Spinach weather

Spinach, May 27.

Cool nights, damp days, occasional sun breaks: perfect weather for spinach. We planted our spinach on March 21. Last frost is usually March 15, but this year we had frost through March. It didn’t seem to hurt the spinach. This year’s seeds were from Territorial Seed; Olympia Hybrid code SP778. It’s been a great variety! It’s managed well even through the warm days we’ve had lately. We dug in some chicken manure before planting, and that was that. For some odd reason, the slugs don’t invade the spinach much. We’ve been eating spinach, mostly as salad for a couple of weeks now. I can’t keep up with it!

Popeye was right. Spinach is a nutritional superstar. Vitamins, minerals, even opioid peptides. Huh? See the Wikipedia article on this one. No wonder Popeye felt so good after eating spinach! Not so much iron, though. Sorry, Mom.

Spinach, April 8

Spinach, May 1

So, on to a recipe. Well, there are wonderful salads. I like simple: spinach, orange slices, almond shavings, paper-thin slices of red onion, olive oil and crumbled cheese. There’s also the ever popular steamed spinach: how to turn 8 cups of raw spinach into small mounds of dense deliciousness. Drizzle lightly with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper, eat small bites.

And then there’s soup. Here’s my recipe for a light appetizer type soup. Or a lunch soup with a sandwich. You could add chicken or turkey meatballs, or white beans, to make this a supper soup.

Washed spinach Egyptian walking onions and shallots Spinach soup in the pot

Jan’s Spinach Soup 1/2 cup chopped egyptian wallking onions, or scallions 1/2 cup chopped shallots, or 1/2 cup chopped onion plus 3 cloves of garlic chopped a colander full of spinach, chopped coarsely a small sprig of fresh rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried a glug of olive oil a pinch of red pepper flakes (optional) 1 Tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tsp. dried parsley 32 oz. chicken broth 1 T. basalmic vinegar. Glug some olive oil into a soup pot. Wilt the ewo’s and shallots. Pull off the rosemary leaves and add them to the pot along with the red pepper flakes and parsley. When the alliums are soft, add the chicken broth. Simmer until veges are very soft. Add the vinegar and the spinach. Simmer just until the spinach has wilted well. Don’t cook too long, or the spinach will get brown. Blend everthing in a blender or use an immersion hand blender. To serve, float a fat piece of garlic toast on top, sprinkle with shaved Pecorino Romano cheese. Yum!