By Jan Jackson –
For the story behind Popeye the Sailor Man and spinach, visit https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/07/02/spinach-popeye-error-half-life-of-facts/
If you are old enough, you think of Popeye as a sailor man and not a chain of southern fried chicken restaurants. Though the famous spinach-eating Popeye didn’t get as much strength and energy from it as everyone first thought he did, spinach still remains one of our most nutritious vegetables (see https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/spinach).
How do you like your spinach?
One Pan Annie likes her spinach fresh. To her, canned spinach has been cooked too long, the color is dull, and the texture is too slimy. That said, she still like canned spinach – just not as well as she likes it cooked fresh.
Here is One Pan Annie’s advice:
1. Buy baby spinach from the salad section instead of the fresh produce section. When you buy from the produce section, you have to make sure you get the sand out of the stems and even remove a lot of them stem because they are tough when cooked. Baby spinach packaged for salads are ready to eat.
2. Cook fresh spinach with beef, chicken, lamb or pork by grabbing a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach leaves and throw in your skillet with the rest of the vegetables
3. If you are cooking spinach with vegetables only, do it with a bit of olive oil and some spices (a little salt, pepper and garlic?). The spinach in the photo was grilled in a cast iron skillet with a piece of chicken, a carrot and two Brussels sprouts. If you are cooking chicken, get it started first to make sure it gets done before adding the vegetables because the vegetables don’t take very long to cook. In fact, I’m not sure why they even call it slow food because it isn’t.
It is so simple, so quick, so easy and so cheap to eat healthy, I don’t understand why people are taking the extra time and energy to eat out of bags, boxes and takeout windows. Be like One Pan Annie and Popeye the Sailor Man and eat your spinach.
Bon Appetit
To buy One Pan Annies favorite cast iron skillet click below.
For more about One Pan Annie
