Easy Catalan spinach recipe

Far from my horrid memories of overcooked spinach as a child, I now relish the green beastie. This easy Catalan spinach recipe is not only packed full of iron, but it tastes amazing too! Enjoy.

This recipe is not only super healthy, it is also suitable for vegetarians, vegans, coeliacs and anyone who isn’t offended by spinach really. Oh, and Popeye fans.

Ingredients for easy Catalan spinach recipe

• 1 medium shallot.
• Fistful of pine nuts.
• Fistful of raisins.
• 500g baby spinach leaves.
• Olive oil for frying.
• A couple of pinches of sea salt

Method

• Pour a healthy glug of olive oil into a large frying pan. A wok is perfect for this.
• Heat to medium/high and throw in the pinenuts and raisins. Stir a little and cook for about 90 seconds.
• Throw in the spinach.
• Sprinkle with the salt.
• Keep tossing the spinach, ensuring it all gets covered in the olive oil, and the ingredients are well mixed.
• Cook to your liking. I like mine fairly crisp but you may like yours completely wilted. We are reliably informed that in Catalonia it is usually served fairly wilted, although we haven’t tried it up there personally.

Spain Buddy tips

• We don’t eat dried fruit in this house – so we omit the raisins. It loses a little sweetness, but it’s all down to personal taste.
• Feel free to swap out the pine nuts for your favourite nuts. We like it with almonds and of course walnuts.
• I tend to add garlic to just about everything and it works well with spinach – so don’t be shy about throwing in a crushed clove of garlic at the same time as the nuts.
• This is superb with a little blue cheese crumbled on top at the time of serving. Alan doesn’t like blue cheese, so there’s always more for me!
• This dish is great as a warm salad served with your favourite main component, such as pork or chicken… or our personal favourite, seared fillet steak.

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.