Easy Ways to Use Spinach (before it goes bad)
Plus three delicious recipes and a mouthwatering LA cookbook
Several times a month I buy a bag of fresh baby spinach at the grocery store. Although my family doesn’t love spinach salad, I know that we’ll eat it one way or another.
Bagged baby spinach is pre-washed, it keeps fairly well, and it’s an easy way to sneak leafy greens into our diet each week.
There are a lot of ways to use up spinach so that it doesn’t go to waste (although I’m not perfect; some weeks it does end up in the compost).
Mostly, I don’t use spinach in a planned recipe. Mostly, I grab a handful or two and throw it into…
Pasta: You can saute the spinach into sauce or just dump the raw leaves in a colander and pour the cooked pasta and cooking water over the top, which quickly blanches it.
Rice: (stir into the rice right after the rice is done cooking, then put a lid on the rice for a few minute)
Soup: Just toss a few handfuls in before serving the soup. This works for homemade soup and for instant soups like Top Ramen.
Anything I’m sautéing on the stove: Try cooking sliced, pre-cooked chicken sausage, then add a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, a can of drained chickpeas and baby spinach.
Smoothies: I always put a few leaves into my 8 year old’s berry smoothie.
Just saute the spinach with garlic and olive oil and serve it as a side dish at dinner. An entire bag will wilt down to just two servings.
Sometimes, I do use spinach in a specific recipe. Here are three favorites:
Spinach Pesto
Made with a blend of baby spinach and basil, you hardly even know that spinach is packed into this delicious spinach pesto.
Skillet Butter Beans with Pizza Cheese & Spinach
Butter beans are large white beans that are a canned variety of lima beans. They have a creamy texture but hold their shape well. In this one skillet recipe, you combine the beans with melted pizza cheese, baby spinach, tomato and garlic. I like to serve butter bean skillet with garlic bread on the side.
Chickpeas and Spinach
This is more of a side dish than a main course, although you can serve it over brown rice for a light, healthy dinner. Chickpeas and baby spinach are simmered in a flavorful tomato-based sauce flavored with garlic, cumin and lemon.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: First, I sautéed mushrooms and Impossible ground meat and then added half a jar of marinara sauce. I served the “meat” sauce with a sliced tube of polenta that was heated in a pan with butter. On the side, was a simple salad and some Rancho Gordo dried beans that were a Christmas gift I needed to use up (I cooked them in my Instant Pot).
Tuesday: Tofu schnitzel with rice and steamed broccoli
Wednesday: A friend mentioned that she was making sheet-pan Shawarma chicken for her family and it sounded so good, I made it too. I marinated chicken thighs with lemon and spices and roasted it with cauliflower, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, red onion and chickpeas. A full recipe will be coming soon for paid subscribers.
Thursday: Leftover chicken and veggies and homemade tomato soup. The tomato soup recipe will be going up on my blog later this month.
Friday: Sorin and I went out to lunch, which I highly recommend if you and your spouse can swing it during the week while your kids are at school. It’s a fun casual date and you don’t have to find a babysitter! For dinner that night, we just ate our lunch leftovers from Angry Egret Dinette and I also made a kale salad. The kids had instant ramen and watermelon.
Cookbooks & Reading
Speaking of restaurants in LA, I recently re-discovered The Grand Central Market cookbook on my book shelf and it’s making my mouth water. Carnitas tacos, spinach and cheese pupusas, grains bowls with kombucha dressing, roasted carrot and veggie sandwich….I would happily eat any of these examples of Southern CA cuisine for lunch.
Grand Central Market is only a few miles from my house, so it makes more sense to just go there and eat rather than labor over a recipe myself. But the photos and stories in this cookbook are fun to page through, even if you don’t live in LA.
In the fiction category, I just finished Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet. This book slowly grew on me, especially once I realized and embraced that nothing big was going to happen. This is a character-driven story with one of the most likable characters I’ve met in a long time. Gil will never disappoint you. It was really enjoyable spending time with a character who genuinely tries to be a good person. The writing is both funny and philosophical and the book is short, just 240 pages.
That’s it for this week!
My 6th grader is at camp with her class and will return on Friday. It’s the first time one of my kids has been away from home, and it’s been a strange experience for me. I’m thrilled that she’s out in the world enjoying new independence and I also can’t wait for her to come home.
Have a good weekend,
Jenny
This was helpful!!! Thank you! I actually googled what to do with spinach that is about to go bad and was thrilled to be sent to Substack! These are great ideas and will be using the pesto.