There are two vegetables I can never have enough: one of them is spinach. Yes those ugly, dull, green leaves are my ticket to cloud 9. Those of you who are wary of the green, eww looking leaves, don’t know what they are missing, seriously.
Those mushy leaves of spinach are packed with an “earthy” sort of flavor. Once cooked it may not be pleasant to the eye but it’s loaded with wonderful flavours and essential nutrients. In our traditional Pakistani or desi style of cooking spinach is usually cooked with cottage cheese, potatoes and meat-preferably lamb. Btw “palak ghoost” or “spinach with lamb” is something to die for, oh yeah!
However, creamed spinach is more of an unconventional cum restaurant style of cooking spinach. It is something you don’t cook everyday in your home. It is and should be served in small servings because of all that wonderfully rich cream and the sinful butter.
You have been warned
Seriously, this creamed spinach recipe is dangerous. If you are a die hard fan of spinach who is on a diet these days or wants to shed a few pounds desperately – and all things creamy and buttery are not in your regime then don’t try this recipe at home. Don’t.
I made the wonderful mistake of making it and then I had to taste it, duh! A tablespoon would be enough to judge either it was as good as the restaurant one, the one that had me hooked and I kept coming back for more and more. As soon as I tasted it, uh, dang! Memories flashed. This was just the creamed spinach recipe I had been looking for.
(Previously, I had been going to a famous food chain restaurant Salt N Pepper, just to enjoy this creamed spinach. They served it with fried chicken with pineapple sauce (and if you live in Lahore and haven’t tried their fried chicken with pineapple sauce, you ain’t tasted anything at all.) Anyways, I used to order this chicken dish mainly for the creamed spinach they served with it as side-dish.
But No, do not make THAT mistake. After that first bite, the rest of the batch just kept staring at me, whispering “eat me, eat me”, followed by “just another bite, just another innocent bite”, now how in earth could I resist talking creamed spinach hu haha! So, I ended up eating the whole batch in less than 15 minutes, no surprise ‘eh. But boy, it was dee-licious. emm emmm.
Nutritional Value of Spinach – The superfood
Always eat your vegetables and if it’s leafy, green and named spinach – it’s a must then 😉 :p Because spinach is pretty low in saturated fats. If consumed raw:like in salads, briefly boiled or steamed spinach is very rich in dietary fibre, antioxidants, vitamin (A, C,E, K), iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, copper, manganese and nitrate that helps in toning muscles. So, that’s why whenever popeye used to eat spinach from a tin, he immediately grows huge biceps that helped beat the hell out of bluto. Poor fellow. Speaking of “Popeye the sailor man” show tun tun. I never really enjoyed watching poepeye’s show like other cartoons (say johnny Bravo, Johnny quest, Tom & Jerry and the list goes on and on) when I was little, guess the only thing common between popeye and me was our love for spinach. Aaak kaka kakaka
Spinach has a very earthy taste. It may not be pleasant to the eye but Spinach is good for your body. However if we cook spinach in our traditional/desi style, all the benefits or healthy nutrients in spinach are lost because spinach should not be cooked for more than 5-10 minutes. Always remember that you don’t need to boil spinach for more than 5-6 minutes. It’s done in that short time.
And this is the second thing I simply love about this recipe. First being that it’s got spinach in it;) the second thing is: that the spinach is only boiled in already boiling hot water for 5-6 minutes. Hence it’s got its nutritional value in-tacked and if you are somewhat like me, you’ll love eating it with nothing else but fork. However I don’t eat it for its nutritional value, I eat it because it triggers endorphins all around me.
Eat your spinach/vegetable
- Spinach 1kg baby spinach or regular, tough stems removed
- Salt according to taste
- Sour cream ½ cup *see note
- Butter 2 tbsp
- Onion 1 small, finely chopped
- Garlic 2 cloves, finely chopped
- Spring onions 2 tbsp finely chopped
- Boil spinach in boiling hot water for 5-6 minutes, drain, set aside.
- Now, take butter in a pan, throw in chopped onions. Sautee onions and then add finely chopped garlic cloves. Sautee.
- Add spinach, give it a good mix.
- Season with salt. Please note spinach is naturally salty so, taste first before adding any salt. I don't like to add black pepper to my creamed spinach, if you want to, be my guest. 🙂 You're the boss in your kitchen 🙂
- Take the pan off stove and stir in sour cream.
- Your very own creamed spinach is ready to please you.
Do share with us your favourite cartoon character when you were little? And which is the vegetable you love the most? Do you like your spinach creamed or cooked with meat, potatoes or cottage cheese?
P.S. Notice something different about my blog, the design? Floating share buttons on the lift side? No :S I added this “Print Recipe: section for you guys, you like it? Ahaan. Now you can simply get this recipe printed: simply press the print button and voila! (don’t forget to switch on your printer first hehehe and I guess you already know that you have to have a printer connected to the computer before switching it on and getting this creamed spinach recipe printed hehehe :p )
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We love spinach too!!! This looks like a wonderful side dish!
It sure is Asiya, it sure is 🙂
Only if my printer could actually make these dishes for me … 🙂
haha! yeah right!
Omg, you listened!!! THANK YOU TONNNES!
And, I can’t even begin to admire this article… I’m just gonna say that it is flawless… from the amazing photos (which COMPLETELY went against ure description that “spinach may not look good”) to all the knowledge about spinach, your personal opinion, the little box you put the recipe in… as I said.. flawless.
Your blog is seriously like an international-level food blog now! Also… totally approve of you not shying away from using brand names… it really really helps… keep up the flawless work! haha
hahahahaha and a big ear to ear smile 😀
First of all, smiles for your (OMG you listened) hahahaha awww sweeeeeet. But this is why we have a “request a recipe” section, basically to help others get what they want 🙂
Secondly, wa thank you, thank you *take a bow for your kind words, they make my day 🙂
I love the “print your recipe box also, awww I love it, I love it hehehehehe
Now go girl and make this creamed spinach asap and then come and tell me how it turned out so I can brag a wee bit more about my blog and my readers and the comments pouring in and all 😀
Jazak Allah for such a refreshing comment, I’m loving it. 😀
btw I like flawless, flawless is good 🙂
Remember me in your prayers 🙂 please.
i adore spinach – bring it on! this recipe sounds just great!
xo
http://allykayler.blogspot.ca/
Thanks for dropping by ally, do try it and let me know how it turned out 🙂
Turns out Spinach is my favorite too 🙂
Loved your recipe and will sure try it soon InshaAllah!
Since I too am a fan of spinach, I tried this simple Spinach Dip once with some personal modifications and it turned out great (well according to my taste ;)). Hope you like it and Keep posting more delish recipes!
http://food52.com/recipes/3541_yoghurt_spinach_dip_borani_esfanaaj_in_the_persian_manner
Oh how wonderful fatima. I will surely give it a shot and then let you know.
Jazak Allah once again 🙂
hey haleema just clear me out wen to add sour cream ???nd will it need to cook??
Add the sour cream in the last, after you take it off the stove. Once you add the sour cream, only stir it to mix and coook on stove for less than a mix and serve. 😀
with an east African coastal background, we use quite a bit of coconut milk/cream in quite a few of our dishes. The consistency of the cream varies from one dish to another. In north America, it is very easy to purchase canned coconut milk/cream in assorted capacity as well as packets of frozen precut spinach.
For preparing spinach in coconut milk (I personally prefer coconut milk of thick consistency), heat two two three tablespoons of oil and when medium hot, fry medium chopped onions till translucent. Add salt to taste halfway through this process. Some also like to add chunks of medium ripe tomatoes at this point. You can also throw in a couple of green chillies split into two lengthwise down to its stem.
When the onions’ mixture is ready, throw in the thawed spinach AFTER squeezing all the moisture out. Stir vigorously to break up any lumps. Reduce heat slightly and stir fry to coat the spinach with the sauce and till spinach begins to wilt and changes in color to khakhi brown. Add half a tea spoon of turmeric powder to give the final dish that yellowish tinge. Continue co0oking till most of the liquid at the bottom of the pan has evaporated. Now pour in the thick and creamy coconut milk to your liking…..depending on how you are going to serve it…. as an accompaniment to plain rice, chapati, paratha, bread or the swahili ‘mahamri’ (an east African fried sweet bread tasting more like a plain doughnut).
We also cook rice in coconut milk and it tastes awesome when served with coconut spinach. To take this combination to its highest level, try serving with this dish a thick steak of spicy, shallow fried fresh sea fish….like king fish, snapper or tilapia. A simple onion, chillies, tomatoes, carrot cucumber, salsa moistened with a few squirts of lime or lemon is juice as another accompaniment is worth dying for!!!