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I blend spinach up and mix it into mac and cheese or other cream sauces where it wouldn’t be too out of place. Great way to trick my 38 and 43-year olds into eating their veggies.
I’m also eating colcannon right now, and I bet you could sub the cabbage I used for spinach and it’d still be pretty good.
Great way to trick my 38 and 43-year olds into eating their veggies.
Are you a grandparent, or part of a thruple?
Please note: These are not mutually exclusive.
I do this too. Shove it right into meals that it has no right in being in.
Burritos. Pizza. I often put it as a garnish below protein to force myself to eat it.
If you cook it it reduces pretty significantly.
As my German self put it a few weeks ago:
Make omlets and toss the spinach on early. Then add cheese and fold the other half over as you plate it and you get perfectly not over soggy spinach and cheese omelets.
My favorite way of eating them too.
I literally only buy fruits and veggies I plan on using that day because otherwise I’m just wasting money 😔
peas and onions are the only exceptions for me, some fried/caramelized onions makes literally anything better (i’d eat caramellized onion ice cream i think), and frozen peas can be nuked for a minute and added to most meals for a bit of colour and fibre.
this is probably the best practical advice I’ve ever seen on the internet
All those avocados I was going to eat that ossify into a leathery lump!
“Aspirational vegetables.”
So, roasted vegetables have been a revelation for me. I used to think I hated vegetables, but actually I just hate steamed vegetables. I think I could make a pretty good case that every single vegetable is better when roasted. Toss it in a drizzle of oil, some garlic or black pepper, and then onto a pan. They’re amazing.
I thought I hated cauliflower. Nope. Roasted cauliflower is amazing. I thought I hated broccoli. Wrong again; one time I accidentally ate an entire pan of it without realizing it. I thought I hated Brussels sprouts, even the new sweeter cultivars, but I live for roasted Brussels sprouts now.
Even the stuff you like is better roasted. Sweet potatoes. Squash. Carrots. Regular potatoes. Make fun combinations: Bell peppers and onions. Chickpeas and cherry tomatoes. Throw any random set of vegetables on a pan and rejoice at what comes out.
And, to the original post, spinach. First it gets wilty, then it gets stringy, but then it gets this fantastic creamy texture that is just incredible. We like to pile it high on a pan with some chicken. It’s awesome.
Straight to the trash with that disgusting rubber you pull out of the steamer or the microwave.
Look, you probably knew all about this already. But I discovered it at, like, age 35 and now I have to tell everyone.
Make creamed spinach.
(if your spinach is big unwashed fresh leaves, rinse and chop them up a bit first. Or chop first and then rinse if it’s easier. If frozen, thaw a little but still-icy is good.)
Melt a big lump of butter in a biggish pot over medium-low heat. Stir in a big spoonful of flour, when it bubbles add slowly a can of evaporated milk (not the sweet condensed kind!) and a shake of nutmeg. Keep stirring as it starts to boil and thicken. Dump in all the spinach and keep stirring. If fresh, the spinach will shrink. If frozen it will thaw. Either way it will cook and get mixed into the cream sauce.
Take it off the heat and let it cool a little. If you want it smooth, pour it into a blender and puree it. Then add salt and seasonings to your taste. I like Lawry’s and black pepper but you do you.
If you don’t have a can of evaporated milk, regular milk or cream will work. If you only have powdered milk, use less water than usual because spinach is watery. I think plant milks will do the thing, and I guess you’re used to the flavor difference. Same for vegan butter and gluten-free flour.
If you’re using a bullet blender, let it cool a bit longer first and don’t quite tighten it all the way because the cooling liquid will make a vacuum and it will be hard to open.
Blending alters (blandifies) flavor, especially salt, so season last and you’ll need less. It’s also fine not to blend it at all, you’ll just see the bits of spinach in the cream sauce.
Yes you just added a bunch of calories. But the vitamins and minerals are still in there, even some of the C because it doesn’t cook long. And you didn’t waste that farmer’s work.
Needs some blup
Give me your spinach and whatever green leafy veggies you buy knowing you won’t get around to eating it. I’m sure most people would tell me that I eat crap, but the one good thing I can say is at least I eat a lot of greens.
I wish that spinach was sold in smaller bundles, or just kind of loose and by weight so that one could buy exactly the amount one needs for something. So often I get some because I love fresh spinach in certain dishes, but inevitably I use like a third of it and then a few days later the rest has gone bad before I’ve wanted it again. It feels like it’s sold under the understanding that anyone buying it is feeding a family of at least four people or something.
Strange. In Germany it’s usually found frozen as little nuggets that are easy to portion. But I like the stuff so much that I always make the whole box and it’s still not enough.
And unfrozen it’s often sold as lose leafs. Though that shrinks so much with cooking that I wouldn’t know how to portion it.
My strategy is to just eat a portion for a family of four.
I like fresh spinach in this or that too, but yeah the bags are big if you just want to graze a few leaves here and there.
I normally use it up by cooking it. Spinach is one of those veggies that seems like a “lot” fresh, but when you cook it, it wilts to absolutely nothing.
Pan wilted spinach with some soy sauce and garlic powder makes an excellent breakfast-time toast topping along with a fried egg.
Creamed spinach with parmesan is a delicious and quite decadent dinner side that can pair with just about anything.
Now in hungry for spinach lol
I’ve recently learned to love the spinach via raspberry vinaigrette and walnuts. Spinach is a delivery system.
Ooh also try sliced almonds. Or feta cheese. Or quartered artichoke hearts. Salads are so good with the right toppings.
why do people obsess over spinach specifically? peas are much better IMO, but also there’s haricots verts and broccoli… like there are other frozen vegetables than spinach!
It’s a bit of rabbit hole, but in essence Popeye the sailor man started the myth of spinach being super healthy.
It is significantly healthier than what most sailors would have been eating at the time.
that makes sense, and jives with it seeming to be a mostly anglo thing
Spinach tends to be something that you buy with the intention of eating healthier, but use infrequently enough that it might go bad before you use it.
Peas and broccoli are, depending on cuisine, more commonly used.
blanch them however you like, blend with mascarpone (or cream cheese), wallnuts, garlic, parmesan.
enjoy one of the best pasta sauces you’ll ever had.
you will easily eat a while family bag of spinach in one sitting.
Will still work if they are starting to go bad (floppy, not rotten).
For people with no dietary restrictions I would reccomend a very fatty chuck roast, un-gently massage in a more-than-enough ammount of salt and add your favorite seasoning such as Montreal, hit and slap the meat. Next, prep a pan on high heat. After the pan reaches high heat add som butter and completely sear every side of the steak very quickly. Now the outside is cooked but the inside is raw, so cook at 250F for 2 to 3 hours depending on thickness. Once done, slice steak with fork and knife then serve on top of the spinach.
For Gluten Free Vegans I reccomend cutting a lemon in half and squezing both halves into a bowl until all juices are expelled. Remove seeds from juice. Add 1/3rd a cup of honey, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 2 teasp crushed ginger (you can buy it in jars or tubes). Mix rigourously. Cut either some cherry tomatoes in half or a larger tomato in eighths, then place the tomatoe over spinach and add the dressing a little bit at a time over top.
Popeye?
It is easier to print this meme and put it on the spinach box / bag than to prepare food with it for some absurd reason.
