Spinach isn't just Popeye's muscle-building vegetable of choice. It's also one of our favorite dark leafy greens: tender, juicy, and endlessly useful in the kitchen. It's even seasonally versatile; it grows in colder months, but then when you can't find it fresh and local anymore, there is excellent frozen spinach to be had for soups and stir-fries.
- Stir-fried, with tons of garlic - This of course is our favorite way to eat mounds of spinach, fresh or frozen. Just heat a lot of slivered garlic in a little olive oil, dump in a bag of spinach and stir-fry until hot. Season with soy sauce and a pinch of pepper.
- Rolled up in pasta - Spinach and its tender greenness is great in pasta. We like these spinach lasagna roll-ups from our Quick Weeknight Meals contest. We also like this more indulgent spaghetti with mascarpone, Meyer lemon, spinach and hazelnuts. Yum.
- In pesto - In the wintertime, with hot-weather basil long gone, fill pesto cravings with spinach (and other cold-weater leafy greens). Just make pesto as usual, but use spinach instead of herbs. It's great in tomato soup!
- Blended into soup - Spinach is great in soups. It cooks up quickly and adds some green color and flavor to a fall soup. Here are some favorites: Spinach and Lemon Soup with Orzo and Spring Spinach and Herb Soup.
- In something with cheese - There's something about spinach that just makes us want to eat it with cheese, like in these Spinach-Pie Quesadillas (they look so good!) or on this white bean and taleggio pizza. The ultimate combo of spinach with cheese may be palak paneer, a spicy Indian dish full of squeaky chunks of paneer cheese. Great cold weather eating.
Here are a few more tips and recipes for spinach. What's your favorite way to eat spinach?
• Ricotta Pancakes with Spinach and Cherry Tomatoes
• 7 Variations on a Spinach Salad
• Spinach and Strawberry Salad
• Ina Garten's Spinach and Cheddar Soufflé
• Eating Light: Frozen Vegetables Are Your Friends
More 5 Ways to Eat Posts:
These posts are all ingredients paired with Social Workout's daily exercise over at their Fall Challenge.
• Quinoa • Broccoli • Oats • Beets
(Images: Flickr member sciondriver licensed for use under Creative Commons; Emma Christensen)
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i love eating spinach korean style. steamed but served cold with sesame seed oil, salt and sesame seeds on top. it's a no brainer to make and tastes awesome!!!
spinach and tofu soup chinese style
My favorite entry in the "something with cheese" category is this spanikopita. Fresh spinach and dill, creamy cottage cheese and salty feta. Delicious. I'd say it gives palak paneer strong competition for the designation of ultimate spinach cheese combo.
@wwoolsey: I second that!
But also Goma-e, the Japanese sesame and spinach salad. Just the thing when you're feeling the need for a big dose of green healthy stuff, but with some protein too. Here's a good template:
http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/basic/gomae/gomae.html
@lotusmoss - I'm going to try Gom-e. Looks tasty, thanks for the link.
dinner tonight: spinach sauteed with garlic and crushed red pepper, topped with shredded provolone dolce and a fried egg. the spinach in italy has an incredibly deep flavor (and so do the eggs, with their marigold yolks). it was pretty fantastic, and so easy. everyone could use a little more spinach in their life!
www.ellenp1214.wordpress.com
Sauteed with lots of onion and pepper.
Cooked with dill and rice
Spanakopita
Replace nori with a spinach leaf with spicy tuna or salmon with cream cheese. Yum.
Jamie Oliver's buttered spinach is delicious, and then I stir it through mash potato because I can't eat mash potato on its own.