what's your favorite cooked spinach recipe?

[mellowtigger]

dodecadragon sent me an interesting table of information from the USDA website on spinach and lamb's quarter nutrition.  Where values were available for both plants, lamb's quarter (related to quinoa) beat spinach for best value in a majority of the vitamin and mineral categories.

The trouble when searching for recipes or nutritional value of quinoa, however, is that it's most commonly grown for its seed rather than its leaves.  It seems the best solution is just to substitute quinoa leaves for whatever recipe calls for spinach leaves.

Recipes that involve heat might be best.  When I used the leaves in a salad, they were a bit on the chewy side because of their thickness.  Cooking would wilt them enough to eliminate that problem.

So... what's your favorite spinach recipe?  I don't cook with spinach, so I'm not familiar with options for what to do with these quinoa (or lamb's quarter) leaves.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

any recipe containing "saag"

http://www.google.ca/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=saag+recipe&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=XchFTKuHN8SblgeBqbCeBA

essentially: brown meat or paneer if you're using it, set it aside; make a paste of ginger + garlic + onions + chiliifyouwantithot; brown the paste in a pan, add back the meat and the leaves, cook until done enough to suit you. If you're using channa or potatoes, cook them separately and add them near the end.

[mellowtigger]

The saag (cheese or tofu or chickpea) is often my favorite dish at the local Indian restaurant. I've never made one myself, though. I guess it's time to try. :)

[sctmpls.livejournal.com]

I love creamed spinach which is pretty easy, just saute the spinach in some butter and add a little heavy cream at the end and salt and pepper to taste. I'm lactose intolerant so I have to make it with soy milk and the only tweak I have to make is to use a little extra butter and stir in a couple teaspoons of flour before adding unsweetened soy milk.

YUM!

[mellowtigger]

I'm definitely not a fan of plain cooked spinach (what I call "Popeye" spinach), but with added cream I think it could turn out pretty good.

Any spinach/cheese dish I've ever tasted, I've really enjoyed. I'm sure it would be similar with the cream.

[sctmpls.livejournal.com]

If you want to be extra decadent, saute a little minced garlic with the spinach and stir in a little grated parmesan at the end. This is the only way I'll eat "plain" cooked spinach.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

While I enjoy raw spinach, I have never met a cooked spinach that I liked. (And I still gag at my childhood memories of canned spinach that my parents would force onto my plate.)

Personally, I'd consider just shredding the quinoa, like you would cabbage for cole slaw.

[mellowtigger]

I agree about cooked "Popeye" spinach (the kind of stuff that comes from the can). Yuck! I do immensely enjoy spinach/cheese meals though (quiche, dips, etc).

I've gotten really good at making a cold dip for chips:

1 box frozen chopped spinach (thawed but still cold)
1 container sour cream (light is okay but regular tastes better)
1 can water chestnuts (chopped)
lots of onion salt
some dried garlic powder

Mix it all up, put back in the fridge for a half hour to cool down again, then eat it up with corn chips. Yum! Plus, it's MUCH cheaper than those packets of seasoning for making your own spinach dip.

[litch.livejournal.com]

begin to fry 3-4 slices of thick bacon, put in a quarter of an onion & some garlic when enough fat liquifies to saute it, once the onions start to brown add a couple handfuls of spinach, when it is reduced to half the volume stir in a cpl teaspoons of balsamic vinegar, plate and sprinkle on some romano

personally I think this could work with anything green that didn't make you violently ill to eat: dandelion leaves, cabbage, construction paper, cash whatever you have handy

[mellowtigger]

Oh, bacon, is there anything you can't do?


I should try something like this with collard greens too (which I've also never cooked).

[bearbarry.livejournal.com]

I would look for recipes for preparing collared or similar greens and substitute the quinoa. A dense leaf needs to be cooked for quite a while to overcome its fibrous nature. Spinach is a tender green like lettuce, so I doubt you can use quinoa easily as a substitute even in a cooked form.

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, I thought of collard greens, but I've never cooked them either. I guess I have lots of learning still to do in the kitchen. :)

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

also, colcannon

cook some potatoes, break them into chunks

put a bit of butter in a pan and add some shredded onion and salt and cook until transparent

put the leaves in that and cook them until thoroughly wilted and the moisture has evaporated off them

put that mixture into the potatoes and mix just enough to more or less combine

put that mixture into a baking dish and cover it in shredded cheese

stick it in the oven until the cheese is thoroughly melted and/or starting to brown

[mellowtigger]

Never heard of it before, but it sounds yummy.

http://vegetarian-recipes.suite101.com/article.cfm/colcannon
The fat from the milk, butter, cheese, and/or meat is probably useful to the taste, but I might try making it with some kind of flavored oil instead. (I don't aim for vegan recipes because of animal welfare concerns. I just generally try to avoid gluten/casein components where easy to skip them.)

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

You can make it entirely without cheese - bacon is totally traditional too. The Hungarian version has sausage and/or eggs and no cheese.

Oh and speaking of Hungarian - fry onions as above and add the greens, cook the hell out of them, chop them up fine or blender them, mix with sour cream, add bacon bits, and glop it onto hot pasta.