For the Arabs it was the queen of vegetables. They brought it to Europe at the end of the Middle Ages, where it did not take long to impose itself. “In classical French cuisine they were compared to virgin wax, capable of receiving any impression or effect, while the other vegetables imposed their flavor on the dish,” says Harold McGee. Nutritious, tasty and easy to digest – although it was never the great source of iron that made Popeye a superhero – it is ideal to eat after Christmas, when we all need an extra dose of delicious vegetables to compensate for the festive meals.
Spinach, with its low calories, high water content and low carbohydrates, is ideal. But do we know how to get the most out of it? Should we eat the stem? Do we buy them cut and washed? What amount is recommended to take? Do they need a long boiling time? We tell you everything with the help of Ariadna Julián, executive chef of the Ferrer Sustainability Foundation.
Nowadays spinach can be bought whole or cut. There are even some washed, cut and packaged in little boxes. Ariadna Julián, last chef at the famous Barcelona restaurant Monvínic, which closed its doors due to the pandemic, always chooses them fresh and organic “because this way I have the guarantee that no pesticides have been used,” she explains. She also advises us to choose them that are intense green in color, uniform, without bruises and that offer a little resistance. You must also take into account the color – green, not yellowish – and the size of the leaf. “The ones with large leaves are always used better, they give more play and more volume, although now the ones with small leaves are used a lot, especially for salads.” Harold McGee in his book Cooking and Food states that when they are cooked “their volume is reduced by about three quarters.” Ariadna Julián warns us that two bunches is usually the appropriate measure for a person. “We must keep in mind that they take up a lot and end up with nothing.” They can also be purchased frozen or in canned jars.
Fresh spinach should be consumed well washed. It is easy to find containers with leaves already washed and cut, but if not, if we buy them whole, “we have to make sure that there is no dirt left, and also cut the central stem and discard it because it tends to become quite bitter,” explains Ariadna Julián , a chef who loves the product and has been part of haute cuisine teams, such as Santi Santamaría in Can Fabes.
You do not have to soak them as if they were lentils, just wash them thoroughly to avoid bacterial or fungal outbreaks. “I drain them and spin them with a salad spinner,” says the cook. If you don’t have it, you have to dry them well with kitchen paper, “because if you don’t, as it is a vegetable with a high water content, it will begin to become wilted or soften.”
Julián says that, generally speaking, in Spain it is common to exceed the boiling time when we boil spinach. “It is such a delicate leaf that blanching for just a few seconds is enough to make it look good,” he explains, adding that, in this way, “we also ensure that not so many vitamins end up in the water, so that its tone is not lost.” intense, its smoothness, and that it is more hydrated.” After blanching, the cook puts them in ice water to stop the cooking. “It is boiled, with a good color and its properties well preserved.”
If we boil them too much, “we find that the water resulting from this process (where a good part of the vitamins have ended up) acquires a bitter, unpleasant taste,” warns the chef. The ideal blanching time is always short, but it will depend on the size of the spinach leaves chosen. Harold McGee notes its “tender texture” when cooked briefly.
Well yes. Spinach can be eaten raw and is delicious. “There is no problem in eating them like this because it is a digestive vegetable, with good flavor, a lot of fiber and water,” says Ariadna Julián, who places them like this in the salad, with a good splash of extra virgin olive oil. Harold McGee warns that thick-leaved varieties are leathery and less suitable for eating raw.
Another thing is to abuse uncooked spinach, for example, in the famous green juices. Spinach is rich in oxalates, a substance that reduces the absorption of calcium, and therefore favors the formation of a type of kidney stone, if taken in large quantities.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) warns in a 2016 report (page 25) of the risks of excessive consumption of raw vegetables rich in oxalic acid. He attributes part of this problem to the high consumption of detox shakes, since a 250 ml serving already exceeds the recommended daily intake. In this format it is very easy to take many more leaves than would fit, for example, in a healthy salad plate, which also satisfies us much more because we spend some time chewing the entire vegetable. Cooking reduces the presence of oxalates by 30 to 87%, according to the EFSA.
Thinking that spinach contains large doses of iron, and that this was the origin of the legendary Popeye’s great strength, is a well-known error. In reality, they don’t have much. 100 grams of raw spinach contain 2.7 mg of iron.
The origin of this confusion is said to be the error of a chemist who, at the end of the 19th century, changed the decimal point by multiplying the amount of iron in this vegetable by ten. Although it even appears on Wikipedia, there is no evidence that this happened. According to Juan Revenga, known as The Nutritionist of the General, the anecdote was published in the British Medical Journal in 1981 although the professor who wrote it, T. J. Hamblins, never cited a reference or proved that this was true when, years later, researcher Mike Sutton asked him. Sutton also explains that Popeye’s creator, E.C. Segar would probably have chosen spinach to feed the first American superhero because it is a great source of vitamin A, as the sailor himself says in a cartoon. Spinach is also rich in vitamin C – which promotes the absorption of iron -, has calcium, magnesium and “phenolic antioxidants and compounds that reduce damage to our DNA that could cause cancer,” explains Harold McGee.
An appetizing and common way to prepare spinach is to sauté it in a pan or wok. To make them perfect, Ariadna Julián advises us to put the heat on high, heat the oil well before adding them, and leave them for very little time so that they don’t burn. “You turn it twice and you have it.”
The cook is in favor of using extra virgin olive oil, “which has a good calorific value and is very tasty,” although she recognizes that it has its French side, “And I also love making them with toasted butter!” The chef worked alongside French colleagues such as Philippe Gaubreau (La Rotonde, Lyon) and Michel del Burgo (Taillevent, Paris).
Julián advises making stir-fries with different foods. For example, with the typical pine nuts or raisins, or with a little cheese. Sauteed can be a rich filling for dough preparations.
If we want to make a delicious spinach cream, we must boil the leaves, but not too much. The cook is in favor of sautéing a little onion and a bit of garlic. Soak it with water or broth, wait for it to start boiling, and then add the spinach. Although you can also add the spinach to the sauce and when it begins to soften, add the broth. When the boil starts, they are ready to blend. “The important thing is not to let them cook for too long, or add too much water because they are leaves rich in water.” You can add a little milk cream or some vegan alternative cream, such as cream of rice.
So that the spinach omelet is just right, Ariadna sautés the leaves a little with a splash of oil in the wok or frying pan, “even passing in some unpeeled garlic to flavor it, with a pinch of salt, and when they are already drowned , we remove them.” At that moment it is important to drain them well. “A good method is to place them between two cellulose papers so that the water drains well.” All that remains is to place the beaten egg in the pan, add the spinach – and other elements such as raisins – and make the omelette. “If we don’t sauté the leaves first, they may be a little raw and will release too much water.”
Being a delicate and very perishable vegetable, eating them as soon as possible is the ideal way to take advantage of all their properties and enjoy their flavor. Although, if this is not possible, we can store them in the refrigerator “after having given them a touch of water to regenerate them, and drying them well afterwards,” says Ariadna Julián. The cook advises us to put the fresh and clean spinach in a taper, placing them in layers separated by cellulose paper that will absorb the water they release.
“It is also a good system to cook them first, before storing them,” he tells us. In this case it is also important to drain the cooked or sautéed spinach well, as it will last three days in the refrigerator. If we want to freeze them, the chef prefers to do it once they have been cooked.
