Sautéed Spinach

Name: Sautéed Spinach
Total time: 12 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 lb spinach (fresh, washed, thick stems removed); 2 tbsp olive oil; 3 clove garlic (thinly sliced); ½ tsp salt; 2 tsp lemon (juice)

Vegetables & Salads · European · American

5 ingredients · 12 minutes · 4 servings

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90kcal3.4g protein7.2g fat5g carbs~$0.91/ serving*

only in an optional ingredient: dairy, tree nut

Restrictions

Only if you add itdairy (butter, cheese parmesan) · tree nut (pine nuts)Leave that ingredient out and the dish does not have it.

Diets

VegetarianVegan · without onePescatarianNo porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

1 lb	spinach (fresh, washed, thick stems removed)
2 tbsp	olive oil
3 clove	garlic (thinly sliced)
½ tsp	salt
2 tsp	lemon (juice)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

¼ tsp	chili (red pepper flakes)
1 tbsp	butter (finished off the heat)
⅛ tsp	nutmeg (grated)
2 tbsp	cheese (parmesan, grated)
2 tbsp	pine nuts (toasted)

Steps

Peel4 min
washed, then spun or patted properly dry
- spinach
spinach, stems pulled from any mature leaves. Dry the leaves as well as you can — a wet pan of spinach boils instead of sautéing, and the difference shows in the colour: fried spinach stays deep green, boiled spinach goes olive
Saute2 min
wide pan, medium, oil and garlic together from cold
- garlic
olive oil + sliced garlic (+ chilli flakes), brought up until the slices are pale gold at the edges and fragrant. Start them cold together so the garlic perfumes the oil on the way up; dropped into already-hot oil it goes from raw to burnt in about twenty seconds
Saute3 min
heat to high, all the spinach at once, tongs, constant motion
+ spinach, turned continuously until just collapsed and still bright green — under two minutes for baby leaves. Add it all at once even though it looks impossible; it loses ninety percent of its volume in the first thirty seconds. The heat must stay high so the water that pours out evaporates rather than pooling
Season2 min
off the heat, tilted pan, liquid poured away
the pan tipped and the accumulated liquid poured off, then + salt + lemon juice (+ butter, + nutmeg, + parmesan, + pine nuts). Season after draining, not before — salt added early draws yet more water out and then leaves with it, so the dish tastes flat while the puddle tastes seasoned
Rest1 min
served immediately, not held
barely. Spinach keeps releasing water and keeps cooking in its own heat; five minutes in a warm serving dish undoes the texture entirely. If it has to wait, spread it thin on a cool plate rather than heaping it