How long do you cook spinach for?!
How long do you cook spinach for?
some eat it raw with salad. i want to cook it and if i cook a big bag of spinach it comes down to one third of what it was - am i boiling it too much? Is this the right way to cook it so its laden with water??
Answers:
Different people like their spinach cooked to different stages, I prefer to briefly sautee it so that it retains some of its integrity, but yeah, no matter how you cook spinach it shrinks significantly.
Use a tablespoon of butter or olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bag of spinach and a pinch of salt and cover. Let it steam in the skillet for about 10 minutes. You will have very little cooked spinach compared to what was in the bag raw but it is sooo delicious! Enjoy!
When you cook spinach it will not look like the same amount. Thats just what happens when you boil greens.
spinach naturally cooks down really quickly- it's quite delicate and has a lot of water to it, anyway...doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong.
try sauteing the spinach in olive oil or butter- just a tbsp or two....pour the whole bag in and saute - it literally takes only a few minutes. add garlic at same time as spinach....and a squeeze of lemon juice when the spinach is done. this is a gorgeous side dish , and the benefit is that you can control how cooked the spinach is better than by boiling, since you are able to get a better feel for the consistency. also, the spinach will not feel so water-logged.
hope that helps! it's my favorite way to use up leftover spinach salads!
i try not to boil any vegetables, it takes all the flavor and good stuff out of them. for a full bag of spinach i was them and then throw them in a dutch over with some olive oil and chopped raw garlic and minced onion. top it off wit hcrushed sea salt and youll be good to go. another nice touch is a bit of lemon juice added to it.
The best way is to steam it, boiling it will destroy lots of the goodness. Try steaming it for about 3 mins and see if you like it that way. If you have no choice but to boil it, you could try using a low heat and doing it for about the same time!
Good luck!
try steaming it instead of boiling it, this is a lot more delicate way of cooking it, it will still lose a lot of water/volume, that is just the nature of spinach.
as for length of time depends if you are taling bag of fresh or frozen spinach.
frozen i just steam until is is no longer frozen, depends how much you're cooking really.
fresh i would steam for abot 5-7mins from the point where the steamer is fully steaming (water boiling)
I usually steam raw spinach in a steamer (double boiler?) with the lid on for about 10 minutes. (This is for 4 people, and I like it quite soft, so you might not need to steam it for this long). I find frozen spinach tends to take a bit longer- maybe 15 minutes. It is normal for spinach to shrink a lot, especially if it was raw and leafy to begin with. I would not recommend boiling it. It seems to me that it would get soggy.
One full bag of spinach might look like a lot, but it isn't when it's cooked. I add half a cup of water, a bit of butter or oil, some garlic and some slivered almonds in a large pot... bring to boil and add the Spanish slowly and stir until the entire bag gets in the pot. I keep stirring and serve in about 5 minutes when all the spinach is soft. I don't like my spinach overcooked.