Do you like spinach? I was too picky to even try it when I was a kid, but once I was an adult I realized I really liked it.
This summer I’ve pretty much been addicted to spinach.
We planted some in the garden as we usually do, only it never come up. Well I guess I should say it never come up if I really planted it 🙂 I’m pretty sure I did, but then again maybe I didn’t.
Lucky for me Miss Cindy has kept me in spinach. She buys it at the tailgate market in Murphy.
Typically I steam spinach or make creamed spinach. This year I’ve just been gobbling it down raw. Sometimes I put a handful of leaves under my soup and let the hot soup sort of wilt it other times I sprinkle it with salt and eat the leaves one at a time.
Maybe I’m deficient in something spinach contains because I sure enough have been craving it every day. Who knows by the end of summer maybe I’ll be as strong as Popeye 🙂
What’s your favorite way to eat spinach-if you eat it?
Tipper
p.s. When I told the girls I was going to become Popeye they had no clue what I was talking about!
Until I was in college, my only exposure to spinach was the gloopy, slimy, smelly canned mess that they served in public school. Who in their right mind could call that food? When I was a freshman or sophomore, I was out to dinner with my girlfriend’s family and one of her sisters ordered a spinach salad. You can guess what my thinking was… When it came to the table my immediate thought was, “Where’s the spinach,” because all I saw was this beautiful leafy presentation with no obvious spinach. So, me being me, I had to ask, “Did they forget to put the spinach in your salad?” They all looked at each other and then laughed uproariously at my ignorance. The ironic thing is, my family farmed vegetables. We just never grew spinach.
Tipper: Try spinach & strawberry salad for 8: 20 oz. fresh spinach; qt. strawberries, cut; 1/2 cup toasted, sliced almonds w/ poppy seed dressing:1/3 c. sugar; 1/4 c. vinegar;1 1/2 t. chopped onion or dried onion; 1/4 t. paprika; 1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce; 1/2 c. vegetable oil, and 1 T. poppy seeds shaken in a jar. Pour over salad! Also like microwaved spinach with cider vinegar, s & p. Yum!
spinach likes cool weather to grow & I have not had any luck trying to grow it in the spring so I want to try growing it for a fall crop & maybe some will overwinter.
Tipper. I tried to post must hit wrong key I love can spinach in can with scrambled eggs
Tipper, Ken Roper and I like spinach in a can with eggs scrambled in it. It taste like Poke salad. I could eat my weigh in spinach that way. I do buy Baby Spinach for raw salads. Sure love to have me a mess poke salad.
I like spinach most of the ways your commenters have provided and really like it right out of the can. I sure remember Popeye.
I prefer it raw or wilted. I also love spinach dip!
I don’t know what the spinach dish is on the buffet table at most Chinese restaurants but I usually empty the pan Good stuff!
I like it raw on a sandwich or salad, just be careful if you eat a lot of it, because it’s full of vitamin K and it’ll thicken the blood, my Uncle was so crazy about turnip greens he’d eat several batches during the week, until one day he was having blood clots in his legs and different parts of his body, the Doctor asked him what he would eat at home and he told him he ate quite a few greens during the week and he told him he had to cut back on his turnip greens it was causing his blood to be too thick , I remember years ago when I worked to a Pest Control Company we’d put out rat bait to kill the rats with warfarin it would thin the blood until they’d hemorrhage to death, the antidote was vitamin K it would thicken the blood, just in case a dog or cat or child got into it.
Tipper, i like spinach on my salsd i like it raw.
I thoroughly enjoy fresh young spinach greens in any green salad and as greens in my sandwiches and tacos; but I especially like making spinach, mushroom and/or cocktail shrimp quesadillas!!!!
I like to make a raw spinach salad with mushrooms and bacon and a warm bacon dressing. I also make spinach quiche, spinach souffle’, and onions stuffed with a cream cheese/spinach mixture and baked.
I have a niece that makes a spinach casserole that is great. When we have a get-together only those early in line get any. We had some in a planter a couple years ago and a 3 yr old neighbor cleaned it out. I had to keep pinching off the roots or he would have eaten them.
Lolol on Popeye and the youngbloods! Did you also mention his sweetheart Olive Oil? Speaking of, coat the bottom of heavy pan with olive oil. Add as much slivered, fresh garlic and red pepper flakes as you dare. Sauté on low until garlic just turns light brown and crisps. Add fresh spinach, defrost and drained if frozen, and sea salt. Sauté on low until wilted (for fresh) and well coated with oil. A great side with anything or as is with crusty bread.
Her name was Olive Oyl! With a y. I don’t like olive oil. Give me bacon grease or give me death! Or maybe “Give me bacon grease and give me death!” Either way it is a more pleasant way to go!
Tipper,
I get Spinach in a can at the Dollar General and scramble 3 eggs in it. I like that stuff better than turnip greens. Ole Popeye’d eat that stuff right out of the can, then he’d go and whip-up on Brutus.
That’s about the only cartoon me and Harold ever watched as kids. …Ken
I like it raw for a salad or cooked either. Creamed is really good. I’m the only one in my family that likes it. Try the little boxes in the freezer section. they have creamed spinach & you can nuke them. Pretty good!
Although I have always loved greens, I just could not get a handle on spinach. I went to a restaurant called Compestre with family recently and discovered two foods I cannot get enough of. I ordered two quesadillas with one mushroom and the other spinach. Since then I have prepared these on a regular basis. The mild cheddar cheese on the quesadillas just add to the flavor while holding it together. I realized the problem was I had only previously ever eaten the spinach out of a can where it was processed to death. I now just saute with some crunchiness remaining. What is it with this spinach obsession?
I am due for lab work and fear my iron level will be through the roof. I always heard growing up our body craves what we are needing, so why am I also craving ice cream?
I read something once that said not to over-do spinach. If you have a broken bone It will hinder healing. Might want to check that out.
Baby spinach mixed in with romaine lettuce makes a great salad. My grandson likes it canned, seasoned and served with cornbread. Popeye has a little something to do with his spinach craving. I have never planted it in my garden but maybe I should.
Tipper, I have been eating fresh spinach for 50 years….I mix it 50/50 in my salads with other spring greens and use it exclusively on corn beef and Swiss cheese sandwiches on rye bread…..I seem to be craving it as a fresh source of iron…..Thank you for your posts!
When I was little, I liked cooked spinach with a little vinegar on it (my Nana taught me that one). Nowadays, I’m more partial to it raw, like you. I like it in salads best. My most favorite is a wilted spinach salad (spinach, hard-boiled egg, and cherry tomatoes) using warm bacon dressing. YUM!!!
I like spinach but I’m one of those people who gets a strange “coated teeth” feeling after eating it – I don’t know how else to describe it, but apparently some people get it and some don’t! So I enjoy eating spinach either cooked or fresh but sometimes I want to brush my teeth after eating it fresh. One of my favorite ways to cook spinach is in lasagna, but I use frozen spinach for that – I actually enjoy spinach lasagna more than lasagna made with meat – it holds together better and isn’t greasy.
My grandmother cooked spinach the same way she cooked poke except she used canned spinach. Drain the liquid. Beat 2 eggs per can of spinach and mix with spinach. Cook in a skillet with hot grease until eggs are set and liquid is cooked away. I have been cooking it this way for years. I recently saw a recipe for “Italian Spinach” which is cooked the same way except add garlic during cooking and top with parmesan cheese as soon as removing from the skillet while it is still very hot. That may be my new favorite. Yum!
Diane, thank you for explaining how to do this – sounds so good. I’m going to try it!
I love Spinach in my salads with just a small amount of Iceberg Lettuce for crunch, Jalapenos, ripe Olives and Sweet Peppers drenched with Chunky Blue Cheese dressing accompanied by crackers. I can make a meal on this.
I am like you. I wouldn’t eat anything green when I was a kid except green onions. I discovered spinach late in life.
I like it sauteed in butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. I like it steamed and tossed with a little butter. Best of all I like it in place of lettuce in a garden salad.
I don’t care for spinach because to me it has no taste. But I grow it for my wife. However, it is another crop like English peas that really doesn’t do so well here. It doesn’t like hot weather. If planted for the fall it will not get big enough to make much. It will overwinter but not still does not get big enough to pick much, if any. until about April then quickly bolts before dying.
What has me mystified is that we used to get something called spinach in our school lunch when I was a kid. It had a taste, a bit sharp but certainly not bland. I liked it. Now I wonder what it really was.
Tip, I have loved spinach all my life. As a child it was the only green thing I would eat. Our Saturday Morning Tailgate has one vendor who sells spinach. I get there early cause it goes fast. He’s been trying out new varieties looking for one that will last longer. He found one that seems to be holding.
I had to miss the Market this week because I had a workman here…it almost broke my heart!