1,534 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Let's rehabilitate spinach

We are currently (as I write this) in the season of fresh spinach, and it is a delicious vegetable that unfortunately has a bad reputation among a lot of people, children and teenagers in particular.

I wonder if this lack of appetite isn't due to what I call, probably unfairly, "school food spinach"? That is to say a rather tasteless green purée, of a very unappetizing aspect, and that most children know, alas. And it's a pity, because spinach, well prepared, not chopped, is both delicious and healthy (but with little iron, despite Popeye, a little reference for those who were born before 1980).

But for spinach to stay good, you have to buy it in season, right now, close to home if possible, and prepare and cook it with care, that is to say very briefly.

You don't know how to do it? No problem, I'll show you.

8,026 4.8/5 (15 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Spinach Cooking Recipe Method Blanching

Last modified on: May 7^th 2021

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Let's rehabilitate spinach

The preparation

This is not very complicated, we treat them a bit like salad: plunged in cold water with vinegar to wash them, you drain, and it's finished.
It's a matter of taste, but if, like me, you don't like the hard part of the spinach leaf, the vein, you can remove it by pulling on it and put it in the compost, it separates from the leaf quite easily.
Well no mystery, it's a lot of work, you have to do it leaf by leaf, but the result is worth your efforts.

épinards retrait nervure centrale

Note that from now on (put them through the salad spinner first) you can already eat the spinach raw, in a salad for example, alone or with other things, it is already very good. It can also replace salad, for example in the burgers we talked about not long ago.

Cooking ways

There are 2 main ways to cook them:

1) Fallen ("Tombés" in French)

This is a rather simple method, rather fast: You put a large frying pan on high heat, with a big knob of butter or a little olive oil, and when all this is quite hot you put a good big packet of prepared spinach leaves in the pan.
Be careful it crackles a lot because of the water left on the leaves, you stir the leaves a bit and they will "fall", that is to say cook, in 2 or 3 minutes maximum.
Put aside, and repeat the operation until all your spinach falls.

épinards pour une tombée épinards tombés

2) Blanching

A little longer method: You boil a big pot of salted water, and you plunge in a big packet of prepared spinach leaves, stir a little and as soon as the boiling starts again, it's cooked (2 minutes max).
Remove from the water with a skimmer or spider and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking.
Drain once cooled, then pass to the salad spinner to dry. You can also consult these detailed explanations.

cuisson des épinards refroidissement rapide des épinards essorage des épinards

Whatever the cooking method you have chosen, the spinach prepared in this way is ready to be used in the recipe of your choice. It retains its beautiful emerald-coloured leafy appearance, especially when blanched, and its delicate taste.

As for the recipes, it is also a matter of taste, but spinach can be used in many recipes, whether raw or cooked!

I can't resist the pleasure of recommending an association that works incredibly well, it's fresh spinach with cream: For example a simple omelette in which you put cooked spinach, or spinach with cream and served with slices of hard-boiled eggs, a delight!

Tosum up: Eating spinach in season, prepared and cooked with care, is the guarantee of delicious seasonal recipes.

Lasts posts

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 2025554

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20252,1055

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20257,1603

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20256,6745

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20256,7155

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Parmesan cheese crusts

If you use Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano) in your recipes, you may have already noticed: when you grate it, it becomes (very) difficult near the crust, especially if it is a slightly aged parmesan, as the cheese gets harder and harder. So we stop grating, leaving some crust on top, and a...
September 14^th 202217 K4.8

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017133 K 14.1

The right weight of pastry for a pie

Let's try to solve a thorny problem: How much dough will I need when I make my next pie? You're planning to make a pie, you're going to use your favourite mould or circle, but how much pastry will you need to fill it completely with a well spread pastry, without being too thin, or on the contrary...
March 20^th 202066 K4.3

Roasting spices

If you like your food a little, or a lot, spicy, you'll no doubt have a jar or sachets of mixed spices in your cupboards from which to draw when preparing a dish. I'm thinking, for example, of curries, chili and couscous, all of which fill the kitchen, and sometimes far beyond...
October 30^th 20209,7144.9

Zester like a pro

Have you heard of the microplane? It's an extraordinary tool that allows you to grate very, very finely, and therefore zest with disconcerting ease. Here's some information about it.
December 25^th 20208,3554.9