Spring is spinach season in Switzerland!

In northeast Asia, countries like Korea, Japan and China, you see spinach a lot more often served on the family table compared to Europe and many times it gets the lime light on its own. In most homes you will see spinach served almost everyday on the dinner table or in the school lunch box. As a stir-fry with garlic, topped on a Bibimbap, rolled into a rice roll, thrown into a miso soup, cooked in a rice porridge, made as kimchi, or blanched quickly in hot water and then marinated with soy-sauce or miso-based dressing like this one i’m about to share with you.

For this spinach recipe, try to get the thick leaved spinach in the supermarket or turkish groceries instead of the baby leaf spinach that are used for salad. The recipe is easy and quick to make, a great way to give an Asian touch to spinach. It is good as a side dish to a bowl of rice. Besides, spinach is rich in iron, fiber and vitamins. I served this with Korean ribs in the last quarterly dining event and received requests for the recipe. If I were Olive Oyl I would probably make this dish for Popeye but end up eating it all by myself! 🙂

Ingredients

• 700g thick leaf spinach, wilted parts removed (seems like a lot but at the end it will wilt and fit into 0.75mL tupperware)
• salt/sea salt for boiling water

Steps:

1. Rinse the spinach leaves roughly to remove any sand. Drain water. If there are wilted and black leaves, remove them.
2. Boil hot water in a pot with salt as you would boil a pot of pasta
3. When the water boils, add in the rinsed spinach and blanch (cook) for 10-15 seconds. (If you are using young baby leaves, blanch only for 2-3 seconds) Quickly remove from hot water and drain it over a colander/sieve. Rinse the spinach with cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain the water as much as possible by squeezing the water out with your hands or use a salad tosser. This process will wilt the spinach leaves and make it easier to handle, and make the spinach crunchy to the bite. Set the spinach aside.
4. Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl until the miso dressing is well combined. Taste and add more sugar or soy sauce according to your taste.
5. Mix the drained spinach leaves with the marinade gently with your bare hands or with plastic gloves. Serve it immediately with a hot bowl of rice. Enjoy!

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  Thick leaf spinach

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  blanched in hot water for 15 sec

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  miso dressing

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  healthy and easy miso spinach recipe