Sautéed Spinach w/ Shallots & Garlic
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.
Equipment
- Food Processor (optional)
- Stovetop
- Sauté Pan
Ingredients
- 1 lbs. spinach fresh
- 1/2 shallot
- 3 cloves garlic
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- 1/4 c. olive oil
Instructions
Mince or Purée Spinach
- 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.