I made an Ethiopian take on Gomen Wat last week with Sautéed Spinach. That version contained garlic, ginger, cumin, and coriander. It was absolutely delicious and I ate it in everything that I made! I decided to make the same thing this week with just a little bit less spices. I've been thinking about maybe making a deep dish pizza with spinach, so I wanted something that would work in both Ethiopian food and potentially Chicago-style pizza... Hence, sautéed spinach with shallots, garlic, salt, and pepper. Although the same principle applies.
Gallery
There are a couple of pretty obvious things to note about these photos here! The first is the cat inside of the spinach bag... and the second is that I'm most definitely cooking on my floor.
I ended up with a 2.5 pound bag of spinach from where else but Costco? And Esméralda decided to crawl inside of it. You'd think that I would stop her from doing this... But she's just too adorable to stop. And I often just wonder what exactly she thinks that she's doing!
To sway your sudden fear, cats can eat spinach. As long as they don't consume it in bulk or have kidney or urinary problems, it's safe. Esmérelda also doesn't usually try to eat what she's curious about. I'm constantly giving the pets freshly cooked chicken and they know it and prefer it! But she's still in that curious kitten phase and wants to smell absolutely everything. Which, in this case, meant literally climbing into the bag!
There is also no need to worry about little germy kitten feet getting into the food. I cooked all of this spinach and none of it was eaten raw.
Secondly, yes my food processor is on the floor. I ordinarily try to crop out the floor so that no one notices! But cropping in Esméralda made the photo very clear that I am cooking on my floor... My apartment has 0 countertops. That's not metaphorically. Literally there is a sink, a fridge, and a stove. I bought two second-hand cabinets to give myself an ounce of usable space. But between bowls of fruit and vegetables, bulky kitchen appliances, and sets of utensils and other cooking supplies? Space is in quite the demand! And I make due with what I have.
What to Make with Sautéed Spinach
With my bulk spinach purchases lately has come my new favorite obsession: sautéed spinach. It's great in a wide variety of dishes and I have had a lot of fun experimenting with them all!
Sautéed spinach is a quick and easy Ethiopian-inspired dish with spinach, shallots, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. With so few ingredients and a 10 minute cook time, it's great to throw together on the run or add in as a simple side component to elevate any number of dishes. I toned down the flavor profile here to make it fit in with a more diverse array of meals. But feel free to add in more spices to accommodate your personal tastes and preferences.
Add garlic and shallots to a food processor. Pulse a couple of times until roughly chopped. You want it minced, but not completely puréed.It can help to roughly chop the shallots beforehand in order to keep the garlic from emulsifying before they break down.
Add spinach, a few handfuls at a time, and pulse until roughly chopped. Continue adding handfuls of spinach and pulsing until all of the spinach is incorporated.Make sure to scrape down the sides occasionally. It can also help to stir the fresh spinach in slightly before pulsing. This helps to keep it from puréeing too much on the bottom while the new spinach just sits on the top.
You can also mince them all by hand and skip the food processor entirely! I'm really only using it out of laziness because chopping an entire pound of spinach a bit of time and a rather large cutting board. A food processor takes a fraction of the time and energy. It will have a finer chop than doing it by hand, but I prefer a slightly more puréed consistency than wilted whole or larger pieces of spinach. Some people like stringier wilted spinach. I'm just not personally as much of a fan!
Sauté Spinach
Add spinach mixture, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, and olive oil (all of the ingredients) to a sauté pan.
Bring to medium-heat and cook until wilted, about 7-10 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally to keep the spinach from burning.If you've chopped the spinach by hand or have a coarser chop, this will likely take more like 15 minutes.
Serve immediately or refrigerate. Sautéed spinach is good heated right away or chilled and served more like a salad.
Leave a Reply