Spinach is awesome. It's delicious, and has a lot of vitamins and minerals the body needs. I love the stuff fresh, frozen, raw, cooked...
Canned spinach, on the other hand...*shudder.* It's...limp, slimy, the flavor's weird as hell, and just ugh.
I need more of it. And feta. Because damn if I didn't just come up with something really freakin' tasty.
Background: I love spanikopita. I can't have it anymore, but I absolutely love the stuff. It's literally my favorite way to eat spinach. I doubt I could make phylo dough with gluten free flour and have it...ya know...work. So.
No more spanikopita for me.
I had two cans of spinach in the pantry. See, I love canned mustard greens. And I had that in my Walmart cart for curbside pickup, and they ran out (I asked for four cans, they had two), and subbed in canned spinach, instead. It's all green, right? Right?
One thing spinach has going for it is relatively high levels of iron. Lots of different nutrients--it's actually really nutrient-dense, even in canned form.
Even if it's really gross.
My mom used to do something with canned spinach and scrambled eggs that I loved when I was a little girl, and was never able to replicate properly. Still haven't been able to, but I approximated, and potentially improved on, it today.
Take your can of spinach and drain it. Drain it more than that. Okay, now dump it out of the can into a really fine-mesh sieve or colander, and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. Dump it into a hot skillet with a little bit of olive oil, and let it start warming up. Hit it a couple of times with Cavendar's Greek seasoning blend while it's warming.
While that's going on, crack a couple of eggs in a measuring cup and add a splash of whole milk. Whip it together like you'd do for scrambled eggs, and then pour it into the spinach. Start mixing all of it together. Add about a quarter cup of crumbled feta cheese to the skillet, and really start working the stuff together. When the eggs are set and cooked, taste it. Add a little more salt or Greek seasoning if needed (some brands of canned spinach use less salt than others).
I added a little bit of balsamic vinegar to my bowl just before I dug into it.
I think Mom may have used more eggs, but I'm really not sure. This honestly would have done well as a pie, or folded into puff pastry, but...yeah. Wheat allergy.
I'm not sure what you'd call this, but, recipe's below:
[Recipe name goes here]
- 1 can of spinach (WELL drained--almost dry, if you can manage it)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp of milk, more or less
- 1/4 c feta cheese
1. Spray a skillet with olive oil cooking spray, start heating it. 2. Squash all the canning liquid out of the spinach that you can, then dump it into the skillet and break it apart to start it warming. Season. 3. Mix two eggs with a little milk like for scrambled eggs. 4. Scramble the eggs and spinach together. 5. Add feta cheese, mix well into scrambled eggs and spinach.
Serve hot, with balsamic vinegar, if you want, or without if you don't.
Takes about five or ten minutes to prep and cook. Might serve two, might not. Depending on how much you like it and how hungry you are.
A crustless pie, of sorts.
ReplyDelete1 can o' spinach (about 2 C.)
1 1/2 C. milk, whole milk preferred
4 eggs
1/2 C. cheese; feta would be good, but almost any kind will work
Heat oven to 375`. Grease or spray a pie plate or cast iron skillet. Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the canned spinach, as you did in your recipe. Cook it, also as you did, seasoning it as you did.
Put the spinach in the pie plate; using a fork, spread it in plate evenly. Sprinkle the cheese all over the spinach evenly.
Beat the four eggs mercilessly, mixing them well with the milk when they are yellow throughout. Pour over the spinach and eggs.
Bake about 45 minutes, till it's a nice golden or golden brown, as you prefer. Baking time might vary, depending on your oven.
You can add minced onion while you're sauteeing the spinach, if you like. Four eggs are a lot, but one egg replaces the flour that used to be in this recipe.
I might try this, at some point. I just...I had the (gross, canned) spinach, and I needed the iron and didn't have a lot of energy, today.
DeleteI am definitely getting more canned spinach. But I will be trying harder to not eat all of it in one go, like I did today.
If it works, that's all good!
ReplyDeleteOh, it was tasty. I ate the whole can of spinach plus 2 eggs in one go. I probably shouldn't have...but I did.
DeleteIf I may be so bold as to suggest that a nice side of Bacon would compliment the scrambled eggs. 4 slices minimum.
ReplyDeleteI'm 4'11"--if I ate 4 slices of good, thick cut bacon, I'd need something for the gallbladder attack to follow.
DeleteMy Calmer Half taught me how to make canned veg palatable - the trick of it, apparently, is to drain them, then rinse and drain with 3 changes of water. As he put it, it takes out the tinned taste.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I was roughly 40 before I learned this... speaks to how successfully I avoided canned greens and veg until he started stocking them in the deep pantry under "If you don't have access to fresh veg, you will need this", and I warily set out to learn how to use it in order to have turnover without wasted food.
The other way is to use a LOT of herbs and spices.
Delete