Spinach Recipes

Saag Paneer

This is how I like to cook saag paneer - chopped spinach, golden-crusted paneer cheese, assertively spices, and finished with toasted sesame seeds and fresh lemon juice.

Five Minute Avocado Dressing with Herbs and Spinach

If you love a good avocado dressing, you've got to give this one a try. It is fragrant with fresh herbs, seasoned with miso, and boosted with spinach.

Lentils folded into Yogurt, Spinach, and Basil

Have you seen the little book, Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal? It's great on many fronts, and I made these Lentils folded into Yogurt, Spinach, and Basil from it.

Palak Paneer

Palak paneer is power food. With a spinach and tomato base, and range of spices, you're getting all sorts of nourishing goodness in each bite. And the homemade paneer!

Dumplings at 30,000 feet are a treat, and worth the effort - filling, nutritious, plane-friendly finger food. This time I upped my game and made the dumpling wrappers from scratch, filled them with a ginger and chile-spiked ricotta, spinach, and cabbage filling before twisting and folding them into momo-shaped poufs.

Spiced Spinach with Walnuts

A spinach recipe you should try. It's an adaptable dish that downshifts seamlessly from main attraction to supporting role depending on the quantity of leftovers at hand. The jist: a hot pan filled with all manner of things that work well with spinach - toasted walnuts, shredded mint, lemon, a host of spices, and a good amount of leeks that are cooked until silky tender.

Coconut Broccoli Soup

Lunch at the studio today involved broccoli soup heated on a new hotplate - a simple broccoli and spinach affair made with a coconut milk broth, topped with good stuff like pan-fried tofu croutons, toasted almonds, and shredded scallions.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

An earthy, turmeric and mustard-spiked lentil soup served over brown rice with spinach and thick yogurt.

Spiced Coconut Spinach

The perfect simple, spinach side dish - toast a few spices, add a pile of shredded spinach to the skillet, and finish things off with a burst of lemon juice and some shredded coconut.

New Year Noodle Soup

An amazing New Year Noodle Soup from Greg & Lucy Malouf's beautiful book, Saraban. It's a bean and noodle soup at its core featuring thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, chiles, and black pepper. You use a medley of lentils, chickpeas, and borlotti beans which makes the soup heart and filling without being heavy. You add spinach, dill, and cilantro. You add lime juice for a bit of sour at the end. And then you've got a number of toppings to add when you serve the soup - chopped walnuts, caramelized onions, and sour cream. Amazing.

Winter Pasta

I inherited a CSA box packed with greens the other night, inspiring this simple one-pot winter pasta with a sauce made from a full bunch of kale, shallots, garlic, and goat cheese.

Palak Daal

A palak daal recipe from Kasa's Anamika Khanna - a hearty pot of spinach, lentils, and spices. Kasa is a favorite Indian restaurant of mine here in San Francisco.

Green Soup with Ginger

From the new Anna Thomas cookbook, Love Soup - a soup cramming more spinach, leeks, sweet potatoes and chard into each bowl than I ever thought possible.

Red Pesto Ravioli

For the sun-dried tomato lovers out there. Goat-cheese raviolis tossed in a sun-dried tomato red pesto sauce, served over baby spinach.

Asparagus Stir-Fry

A favorite stir-fry recipe. Asparagus and tofu form the base, but it has quite a lot going on beyond that. You get a bite of tang from the lime, heat from the red chiles and fresh ginger, mint and basil cool things down, and a touch hoisin sauce gives you just enough sweetness to balance it all out.

Almost Cheeseless Pasta Casserole

Trying to keep this pasta casserole recipe on the lighter side, I tossed a rustic farro pasta in yogurt that had been beaten with a bit of egg along with garlic, toasted almonds, chard, butternut squash, and olives. Baked until golden.

Seaweed Risotto

A seaweed risotto recipe inspired by a trip to Chile. This version calls for dried nori seaweed, pearled barley, lots of finely chopped spinach, and a blend of cheeses.

Miso Soup

A simple, everyday approach to miso soup - it yields me a bowl of soup in five or ten minutes. You can keep it simple if you like, but in this version I add soba noodles and tofu, and a few garnishes.

Garlicky Greens

If you love sauteed greens, give this recipe a go. I avoid overcooking, and throw plenty of garlic into the pan. You can use kale, chard, or spinach.

Spinach Rice Gratin

A delicious rice gratin recipe - a hearty casserole of baked rice flecked with spinach. The top bakes into a golden cheese crust made even better with a generous sprinkling of black olives, red onions, and toasted pine nuts.

Spring Panzanella

A spring twist on a panzanella recipe. This panzanella features asparagus, spinach, and peas with hearty, garlic and time toasted bread cubes.

Orzo Soup

Itty-bitty pasta plays the lead role in this simple orzo soup recipe with an egg drop soup style broth that has been boosted with flecks of chard and topped with vibrant, fire-roasted tomatoes. It's finished with an all-important thread of golden olive oil and a flurry of grated cheese.