Here’s the best sautéed spinach recipe guaranteed to make your veggies taste amazing! Even better, it only takes 10 minutes to prepare.
Wow, is this sautéed spinach something to write home about! Here we go: Alex and I love boiled spinach In receipts. But we didn’t think we’d like sautéed spinach…until now. These spinach are flavored with garlic and wilted light green in a little olive oil. It is finished with lemon juice to give it shine. The taste is fresh and vibrant, not lifeless and mushy as one might expect. This healthy side dish uses 3 large bunches of spinach and Alex and I accidentally ate it all ourselves. It was so good.
How to Flavor Sautéed Spinach (Really!)
Are you curious? What are the secrets of the best sautéed spinach? Well, some things chefs in America in the 1950s were apparently unaware of. Even better, it only takes 10 minutes to make! Here are all the secrets to make spinach taste amazing:
- Cook it with whole cloves of garlic. This gives the whole thing a subtle garlic flavor without being overpowering. It also minimizes the risk of the garlic turning brown or burning.
- Don’t overcook it! Cook until wilted. So many sautéed spinach recipes overcook it until it’s soft and lifeless. Don’t make this mistake either! Remove from the heat when it’s just wilted and still a nice green color.
- Finally add a squeeze of lemon. Adding a squeeze of fresh lemon juice adds brightness to the flavor. Only use real lemon juice (none of that bottled stuff).
- Salt it perfectly. Many recipes involving sautéed spinach are too bland. Add the salt! The spinach soaks up so much that you don’t need much. Salt it until flavor shows, but not so much that it tastes salty. (Keep trying to get it just right!)
If you want to eat more spinach, this recipe is for you.
Really! This sautéed spinach is so flavorful it will have more on your plate. (Well, we have.) One interesting thing about spinach: They seem to have a great volume fresh when they’re sautéed, but they wilt to almost nothing.
When you see 3 big bunches of spinach, you swear it’s impossible to eat them. And you couldn’t if they were fresh. But if you fry it with olive oil, it loses most of its volume. Alex and I accidentally ate this recipe together in one sitting! So it’s a GREAT way to eat spinach without even realizing it. This simple plant-based side dish is so tasty, even your dad could overcome his childhood phobia. (I hope mine will.)
Treat yourself: Garnish it!
Take this sautéed spinach on top by adding a fancy topping! Our sautéed rainbow chard recipe features a garnish of parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts for savory flavor and crunch. This Italian filling takes this spinach a step further and would be perfect for a dinner party.
Is it better to use spring spinach or baby spinach?
Good question! Both work. bunch spinach works very well here! This is what we used, and it’s the perfect way to use up the bunched spinach. Because you’re cooking it and adding flavor, it’s not as “on your face” as it might be in a salad. But spinach leaves or spinach, which comes in leaf form in a can, works too!
Note on shelf life: Alex and I love the convenience of buying pre-washed baby spinach in plastic boxes at the grocery store. But as we strive to minimize our use of single-use plastic, we’ve recently tried to buy more green veggies in clusters. Yes, it does take a little longer to wash and prep, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Does Sauteed Spinach Make You Stronger?
Well, yes and no! It doesn’t make you strong like Popeye said. However, it fills you with vitamins and nutrients that can make you healthy and strong! Spinach is one of the top 20 vegetables to eat. Here are some of the benefits of this sautéed spinach as a healthy side dish:
- Rich in calcium, more than other vegetables
- Very rich in vitamin K and vitamin A
- Low in calories (1 cup of raw spinach contains 45 calories)
More delicious spinach recipes
There are many more delicious spinach recipes that we love. If you want to eat more leafy greens outside of this easy side dish, here’s how!
- Classic spinach salad Our favorite spinach salad! With tangy apples, glazed nuts and our finest balsamic vinaigrette.
- Pizza with spinach and artichokes Why not take all the goodness of spinach and artichoke dip and put it on a pizza?
- Spinach Alfredo Pasta This comes together in under 20 minutes and is a vegetarian dinner the whole family will love! Or add spinach to our vegan Fettuccine Alfredo.
- Easy spinach dip Comes together in minutes and tastes amazing! It’s perfect for parties and hassle-free entertaining.
This sautéed spinach recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, vegan and dairy-free.
The description
Here’s the best sautéed spinach recipe guaranteed to make your veggies taste amazing! Even better, it only takes 10 minutes to prepare.
- 3 Bunch of spinach (approx. 1 1/4 pounds total with stems) or 10 ounces of spinach leaves
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- ¼ teaspoon Salt plus 2 pinches
- 1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Once your spinach is bunched, cut off the stalks and roughly chop the leaves.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the whole garlic cloves for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Then carefully add the spinach leaves and immediately cover the pan (the water on the spinach may cause the oil to spurt out momentarily). The pile of leaves will seem like a lot of volume, but it will quickly fade and become very small. Cover and cook 1 minute, quickly uncover and stir for a few seconds to incorporate the cooked spinach, then cover and cook an additional minute.
- Remove the cover. Stir and cook an additional 30 seconds, until the spinach has completely wilted but is still light green. Stir in kosher salt and fresh lemon juice, then remove from heat.
- Taste and add a few pinches of salt to taste. (Spinach is very sensitive to salt, so only use small pieces at a time! The flavor should pop but not be salty.) Immediately transfer to a bowl; the spinach will brown if you leave it in the pan longer. Serve hot.
- Category: garnish
- Method: jumped up
- Kitchen: American
Keywords: Sauteed Spinach
