Spinach is one of those vegetables that is hard to mess up.
A little fat (butter or duck) or olive oil and it’s a success.
However, there are times when you want it to be a little more…interesting.
I was making some Spare Ribs Vindaloo and wanted an Indian spin on spinach that didn’t require running out for ingredients (I’m looking at you saag paneer).
I pulled out my favorite Indian cookbook Made in India and found this recipe for spinach. Serves 4.
Spinach with Garlic and Lemon Juice Recipe:
- 1 pound spinach
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 fresh red chili, very thinly sliced (more or less depending on your heat tolerance)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- Juice of about ½ lemon (to taste)
Wash the spinach and set aside.
In a very large frying pan, over medium heat, add the butter. When it starts to melt, add the garlic and red chili.
Stir-fry for a couple of minutes until the garlic starts to turn pale gold.
Add the salt and pepper.
Add the spinach in handfuls, toss to coat with butter. As it starts to wilt, add another handful or two until you’ve used it all up.
Squeeze the lemon juice over the spinach and take off the heat. Taste and add more lemon juice if needed. Serve immediately and enjoy!
My verdict:
Oh yes! Sadly, we only had a 9-ounce bag of spinach so I did half a recipe and wished there was more. Lots more.
This was super simple and I’ll be making it a lot—so good!
There wasn’t too much heat from the chili, a serrano, so we could have used more, but we like heat. If you don’t have serranos or jalapenos lying in wait in the freezer (when you have a mess of chilis, wash them, toss in a Ziploc bag and freeze them—you’ll always have them on hand), a sprinkle of red pepper flakes would probably be fine.
Try it and let me know what you think.
