This sautéed spinach recipe is a take on Ethiopian Gomen Wat. Ordinarily, Gomen Wat consists of stewed collard greens. But I'm not particularly fond of collard greens! They're bitter, acidic, and have a similar texture to kale. Some people are fond of this. And, to a certain extent, I get the appeal. It tastes healthy and the amount of work that it takes to eat can makes you feel accomplished. However, I personally am not that big of a fan and would rather eat healthy foods that actually... you know... taste good! So, my apologies to anyone who likes the flavor of collard greens. Maybe one day I will endeavor to make it taste good with my pallet.
But, for now, I am making a take on Gomen Wat with spinach! I do genuinely prefer the taste, spinach has more protein than beef, and I have several pounds of it on hand. Because... I over shop at Costco. Plus leafy greens tend to go back fairly quickly. So, if you're not growing them and/or don't have enough people to feed them to, finding ways to increase the longevity of leafy greens is essential to keep from composting too much of them!
For this particular iteration, I paired spinach with garlic, ginger, yellow onion, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, and olive oil. It's a quick and easy recipe to throw together with Ethiopian Lentils, Salmon and Cherry Tomatoes, or Burrito form.
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What to Make w/ Sautéed Spinach
There are a plethora of dishes to make with sautéed spinach. I'm particularly fond of taking more traditional Ethiopian flavors and mixing it up with seafood and wrapping it in a burrito topped with Greek yogurt and a bright, citrusy hot sauce.
Sautéed spinach is a take on Ethiopian Gomen Wat, with spinach instead of collard greens. Both because I prefer the taste and have more of them readily available! Feel free to substitute your leafy green of choice and adjust the seasonings to taste to make it your own. It's more about the spice blend and method of cooking than the exact lettuce.
Add garlic, ginger, and yellow onion 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 ginger and onion 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.
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