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Baby spinach is a versatile vegetable. Whether you’re in the mood for a green smoothie, a salad or even a muffin, you can use baby spinach to whip up your desired treat. Detailed below are seven amazing recipes you can try if you want to serve something tasty and full of leafy greens like baby spinach.
Everyone knows that spinach is, from Popeye’s favorite food, to health buffs’ favorite green smoothie ingredient. But what’s the difference between “regular” spinach and baby spinach?
Spinach is rich in vitamins and minerals like iron and vitamins A and C. There are three varieties of spinach:
Dark green baby spinach leaves are healing foods and a must-have in your kitchen if you want to start eating healthier. This superfood can be served in various dishes, from salads, soups, to stews and stir-fries! Baby spinach cooks quickly and doesn’t require any prep.
Baby spinach is low-calorie and it contains fiber, antioxidants and various vitamins and minerals.
Green smoothies are a great way to boost your nutrient intake efficiently. And if you think a smoothie with baby spinach is gross, you can relax because you’ll barely taste the leafy greens in your drink.
The recipe below is from Alexandra Stafford, a blogger and the author of “Bread Toast Crumbs.”
Stafford notes that her green smoothie recipe is “quenching and restorative.” Naturally sweetened with a date and a banana, this green smoothie is also creamy because it contains almond butter and hemp seeds.
For green smoothie newbies, this recipe might help change your mind about drinking your greens.
You can even tweak the recipe to make it even healthier! Stafford suggests replacing half the banana for a half cup of frozen cauliflower and using chia seeds instead of hemp seeds. Alternatively, you can use non-dairy milk for a vegan smoothie.
Ingredients for 1 smoothie:
Preparation:
For a heartier dish, try this recipe from blogger Kelly Senyei.
Senyei notes that while spinach often shrinks and tastes bland after being sauteed, her recipe uses ingredients like garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and scallions that will give your dish a flavor boost.
Adding shiitake mushrooms makes the dish more filling than a salad. The sweet and garlicky sauce pairs well with the baby spinach and the mushrooms while crushed red pepper flakes give the rest of the ingredients a spicy kick.
Serve the sauteed spinach and mushrooms with beef, pork, poultry or seafood. You can also serve the saute over rice if you want a meat-free dish.
Katie Workman, author of “Dinner Solved: 100 Ingenious Recipes that Make the Whole Family Happy, Including You” prefers cooking with baby spinach because it’s convenient. She notes that since it’s very tender, it doesn’t need to be chopped and you can simply add it to stir-fries.
Workman, who also runs a blog, shared that it’s best not to add all the spinach in the pan because it will overflow. She suggests adding it in batches so it can wilt faster.
Set aside leftover leaves so you can whip up a quick salad.
Abra Berens, the author of “Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables,” offers her recipe for delicious garlic and spinach pasta.
If the butter, creamy sauce and pasta seem a bit of a guilty pleasure, you can rest easy since the dish also includes fresh baby spinach leaves. Other greens might be tough unless cooked over direct heat, but baby spinach leaves become tender and wilt because of the heat of the pasta.
Berens’ recipe uses a lot of garlic, but you can tweak the recipe if you don’t want something too garlicky. Make sure you use anchovy butter to give your dish a “briny lightness,” added Berens.
Serena Wolf, a blogger and the author of “The Dude Diet Dinnertime: 125 Clean(ish) Recipes for Weeknight Winners and Fancypants Dinners,” offers an easy, savory recipe that combines five nutritious ingredients like eggs, tomato sauce, cauliflower and greens.
Serve this dish if you have kids who are still in that “Ew, spinach!” phase to sneak in some leafy greens into their dinner.
Martha Stewart, cooking and entertaining expert, offers a recipe for a salad that combines three superfoods: baby spinach, olive oil and walnuts.
The spinach salad gets its deep flavor from the warm olive oil that the walnuts are toasted in. Stewart added that you shouldn’t let the simple recipe fool you.
This recipe only has six basic ingredients and you can make it in less than 20 minutes but it’s tasty and perfect for a light meal.
Brittany Williams, author of ‘Instant Loss: Eat Real, Lose Weight” and founder of InstantLoss.com, rounds up the list with a recipe even your kids will love.
If you have picky eaters at home these Incredible Hulk muffins might change their minds about baby spinach.
Williams came up with the recipe for gluten-free muffins with baby spinach to get her kids to eat more greens. Like a spinach green smoothie, she added that you won’t even taste a hint of the baby spinach in your muffins.
Even if you can’t taste the baby spinach, you’ll still reap the benefits of this amazing superfood.
Ingredients for 24 muffins:
Preparation:
Enjoy baby spinach in pasta or a delicious salad, or sneak more leafy greens into your kids’ plates by serving them some tasty green muffins.
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