Spinach has a high nutritional value and is rich in antioxidants especially when fresh. It has rich source of vitamins, iron, calcium etc. Spinach is one of my favorite vegetables used in baking when I thinking of green. One way of doing it is to turn those bright green leaves spinach into purée. Sometimes I make more as I can freeze them for future used.
You might wonder what is spinach purée? Basically spinach purée is cooked spinach being processed into paste form. You might question what so difficult? Just blend the blanched spinach then come spinach purée! I also have the same thought as you. Actually what we usually get is spinach juice instead of purée. Before this I used to add quite a lot of water to blend spinach into purée. Not until I watch a TV chef showing his way of getting spinach purée. Since for the next post I'm going to use it as main ingredient I decided to share it today.
Ingredients:
Few stalks of spinach Boiling water for blanching Cold water for soaking Some water to go with for blending
Basically just spinach and water !
Methods: 1. Wash and clean spinach leaves. Do not throw the root. Just shave away the dirt with knife and ready to be used.
2. Bring water to rapid boil. Add in washed spinach and blanch for 1-2 minutes. Drain and put into cold water to stop the cooking process.
3. Roughly arrange spinach stalks as you drain away the cold water. Gently squeeze to remove excess water. Place on chopping board and cut into small size. *the stem part is very high in fiber. It is better to dice further (after cut into small size) to ease the blending process. I forgot this part and my blender can't blend it into very fine paste. Of course you can omit the dicing part if your blender works well.
4. Put the cut spinach into blender with a bit of water (just enough to get blender do its job). Blend by using 'Pulse' button till turn fine paste.
*it is better to add little water at a time. Only add water when needed. So it will end up concentrated spinach paste. *divide the paste into separate bags and keep in freezer for future used.
