Spinach

About

Despite its reputation as a bland, neutral vegetable, lightly cooked spinach can carry notes of mint, oolong tea, tobacco, wax, radish, or violet. It pairs most successfully with salty, fatty ingredients such as bacon, blue cheese, or miso butter. Like green beans and okra, spinach is transformed by longer cooking, developing meaty, smoky, and phenolic qualities.

Pairs well with spinach

• CiLemonA traditional preparation cooks spinach down in its own moisture, then finishes it with butter or olive oil and lemon juice, a technique…
• EaPotatoIn sag aloo, potato is cooked in a spinach-based green sauce (sag) that can be made as mild or as spiced as preferred, a reliably…
• SuEggEggs Florentine, warm chopped spinach under poached eggs with Mornay sauce, has largely been displaced by eggs Benedict, its…
• SuGarlicSpinach is traditionally paired with butter, cream or cheese, but a dairy-free 19th-century Roman version, noted by food writer Pellegrino…
• EaMushroomFood writer Betty Fussell observed that spinach-and-mushroom salad is popular partly because the visual contrast of white and green…
• ChCheeseSpinach and cheese appear together across cuisines: French dishes braise spinach in cream with grated Swiss cheese and wrap it in a crêpe;…
• FfVanillaA French sweet tart filled with spinach and vanilla pastry cream traditionally appears as one of the many small desserts served at the…
• RoSesameJapanese goma-ae, a dressing of ground toasted sesame seeds, sugar and soy sauce, is classically used on blanched, squeezed spinach.
• CrRaisinTourte aux blettes, a Provençal sweet pie traditionally eaten around Christmas Eve, has a sugar-dusted crust enclosing a filling of…
• EaChickpeaGarbanzos con espinacas, a tapas-bar classic rooted in Lenten cooking, pairs chickpeas and spinach, though the dish benefits from added…
• SpAllspiceAllspice's dominant clove note, similar to a quality found in basil, pairs well with spinach's earthy flavor.
• SpFenugreekIn Afghan cooking, fenugreek seeds are used to flavor spinach.
• WoPine nutToasted pine nuts can carry a faint bacon-like flavor, similar to roasted asparagus tips, which may explain their affinity for spinach,…
• GrSorrelA 19th-century writer noted that sorrel's tang corrects spinach's flat flavor, a pairing still used today, with Swiss chard sometimes…
• WoWhole grain riceTurta verde, from Italy's Piedmont region, bakes chopped spinach, onion, cooked rice, egg, nutmeg and Parmesan into a cake cut into…
• SuLeekLeek, or its smaller relative scallion, commonly underpins spinach dishes, adding onion, leafy-green and herbal depth to dishes like…
• EaTofuFermented tofu, described as strong, salty and cheesy (similar to a pungent blue cheese), melts into a spinach stir-fry to form a rich…
• EaWhite beanA simple dish combining softened onion and garlic, white beans, chorizo and wilted spinach or other greens.