Easy Spinach Recipes | 6 Delicious Ways to Eat Spinach this Winter

Spinach is one of the most important Leafy Green vegetables. It is rich in vitamins, essential minerals, and water, and is known for its many health benefits. In the Northern Part of India, spinach is a highly awaited winter Leafy Green vegetable. Now that winter is here, enjoy these easy spinach recipes for taste as well as nutrition!

In this article, we’ll share with you a little bit about the history of Spinach, its health benefits, and 6 delicious and easy ways to include it in your diet.

Easy Spinach Recipes, Health Benefits, & more

A Brief History of Spinach

The people of this world have used spinach for over 2000 years. Having originated in Persia, Spinach travelled to India, Nepal, China, and Europe through the following centuries. For many centuries, both agronomists, as well as ancient medical practitioners, have mentioned it in historical works for its taste, health, and medicinal properties. 

The name ‘spinach’ as well as the Hindi word for it, ‘Palak’, comes from its ancient Arabic name ‘Aspanak’. According to historians, a concoction with spinach mulled along with wine was given to wounded soldiers during World War 1 to ease their pain and help control the bleeding. Spinach is also famous as the hallmark of the world-famous comic character ‘Popeye The Sailor’, which was also adapted into the extremely impressionable TV cartoon series.

Nutritional Benefits of Spinach

Spinach is good for your gut and excretion

Spinach is rich in insoluble fibre. Just 100g of spinach contains 8% of your daily fibre requirement. This means that a wholesome meal full of Spinach may fulfil a major percentage of your fibre requirement for a day. It helps in the smooth passing of stool as well as boosts digestion.

Spinach gives your great skin and boosts immunity

Spinach is rich in Vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps fight free radicals in our body. Free radicals are automatically produced in our body and over time may lead to diabetes, ageing, dull skin, loss of immunity etc. Vitamin C helps fight these free radicals and gives rise to better skin, helps immunity, and heart health.

Spinach may help your body heal faster

Spinach is rich in Vitamin K – which helps our body in blood clotting especially when there’s an open wound. It helps our body heal faster. It also plays a role in heart health and bone metabolism.

Spinach gives you strong bones

Spinach has calcium as well as Vitamin K, both of which are responsible for better metabolism and the strengthening of bones. Calcium also contributes to enhancing movement and muscle function.

Delicious & Easy Spinach Recipes To Try

We’re going to be sharing some simple and delicious ways to add spinach to your recipes. If you’d like to know the recipes from scratch, you can run a quick google search. For all of the following recipes, do keep in mind that you have got to thoroughly wash the spinach leaves before using them.

Spinach Omelettes

While you’re whisking your eggs when making an omelette, just throw a few spinach leaves into them. Now, spread the egg mix on the pan and let it cook to perfection. Voila!

Secret Tip: On an average “have omelettes for breakfast” kinda day, we’d also throw in sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions. However, if you really (really) want to indulge, make it a cheesy-centred spinach omelette by adding some cheese on one side and folding the other one over it in the pan.

Indian-style Palak Paneer (Cottage cheese cubes in a Spinach Gravy)

Ask any Indian and they’ll tell you how much this dish means to them. The majority of us, especially from the North, have grown up eating this dish. Palak Paneer is rich, healthy, and full of nutrients and protein, and has a beautiful silky smooth flavour to it.

When cooking for 2-3 people: –

• grind 500 gms of Spinach leaves in the grinder until a smooth paste is formed
• Heat some butter/ghee/cooking oil in a pan
• Add a tsp of whole cumin seeds (jeera) and let it fry until dark brown
• Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and a little bit of julienned ginger and cook until dark brown
• Add 1 big chopped onion and cook until translucent
• Add 2 medium chopped tomatoes and 2 small sliced green chillies and cook for 3-4 minutes
• Sprinkle turmeric powder (haldi), a little bit of dried red chili powder (laal mirch), coriander seed powder (dhania powder), salt (namak), and a little bit of amchoor or anardana.
• Add the ground spinach leaves to the mix and saute-cook for 3-4 mins
• Add 150-200 g of cottage cheese chopped into cubes and cook for 2-3 more mins
• The dish is ready, enjoy!

Indian-style Palak Aloo (Potato cubes in a Spinach Gravy)

This is a delicious and interesting twist to the above recipes. If you are a lover of potatoes, you may enjoy this version of the dish a lot!

Just follow the recipe above. In place of cottage cheese cubes, you can add boiled or roasted potato cubes. 

OR, if you don’t like you can follow the steps of this recipe instead: –

When cooking for 3 people: –

• Grind 750 gms of Spinach leaves in the grinder until a smooth paste is formed
• Heat some butter/ghee/cooking oil in a pan
• Add a tsp of whole cumin seeds (jeera) and let it fry until dark brown
• Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and a little bit of julienned ginger and cook until dark brown
• Add 1 big chopped onion and cook until translucent
• Add 2 medium chopped tomatoes and 2 small sliced green chillies and cook for 3-4 minutes
• Add 2 medium potatoes, chopped into cubes, and cook until soft and have a medium brown outer sheen to them
• Sprinkle turmeric powder (haldi), a little bit of dried red chili powder (laal mirch), coriander seed powder (dhania powder), salt (namak), and a little bit of amchoor or anardana.
• Add the ground spinach leaves to the mix and saute-cook for 3-4 mins

Palak Parathas (Soft Spinach Flatbread)

If you’ve grown up in a North Indian household, especially a Punjabi household, you probably have grown up on this breakfast too. 

Whole Wheat Spinach Parathas are tasty, flavorful, full of fibre and complex carbs, and also high in protein. For this, you can either knead the whole wheat dough with the spinach leaves in it, or you can stuff your parathas with spinach leaves and then roast them on a flat pan (Tawa). 

Have it with some homemade white butter and pickle on the side and enjoy!

Baby Spinach Salad

For this salad, you can add a variety of ingredients as per your liking. However, here’s our recommended list of ingredients: –

• Baby spinach leaves (raw or very lightly sauteed in olive oil)
• Mushrooms sauteed with garlic and a lit bit of thyme, salt and pepper
• Overnight Soaked walnuts
• Thinly sliced apples
• Candied oranges/mandarin
• Sundried tomatoes
• Cherry tomatoes
• Scallions
• A few sprinklings of fresh feta cheese

You can make a salad dress with a little bit of honey, lime juice, brine, 1 and ½ tbsp of olive oil and spread it on top of your salad mix

Spinach Sandwiches/Toasties

Now, there are many ways that you can make a sandwich with spinach. You can use a variety of bread, spreads, and fillings.

Top Bread choices: 

Slices of sourdough, panini, focaccia, or ciabatta, or your everyday bread loaf

Top Spreads: 

• Cream cheese with garlic/pizza seasoning,
• hung curd/greek yoghurt with chopped dill/cucumber, salt pepper and pizza seasoning
• Guacamole

Filling:

• Caramelized onions
• Mushrooms sauteed with garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme/basil
• Boiled, steamed, blanched, or sauteed spinach
• Cheese slice, cheddar cheese, or mozzarella

What are your top favourite ways of consuming spinach? Share with us your spinach recipes in the comments below. 

Buy fresh and organic spinach online on the Milkbasket grocery shopping app. Read this blog post for other seasonal foods for the autumn and winter season.