This is possibly the best way to eat spinach! It just locks in the flavors and color. Normally I just grate a little nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper. I have never tried garlic, but I can't wait to try it!

Thanks for the idea!

Hehe the staple dish of every Chinese restaurant back home in Malaysia...parents feed that to kids because it's the most kid-friendly tasting veg on the menu (and also because it's good for you)!

Simple...delicious. Flavoring the oil with a pinch of crushed red pepper along with the garlic is also nice. Maybe a squeeze of lemon to finish, and...voila.

My college roommate graduated with the highest GPA in the history of one of the world's top culinary institutes. He dried lettuce and spinach by washing it, scooping it into a pillowcase, and spinning the pillowcase around (in the shower or outside). May the centrifugal force be with you.

I hated spinach growing up because we only had frozen stuff that my mom would boil. Ewww

Now I love spinach, and this is how I always cook it. My husband and I could eat two bunches of it as one is never enough to satisfy both of us. I love it in pasta, in a salad, in a casserole.....any way I can get it.

I am SO glad to see this! Spinach rocks!

I love spinach like this--and it works for broccoli rabe as well--I usually chop and throw the stems in first, then add the greens after a few minutes. One variation--cook spinach in a hot skillet--remove when wilted and pour over it: a few cloves of garlic mashed with a mortar and pestle with 1 tsp kosher salt, when a paste-like consistency add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoons of red-wine or balsamic vinegar. In this version the garlic is not cooked, but mashed. Yum!

Love spinach. We have made spinach, broc. rabe, swiss chard, etc., like this forever. Same premise....... sometimes, for a change, we add hot chili flakes as the garlic cooks in the oil. Yummy. We also put the veggies cooked this way over pasta and use a bit of pasta water for the right consistency........ then grate cheese over and plenty of black pepper too. Another yum. If there is any italian sausage leftover, we cut bite-size pieces and place on top of the pasta dish too. It depends on what our menus is that night. Thanks, Elise.

I cook broccoli rabe this way, too. I add a bit of parmesan cheese at the end. Simple and delicious.

Ahhh...spinach. I could live on it. My mom was a canned-veggie woman and I grew up thinking I hated all vegetables except carrots and corn. Imagine my surprise when I first had fresh asparagus and loved it. Your dad's is my all-time favorite preparation for spinach. I often use frozen, as well, but I just barely defrost it and then add it to my nearly-ready meal just to heat it through. The other day I made a base of olive oil and anchovies until the anchovies disintegrated (I can't remember the proper name of the dish and I normally hate anchovies, but not cooked this way), added garlic and hot pepper, then the defrosted spinach and finally some cooked penne. I had to leave the room just so I wouldn't eat the whole thing!

I make spinach a lot in the summer with fresh spinach and other times use frozen!! hate canned!!! but instead of oil I use a bit of bacon(2-3 slices) and saute that with some onions and then add the spinach!! I rinse well but don't sin all the water off the little bit of water helps it wilt and then done easy and love it!!! Hugs Linda

I love, love, love spinach. It compliments so many meals! I like to saute it with raisins/cranberries and pine nuts...sweet and savory. Yum!

I have a different take on this recipe, which I have made for several years. I sauté several cloves of sliced garlic until light gold. I then add 1 or 2 bags of clean, drained spinach to the pan. I do not get rid of the water clinging to the leaves. I cover the pan and steam the spinach until it starts to pack down. I then remove the lid and let any moisture cook out, which takes only a few seconds. At that point I add 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and I salt and pepper to taste. This is my take of a dish that Macaroni Grill restaurant used to make which they called spinach salad. Now, unless their menu has changed, they make spinach without lemon juice. I’m sure this was done as a cost-cutting measure. The lemon juice adds great flavor to the spinach.

I made this and it was really good. I don't usually like spinach by itself because it is just too mushy, but this recipe was great, not too raw and not too wilted. I add carmelized onions to all sauteed greens instead of garlic, it gives it a really nice, sweet flavor that contrasts with the bitterness of the greens.

This is a great way to eat spinach! Just remember to start with a lot of spinach since it cooks down soooo much. Also, whatever you do...do not burn the garlic.
This is a great way to eat kale as well.

For a nice variation try a few drops of soy sauce rather than lemon juice after the spinach is cooked.

This recipe is such a good simple way to get your greens. Lately we have been doing the same preparation with swiss chard. Also if you have a little patch of dirt, spinach is a pretty easy crop to grow.

Cheers.

I always have spinach in soup, and it turns out superb. Throw in a bunch or 2 of spinach into soup with chicken stock.

We throw a couple of fennel seeds in with the garlic, then finish with a squeeze of lemon, for a Tuscan-y flair. Great with grilled pork tenderloin!

Elise,
I really love using and sharing your recipes. I make my spinach the same way except I add more sliced garlic and roasted peppers. Occasionally I will stir in a cup of sour cream after the spinach has wilted for a creamed type spinach. I also add spinach to most of the vegetable soups I enjoy making.
Thanks for all these wonderful recipes!
Ted

I do the same for spinach and kale too; I love it. Thank you for these recipes.

Mmmmm... de-lish! Try sprinkling some feta cheese on top..makes if even tastier! But you need the right type of feta cheese... the type that's stored in a barrel. Usually if you go to a Greek food store you're bound to find the right stuff!!

This is my favorite way, too, only I have to have lemon juice as well! Tonight, in the absence of lemons, I used the juice of 1/2 a tart tangerine and some feta! Delicious, but no substitute for the original.

I love Creamed Spinach, here's my recipe:

2 bags of Fresh Spinach
1/4 cup of cream, half and half, or milk.
1/4 stick of butter
2 teaspoons of nutmeg
2 tablespoons of corn-starch
3 slices of onion
2 or 3 cloves of peeled garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt

In a blender..whip the milk, cornstarch, onion,
nutmeg, garlic and salt, for about 15 seconds. Pour into a pot that is big enough to hold all the spinach. On low heat, stirring until the mixture becomes creamy and thickens, add the butter and spinach, cook until the spinach is wilted. Serve ASAP, nothing is worse than cold, cooked spinach or cornstarch mixture.

Looooove Spinach! Great properties for my DH who is an avid bike racer as well.

I love them from Salad to Side Dish (Hot Garlic & Olive Oil tossed / even Southern Flair with Bacon), Added into Pasta (Hot {Red sauce, White sauce, plain olive-oil tossed} / Cold {Pasta-Salad}) Dishes, Stir-Fried (Italian/Asian flair), in Soups (Italian Wedding Soup to Asian Egg-Drop / My Chicken Porridge with Spinach Greens) to an added garnishment to my beloved Ramen (Soup or Dry tossed in Black Bean Sauce & Ground Meat). Easy to prepare, easy to cook (saves time). :))

Like Popeye... there is a reason why he loved Spinach so.

This is a terrific recipe. I like to modify it a bit by mixing the garlic, some dried thyme and a small amount of sea salt and grinding them with a mortar and pestle before putting them in the olive oil. I cook the spinach the same way as suggested in the recipe. After transferring the cooked spinach to a plate I carefully add sardines to the olive oil and heat them, taking care not to break the sardines. Afterwards the sardines are placed on the bed of spinach and a small amount of Grey Poupon mustard tops the sardines, as much for color as for the added flavor. This makes a wonderful lunch with the added benefit of some omega-3 from the sardines.

Delicious! I made this tonight with Chinese Spinach and added 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar at the very end and it was wonderful. I too am a huge spinach lover and always saute it with garlic and oil or steam it--either way just until wilted. Yum!

Thank you for this recipe! A friend gave some spinach from his garden and it's something that I really haven't tried before. I Googled for the simplest way to cook this and got to your site. I tried it and put it up in my blog. Thanks again!

Delicious! Thanks for always inspiring with great recipes!

I put a big roasting pan on my stove over two (gas) burners. I fill it to the top with fresh washed spinach. Baby spinach tastes different than full-grown, but both are wonderful. I use olive oil, just a bit, and then midway through cooking I add about 1 1/2 teasp. of original Mrs. Dash. (or the organic costco no salt seasoning equivalent). I remove the spinach and cook fish in the same roasting pan--often talapia or salmon fillets. Wonderful low cal meal!

This is probably my daughter's favorite veggie (she is 4). We usually have this once a week, often with scrambled eggs on the side (the spinach is the most important part), with smoked gouda cheese grated over it all. She also likes it on her pizza, spinach & pepperoni, although it is hard to find a pizza place that uses fresh spinach. Oh yes, this is the way we cook it also - little garlic, little salt, little olive oil, presto! good stuff!

Thank you for sharing this simple delicious recipe! From another spinach lover....

I basically only had a bag of spinach in my refrigerator and a container of vegetable broth in my cupboard. Knowing that broth usually has some sort of cooking oil in it, I decided to use that instead of the olive oil. It turned out very, VERY tasty. I didn't even need to use salt. However, I did use a little crushed black pepper as it was cooking.