I’ve talked in the past about how I add fresh spinach to several different foods for added nourishment. Read more details about this here, but below is a list of foods I’ve added spinach to successfully:
- Scrambled Eggs
- Salads (obviously)
- Smoothies
- Alfredo Sauce with Pasta
- Beefy Vegetable Soup
- Cheeseburger Soup
- Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Patty Sandwiches
- Chicken Salad (I didn’t stir it in, just ate it with the chicken salad)
- Easy Noodle Stir Fry
- Lasagna
- Pizza Boats
- Pizza Soup
- Potato Soup
- Salmon Patties
- On top of Homemade Pizza
- Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes
- Runza/Bierock Filling
Most recently, I tore up a bunch of spinach leaves and added them to our Salsa Chicken for our Build a Burrito Bar. Here’s the thing about adding spinach to Salsa Chicken: No one can even tell.
I mean, I tear and I tear and I tear. (I make it sound like it’s hard work. Tearing spinach is a two-second job, and mostly I just tear spinach leaves in half by the handful.) I probably put four ounces of fresh spinach into a big pot of Salsa Chicken. (Four ounces of spinach is a lot of spinach.)
Then I let the spinach cook in with the meat and salsa before I shredded it all together. The spinach adds nourishment, but doesn’t change the flavor or even the look of the chicken. I think the spinach just looks like part of the salsa once it’s all cooked down. See how pretty?
I really don’t try to hide nutritious ingredients in my recipes, but neither do I always announce what all I’ve put into the food while I cooked it. I’ve done this “add spinach to Salsa Chicken” twice now, and when it was all said and done – my kids are none the wiser. To them, it just looks like I’ve made Salsa Chicken. Therefore, they proceeded to put more fresh spinach on their burrito as they build it. Nutrients on top of nutrients. How great is this?
As an aside, I’ve taken to snacking on fresh spinach while I’m cooking with it. It barely tastes like anything and it’s refreshing. Plus if I’m super hungry while I’m cooking it helps me feel like I can wait until meal time to eat with the family.
Do you ever add spinach to recipes? What have you found success with in adding spinach?
