fine too), but as a tip, I suggest you make a small bit first with stems, to see if you like the stems while cooked. I’m not a picky eater but I do not like cooked spinach stems. If you like em, great, if not, pick off the stems before you sautee the rest of it!
Also, YMMV, but if you like red pepper flakes (like llcoolbj mentioned) they’re fantastic.
Sattua, where does one find frozen artichoke hearts? Is it like a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s only thing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at the grocery store.
Mine is the above, minus the tomatoes, and squeezing a lemon over it after you remove it from the heat. And it is definitely something you have to keep an eye on and get off the heat immediately - no throwing it in and playing a video game for ten minutes before checking on it.