Spinach dishes

[Jaga]

Let me here start a thread with the recipes for spinach. When I came to America i did not know how to cook at all, the only dish I could do well and it tasted good to everybody was a spinach dessert (or salad).

First -

put pre-cleaned spinach leaves (one bucket) into the cold salted water (so that any possible snails would come out - but here in American spinach I did not see too much snails),

after rinsing it out bring it too cooking and cook for maybe 5 minutes (until the leaves will soften). Then pour the spinach through the sieve to the plate and slice it with the knife.

Then fry some butter or margarine in the pan, add spinach, one piece of chopped garlic, add a bit of salt,
then add 1/4 cup of milk mixed with two tablespoons of flour, at the end add some sour cream and mix it in.

It is delicious!

[lily]

Jaga....lily here..............I do my spinach same as you - but never did the last part of your recipe which I'm anxious to try..........fromt he part about the 1/4 cup of milk etc...............that does sound delicious.
thanks for that recipe..

lily

[Jaga]

Lily,

I am so glad you came here.

milk with flour it makes a thick consistency a bit like pudding, I like it. But first you need to mix cold milk with flour before adding to spinach so that no any "gui spots" would be formed

[suzanne]

Jaga,
So this is a sour-cream creamed spinach, it seems. It sounds good!

My favorite way to prepare spinach is an Italian recipe I found and it's very easy: heat olive oil in a wide skillet on medium heat, saute chopped garlic then turn heat down and add fresh spinach leaves and a bit of salt and stir while cooking. It will be done in a couple of minutes, when the leaves are bright green and wilted.

I've never seen snails in spinach (!) but when I wash it, I sometimes see a lot of sand. I guess spinach likes to grow in sandy soil.

[rdywenur]

Jaga...I luv spinach but I hope you don't serve it to me as a dessert .......LOL

Your recipe sounds like a basic creamed spinach.

[Pawian]

Spinache isn`t very popular in Poland nowadays. I don` t remember when I last saw it in a shop. It never appears on the menu in our school canteen.

To tell the truth, it is one of the most disgusting vegetables, or foods whatsoever. When put on the plate, it looks like a piece of soft .... . Yuk.

Besides, it is not very healthy. It contains this oxalic acid which rinses calcium from the organism.

There are much healthier and tastier vegetables available. Why should anyone care for spinache today?

[rdywenur]

Pawian.......Is today national complaint day. I think I missed it here on my calendar. I love spinach. One of my favorite vegetables. I love spinach salad, soup, cooked sauted in garlic and olive oil...anyway you fix it. It is loaded with iron and is known to be one of the healthy green leafy vegetables. I think you should consult with "Popeye" he'll vouch for me.

[nancy]

I LUV Popeye!

At one time, spinach was thought to be very high in iron, and we were all supposed to eat it. Then it turned out to be a mistake, but I still like spinach - but only fresh and crisp - not cooked.

[Jaga]

I always liked spinach but I am familiar with all these kids that treated spinach as a torture. I hope you can still buy it in Poland! Nancy is right, it was considered to have much mroe iron than other foods just by a mistake.

But spinach belong to these vegetables who are good for everything, even for a diet of pregnant woman, it has a folic acid like all dark green leafy vegetables

[suzanne]

I think the oxalic acid in spinach is only a problem for people with kidney failure, otherwise it's not present in high enough amounts to be harmful (unless you ate 10 pounds of spinach, but who would do that?!) Spinach is a very tasty vegetable, but only if it's very fresh and cooked properly (not boiled!) or raw in a salad.

[Pawian]

suzannem said:

I think the oxalic acid in spinach is only a problem for people with kidney failure, otherwise it's not present in high enough amounts to be harmful (unless you ate 10 pounds of spinach, but who would do that?!)

It is enough when you eat it in small amounts but regularly, and for a long time. Then at 50 years of age, you start having problems with stones in your kidneys.

****Oxalic acid is corrosive to tissue. When ingested, oxalic acid removes calcium from the blood. Kidney damage can be expected as the calcium is removed from the blood in the form of calcium oxalate. The calcium oxalate then obstructs the kidney tubules.****
www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/o6044.htm

Spinach is a very tasty vegetable, but only if it's very fresh and cooked properly (not boiled!) or raw in a salad.

Cooked spinache is horrible. Raw is probably much better but I have never had a chance to try one.

[Pawian]

rdywenur said:

Pawian.......Is today national complaint day. I think I missed it here on my calendar.

hahahaha you will have to mark many days in your calendar as "national complaint days."

It is loaded with iron and is known to be one of the healthy green leafy vegetables.

It`s an old wives` tale which eventually turned out to be false. It has some iron but to no avail because the oxalic acid reduces iron.

PS. Have you already stopped smoking? If you have, now it`s high time to stop eating spinache hahahahahahaha.

[Pawian]

nancy said:

I LUV Popeye!

The guy in the picture is holding a can of spinache. Canned food is deprived of its nutrients like vitamins etc.
What does canned spinache have, apart from taste, to be so attractive?

[Pawian]

nancy said:

but I still like spinach - but only fresh and crisp - not cooked.

Fresh can be OK. But what for, if simple, but healthy lettuce can give you the same?

[nancy]

Pawian,

The "guy" witht he canned spinach is Popeye - a cartoon character born in 1929 who was known for his love of spinach - it gave him those big bulging biceps (say the fast, 3 times).

That in the day when spinach was though to have all that extra iron, and also canned goods were pushed on the market. These days, I don't bellieve in spinach, and prefer fresh vegetables when available, or frozen over canned. But I still luv Popeye and his friends.

Popeye cartoon

Cast of Characters