Spinach Sauté

Home grown spinach is one of life's great pleasures! Only available in the spring and fall, it gets tough and bitter in very hot weather. It's just so much better than the factory/greenhouse grown "baby spinach" we see in plastic bags and clam shells in the supermarket.

Home grown spinach likely will be a little sandy, but it’s well worth the effort to clean it. Here’s how we’ve learned to get all the sand out of it: 
You can remove the stems or leave them on; that’s up to you. Always use lukewarm tap water. Spinach has a bit of a waxy cuticle that makes the field sand cling to it and the slightly warm water loosens it better than cold water. Start by rinsing off the spinach, then fill a bowl with slightly warm water, dip the spinach in it and swirl it around vigorously, then let the bowl rest for a minute. Drain all the water and do the same thing two or three more times, for the last rinse use cold tap water. That’s all there is to it! The good news is that even though cleaning it takes a few minutes spinach is one of the easiest things to prepare and is a super healthy food.

Warm the olive oil in a sauté pan, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes, cook the garlic until fragrant, but not brown. Add the chopped spinach and toss to coat with the oil. Add the water and continue to toss. Add the salt, pepper and oregano. Cook for 3-5 minutes till the spinach is soft. Remove from heat and finish with more olive oil, and stir.