Cooked spinach recipes

[Dingdongthewitchisbread]

Does anyone have any recipes which will actually make cooked spinach taste nice?

I like raw spinach but don’t like the taste or texture of cooked spinach but you can eat so much more when it’s cooked.

My iron levels are really low and I have two weeks to get them up so I can give birth in the hospital birth centre.

Pile baby spinach into a ramekin. Top with salsa. Crack and egg on top, season and sprinkle some chilli flakes on top. Bake until the egg is cooked to your liking.

It is great added to a curry.
Chickpea stew, add a few handfuls. In fact any stew!
Stir through mash.
Add a layer in lasagne.
With cream cheese through pasta.

Butter just a tonne of butter wilt it have it with whatever. I also make scrambled egg and spinach or a fritatta in the oven,going go try that baked egg sounds lovely

Just stir a few handfuls into a curry 2 mins before you serve. Keeps the fresh spinach flavour/texture but wilts it enough to eat easily.

One of our go-to easy meals is pasta with cream cheese and spinach. Whilst pasta is cooking simply melt together spinach (fresh or frozen) with cream cheese (Philadelphia style), salt, pepper and a teaspoon of mustard if you like it. Add to cooked/drained pasta and serve sprinkled with parmesan.

Frozen chopped spinach (rather than whole leaf) is usually very fine, so less 'spinachy'.

A small amount of chopped spinach also pretty much disappears in a tomatoey sauce.

For low iron other good options are dried fruits like apricots and raisins and fortified breakfast cereals -- and obviously red meat if you eat it. Iron absorbs best if consumed alongside vitamin C.

Depending how long it is until you are due to give birth though it might be hard to get enough through diet to make a difference. Have you tried a gentle iron supplement like Spatone?

Saag paneer
Eggs florentine

But you’re going to need to eat a LOT. Are you taking supplements too? Are you vegetarian? Black pudding is a superb source of iron.

Dried apricots and dark chocolate were recommended by my midwife and they worked for me.
Along with lamb and spinach curry ( lots )

Fry off some chopped chorizo and onion, add chickpeas and tin of chopped tomatoes then simmer for a few minutes. Stir in your spinach until wilted, serve with crumbled feta on top - I'll sometimes chuck a poached egg on it too if I'm feeling decadent

Oh and half a Guinness once a week but I think that is no longer advised !
Its important to eat your source of spinach along with something that contains vitamin c , as the vitamin allows your body to absorb the iron

Eat liver & onions instead of spinach.

Spinach isn’t really that high in iron. You will need to eat an absolute ton. The table in this document is handy:

www.swft.nhs.uk/application/files/4214/7566/2140/How_to_Increase_Your_Iron_Intake_A4_2015.pdf

Do you eat meat? Alternatively, fortified cereal is a good bet. Special K is pretty high in iron.

Don’t eat liver in pregnancy. Too much vitamin A.

Wow thanks everyone, I wasn’t expecting so many replies.

Yeah I’ve been given iron tablets to take so have started them this morning with a glass of orange juice, just want to do whatever else I can as well.

My husband tries to sneak spinach in all sorts of food, spaghetti bolognese, chillis, curry’s and I really don’t like it. I wonder if he put a little less in I’d notice less? I’ve actually just remembered a cheesy spinach pasta recipe I used to make for my DD when we were doing baby lead weaning, similar to the one recommended but the spinach was wilted and blitzed.

Thanks for the link, really useful. DH is off to do a food shop later so I’ll add lots of red meant, raisins and special K to the list!

You are not meant to eat liver in pregnancy anymore ,

If you like it black pudding is high in iron

Delia Smith has a delicious recipe for Brown rice and spinach.

But if you eat meat then red meat is fabulous for iron. Turkey is too.

I love this spinach and sweet potato dhal. Added bonus that lentils and sweet potatoes also full of iron....

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spinach-sweet-potato-lentil-dhal

I add garam masala to the recipe and add more water than it says to

,^^ if you chop up the spinach smaller then that might help with the texture issues? Less 'stringy'

I buy the frozen chopped spinach - no stringy bits at all in the Sainsbury's one. We add it to curry but my kids absolute favourite is a cheat's spinach risotto. Cook rice with a stock cube in the water. Fry a small onion, diced, until soft. Defrost the spinach in the microwave and drain well. Add to the onion with some butter. When the rice is cooked, add to the onion and spinach with more butter and a load of grated Parmesan.

Spinach and Broccoli quiche? double up of the Iron

Korean spinach salad (www.maangchi.com/recipe/sigumchi-namul) is really nice.

The spinach in it is wilted a bit, so you can eat more. But it doesn’t taste (or have the texture) of being fully cooked.

This spinach and coconut soup is delicious if you like Thai spices: www.nigella.com/recipes/spinach-and-coconut-soup

I buy the chopped (not whole leaf) frozen spinach usually from sainsburys. I put it in most soups, stews and curries and it just turns into specks a bit like herbs. Alternatively i use some defrosted and drained of excess water with garlic fried mushrooms as a filling for an open pie. Puff pastry base, filling on top, cheddar on top of that. Bake for 20-25 mins. Can add chilli sauce too if you like spice.

Raw spinach is lovely under a salmon fillet or home made fishcakes with a poached egg & hollandaise.