Braised Spinach with Garlic, Onion, and Pine Nuts
"My favorite supermarket had some beautiful fresh spinach on sale a few weeks ago, and I just had to load up on it, cheap AND beautiful... who could ask for more! This is one of the ways I chose to use it."
photo by Bergy
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh spinach, washed well to remove sand,drained,stemmed,and very coarsely chopped
- 1 sweet onion, chopped (Texas-1015, Vidalia, Maui, or Walla Walla)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1⁄4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1 lemon, juice and zest of, grated,to taste
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 1⁄4 cup toasted pine nuts, to taste
directions
- Heat a large pot or Dutch oven (it has to be large to hold spinach before wilting) over medium-high heat.
- Heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, and saute onion until translucent.
- Add garlic, and continue cooking until onion just begins to brown around the edges, but garlic is not browning.
- Add spinach, with just the water clinging to the leaves, adding by handfuls as the spinach wilts and makes room for more, until all of the spinach is incorporated.
- If desired, drain the rendered juices from the pan before continuing.
- Season with nutmeg, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper, to taste, continuing to toss spinach until it is just wilted, but still bright green.
- Stir in toasted pine nuts, and drizzle with more lemon juice and olive oil if desired.
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Reviews
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I happened to have all the ingredients for this lovely side dish. I cut down the amounts for two people. So glad I found this easy recipe! Served with Greek Style Stuffed Chicken Breasts. -
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Really delicious. I followed the recipe exactly except for using frozen, organic, spinach. Came out great. I will definitely make this again and again. Thanks for a great recipe! -
This recipe gives spinach a lovely taste lift. Be sure you do not over cook the spinach - Just wilt it and heat it through. Love the lemon & touch of nutmeg Thanks for posting Toby -
I liked the blend of flavors. We had it with the crock pot smoked chicken and the flavors were a nice complement. I messed with the recipe a bit -- I think I quadrupled the garlic, we have lots of vampires in our neighborhood, so one can never be too safe. I liked the crunch of the pine nuts so I doubled that -- it gave the spinach a good contrast. Next time, I am going to try both red and white onions for some color and flavor contrasts. I always buy a huge bag of spinach at Costco thinking I will make spinach salad and spinach dip and spinach pie and spinach whatever and then this big bag of spinach STARES at me from the middle of the fridge and then I feel guilty for not using it and take handfuls out to the bunny. This was a quick, easy, healthy and more importantly TASTY way to go through a bag of spinach and that silly rabbit can eat the dandilions like he is supposed to. -
This was an interesting blend of flavors, especially with the lemon juice and zest. Next time I might try using a red onion. Thanks for the posting!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Toby Jermain
Houston, TX
I WAS retired oilfield trash since 1999, who has lived in Houston TX for the last 25 years, though I'm originally from California. I'm Texan by choice, not by chance! I am now working in Algeria 6 months a year, so I guess that gives new meaning to the term SEMI-retired. I grew up in restaurants and worked in them for 13 years while getting through high school and college, working as everything from dishwasher to chef, including just about everything in between. At odd intervals I also waited tables and tended bar, which gave me lots of incentive to stay in school and get my engineering degree.
During the 33 years since, I have only cooked for pleasure, and it HAS given me a great deal of pleasure. It's been my passion. I love to cook, actually more than I love to eat. I read cookbooks like most people read novels.
My wife and I both enjoy cooking, though she isn't quite as adventurous as I am. I keep pushing her in that direction, and she's slowly getting there.
We rarely go out to eat, because there are very few restaurants that can serve food as good as we can make at home. When we do go out, it's normally because we are having an emergency junk-food attack.
My pet food peeves are (I won't get into other areas): are people who post recipes that they have obviously NEVER fixed; obvious because the recipe can't be made because of bad instructions, or that are obvious because it tastes horrible. I also detest people who don't indicate that a recipe is untried, even when it is a good recipe. Caveat emptor!
