Spinach

Legacy_user

This is mightily embaressing and i am ashamed to say. Ive never tried let alone cooked spinach. I am trying to think of ways of stretching my familys eating habits to include a more varied type of vegetables on their plates. They tend not to eat fruit so every peice of vegatable i give them has to count.

I regularly cook peas, sweetcorn, green beans, carrots, cabbage and broccoli. They litterally hate sprouts so i dont bother buying them and arent keen on parsnips either but i am going to try and introduce broad beans by slipping a few in with the mixed veg and
I was thinking of trying spinach. I havent a clue how you cook it when its frozen. Do you cook it the same way as if you cooked cabbage?

zippychick

Don't be embarassed

Spinach just really needs wilted, so i add it when there's a couple of minutes cooking time left. It all depends what you are adding it to. I add it to lentil dahl and spanish omelette recently

Ill merge this with our spinach thread once you have more input

Zip

Pink.

Hi Judi,

Have you frozen it yourself or was it bought frozen? I have only ever cooked fresh spinach which involves rinsing it and popping into a (lidded) pan with a decent knob of butter and leaving it for a couple of minutes until it wilts. Then give it a good stir and it's ready to serve.

If you bought it pre-frozen it will be already cooked and just requires heating through. If that's the case are there any instructions on the packaging?

Pink

System

I was going to try buying it frozen, just to see how it goes. Yes, i'll have a look at the packet if and when i buy some but i just wanted some input first.

I wonder if i can get away with mixing it in with the cabbage? (not necessarily cooking it with it though). I could swear blind its a distant relation to a savoy cabbage.:D

lostinrates

I wouldn't mix it with cabbage personally. If they are wary of change in flabour you could make it a little milder by serving it ''creamed''...with a splash of cream, or even a spoon of cream cheese mixed in if they like that. It benefits from a very light grating of nutmeg served in that traditional way, and IMO, is lovely with fish or white meat.

Fresh the flavour is , IMO, milder, and its great for a manly salad, with chicken and bacon and avocado and pine nuts and either a blue sheese type dressing or a mustardy vinigrette.

wilted from fresh with a little garlic and a squeeze of lemon, and just barely wilted, its superb with steak or lamb chops.

It also makes a delicious light soup, spinach, onion, carot, celery and veg stock, a dash of milk perhaps, or even a potato if you prefer a heartier soup.

My very favourite spinach meal is stuffed pancakes with a basic, vegetabley tomato sauce.

I love spinach!

dandy-candy

Ooo I love spinach too! Fresh spinach you are supposed to traditionally wash 7 times to get rid of any dirt, but frozen you just boil for a couple of mins. Its lovely served with a splash of cream mixed in, or if you want a super yummy meal make a cannelloni with spinach and garlic fried mushrooms in a cheese sauce - serve it with crusty bread - it is fabulous!!

spike7451

The frozen spinach is ideal to add to a Balti Curry or a rice dish,I do not like fresh spinach but for some reason I can eat the frozen stuff in a ruby murry...

SailorSam

Popye eats it straight out of the can and he seems to do well on it.

rosie383

dandy-candy wrote: »

Ooo I love spinach too! Fresh spinach you are supposed to traditionally wash 7 times to get rid of any dirt

No need to wash it loads!!! Fill a big bowl with cold water, add spinach, give it a good swish around, then lift the leaves from where they are floating on top of the water. Don't drain it!!! That way, all the sand goes to the bottom of the bowl and you lift out clean leaves.

BTW, if it's frozen, bung it in a curry. Then, next time you serve it ( in a visible form) you can tell all the fussy ones that they have already had it and didn't know.

Cat501

I love spinach! I'm not very adventurous with it though - fresh gets added to stir fries, frozen gets mixed in with broccoli and pasta bake, just to get some extra veg in.

But my favourite meal at the moment is gnocchi with tomato and fresh spinach sauce, just make a nice garlicky tomato sauce, put a load of spinach in for the last couple of minutes and stir till wilted. Put cooked gnocchi in ovenproof dish, pour sauce over, top with grated cheese and stick in the oven for about 15 mins. Garlic bread to mop up the sauce:)

Damn, I'm craving that now!!

BohemianCoast

We use spinach most weeks and my whole family like it; raw in salads, wilted in all sorts of things. The chopped frozen sort is particularly useful as a stealth vegetable in stews; it adds depth and richness of flavour without looking like a vegetable.