Make this easy spinach recipe with sesame seeds and garlic for a delicious side dish. It’s the perfect way to use fresh spinach.
I never get tired of eating spinach. Glad you are doing so well!
This is a fun take on a Korean take on spinach, where the spinach is simmered in garlic sesame oil and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
Updated from the recipe archive. First published in November 2005
Another version of this recipe
This recipe is a simplified version of sigeumchi namul, a Korean spinach banchan or side dish. This one doesn’t have scallions while our other does, and the seasoning is slightly different. We love both recipes and encourage you to read the other post if you want to learn more about Korean food.
GET THE RECIPE:
Can only fresh spinach be used?
We didn’t make this recipe with frozen spinach, but one of our readers used frozen chopped spinach and was pleased with the results.
Make this spinach side dish recipe your own
- Add chopped spring onions
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice
- Add chilli flakes
- leave out sugar
- Add more vegetables like carrots or cabbage
- Add 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
5 more delicious recipes for spinach side dishes
- Simply sautéed spinach
- Creamed spinach with bacon
- Spinach and Orzo Salad
- Zucchini Spinach Gratin
- Spinach salad with roasted grapes and warm bacon vinaigrette
From the editors of Simply Recipes
Spinach with sesame and garlic
If you are using bagged baby spinach, soaking is not necessary as this spinach is fairly clean. Even baby spinach does not need to be chopped. The spinach that you get in bundles from the farmer’s market can have a lot of dirt on the root ball that needs to be washed out before using the spinach.
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes in the World.
ingredients
-
1 tablespoon toasted sesame
-
3 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oildivided
-
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
-
1 lb fresh spinach (for ripe spinach, soak in water to clean, drain, squeeze out excess water, remove and discard large stalks, roughly chop leaves)
-
1 tablespoon sugar
-
1 tablespoon soy sauce (use gluten free soy sauce for gluten free version)
-
Salt, taste
method
-
Roast sesame:
If you haven’t already toasted the sesame seeds, do so first. Heat a pan without chopsticks over medium-high. Add raw sesame seeds and use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir.
The seeds may make a popping noise and pop open, almost like popcorn. They will roast very quickly, so stir constantly until they start to brown and smell like roasted.
Once done, remove from the pan into a separate bowl.
-
Cooking garlic and spinach in sesame oil:
Heat 2 tablespoons sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to sizzle, add the spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach has completely wilted. Turn the heat down to low.
-
Add sugar and soy sauce:
Stir in the sugar and soy sauce. Take off the heat. Add salt to taste.
Serve hot, warm, room temperature or cold, drizzle with the remaining sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 145 | calories |
| 12g | Fat |
| 9g | carbohydrates |
| 4g | protein |
