Yesterday I ate like garbage, so I wanted to eat something fresh and homemade today. We had a 400 gram pack of spinach in the fridge so I got to work. I wanted to make something like creamed spinach, minus the cream. I was inspired by the idea of carbonara, so I wanted to try using eggs and Parmesan to thicken the sauce. And I wanted to keep some texture to the spinach, so I didn't parboil or chop it. Here's what I came up with.
"Cabonara" Creamy Spinach
Ingredients:
400 g spinach, washed and drained
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 red chili pepper, chopped
400 mL plain soy milk
1 small spoon yuja preserves (usually used to make yuja tea)
1 egg + 1 yolk
parmesan cheese
olive and grapeseed oils for frying
Procedure:
1) sweat the garlic, onion, and pepper in a pan over low heat
2) when translucent, add spinach and turn heat to medium high
3) put lid on, cook until spinach reduces in volume
4) season with salt/pepper
5) add the yuja preserves
6) add the soy milk
7) bring to a light boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes
8) in a bowl, beat the egg and yolk
9) turn off the heat, then ladle some of the soy liquid into the egg to prevent scrambling
10) return the egg-milk mixture to the pot and combine, adding parmesan cheese to taste
Yum!
You can also use this to make a rocking spinach soup. Just use a hand mixer, then strain to get out any stringy spinach bits and you've got a lovely soup.
