Ingredient

Spinach

Spinach is the vegetable that most surprises people by volume: a large bag becomes a couple of tablespoons. It is also the one most likely to flood a dish with water, and the two facts are the same fact.

Where it all goes

Raw spinach leaves are mostly air and water held up by turgid cells. Heat ruptures the cell membranes, the water runs out, and the structure holding the leaf open collapses. What is left is the actual solid material, which was never very much.

The rule of thumb is roughly ten to one by volume for raw leaf. If a recipe wants a cup of cooked spinach it needs an alarming quantity of raw, and this is the commonest reason a spinach dish tastes of everything except spinach.

Cooking it without flooding the dish

1. Wash it well. Spinach hides grit, especially the large-leaved bunches rather than the bagged baby leaves.
2. Wilt it in a wide pan over high heat with barely any added liquid — the water clinging to the leaves is plenty. It takes a minute or two.
3. Tip it into a colander as soon as it has collapsed. Leaving it in the pan keeps cooking it.
4. Let it cool enough to handle, then squeeze. Properly squeeze — press it against the colander, or gather it in a cloth and wring it out. A surprising amount comes out.
5. Chop it now if the dish needs it. Squeezed spinach is a solid lump and chops cleanly.
6. Season it after squeezing, since everything you seasoned it with before went out with the water.

The squeaky teeth

Spinach contains oxalic acid, which binds calcium and forms tiny crystals. Those crystals are what leave your teeth feeling chalky or squeaky after a plate of it, and they are also what gives spinach its faintly metallic, drying edge.

It varies by variety and maturity — young leaves have less — and cooking reduces it somewhat, with some passing into the cooking water. Pairing spinach with dairy is the traditional answer and it is not a coincidence: the calcium in cream, yoghurt, ricotta or paneer binds the oxalic acid before it reaches your mouth. Creamed spinach, saag paneer and spanakopita are all versions of the same solution.

Fresh, frozen and the alternatives

Baby spinach

Mild and tender. Good raw. Wilts almost instantly and can be added to a hot dish off the heat.

Large-leaf spinach

Stronger, earthier, and it needs its thick stems removing. Better for cooking.

Frozen

Genuinely good for cooked dishes and far cheaper. It is already blanched and broken down, so it needs no wilting — just thawing and a hard squeeze. Useless raw.

Chard

Similar leaf, tougher stems that need longer. Less oxalic acid.

Kale

A different proposition — much sturdier, needs longer cooking, does not collapse the same way.

The water problem, and what to do about it

• Spinach is over 90% water and collapses to a fraction of its volume. A large bag becomes about two spoonfuls, which is why recipes call for what looks like an absurd quantity.
• For anything baked — a quiche, a lasagne, a filo pie — wilt it first and then squeeze it hard, in a clean cloth or against a sieve. Unsqueezed spinach floods the dish.
• For a side, wilt it in a hot dry pan with just the water clinging to the leaves, then drain and season. Added oil at the start makes it greasy.
• Frozen spinach is genuinely good for cooked dishes and much cheaper. Defrost and squeeze it exactly the same way.
• Season at the end. Salt added early draws yet more water out.
• Baby spinach is milder and more tender; mature spinach has more flavour and needs its stalks removed.

Common questions