I do not like wasting any food. Spinach roots might not come to mind when preparing a main dish; but here it is – very tasty, healthy and low cost. The only difficult part is washing the spinach, if you cannot buy it already washed.
The way I do it is I rinse the spinach several times under flowing water and then take a huge bowl and put all of it inside. Cover with water again and then sprinkle a generous amount of vinegar. Then I set aside for about 15 minutes and then take out the spinach and wash again and drain. While taking out the spinach from the vinegar water do not shake, mix or turn upside down; as the dust or unwanted insects will have settled down in the water and we do not want them all around the spinach again.
Cut of the stem of the roots without separating the branches and leaving out the leaves as much as possible. Now you are ready to cook.
I prefer to make this dish plain, but you are welcome to add additional color by adding chopped carrots or dry tomatoes to this dish, it is up to you. Turks love to add yogurt to most of their dishes, this is definitely one of them. You can go ahead and make it tastier by mixing several crushed garlic cloves to your yogurt and then adding to you your spinach.
Good news is that by just leaving the ground meat out, you can easily turn this dish into a side dish and serve it cold or turn it into a vegan dish and still serve it warm.
Enjoy.
Spinach Roots Stew
Ingredients
Spinach
- 1 kilogram spinach
- 2 tablespoons ground meat optional
- 25 grams rice
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste optional
- 1 teaspoon salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes to taste
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
Garnish
- 250 grams plain yogurt
- 3 garlic cloves crushed-optional
Instructions
- Wash thoroughly the spinach.
- Cut off and discard the stem of each spinach bunch then cut about 6-7 cm upto the leaves. You can use the leaves for other dishes.
- Add the olive oil and the chopped onions in a pot. Saute the onions until translucent.
- Add the chopped garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes.
- If you choose to use the ground meat add and mix well so they are totally separated to small pieces. Cook until the meat changes color and well done.
- Add the tomato paste and saute for a few minutes.
- Also add the salt and red pepper flakes and mix.
- Add the washed and drained spinach roots. Saute until the roots begin to change color.
- Meanwhile rinse the rice and add.
- Also add warm water to cover the bottom and cook until the rice is ready. Check by tasting one.
- Serve warm with plain yogurt with or without garlic. Enjoy.