Raw spinach salad can be delicious, but, in my opinion, a brief cooking—really just a dip in boiling water—brings out the vegetable’s best qualities. Use really young, tender spinach for this salad. It’s easy to find baby spinach in plastic packs these days, but whenever you can—especially in springtime—buy clusters of tender leaves with tiny reddish stems joined at the roots, as they were plucked from the earth. Trim only the hairy tip of the roots, and cook the leaves and stems still together. Make sure you wash them several times, since dirt lodges between the stems.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 6
Ingredients
For Dressing
Preparation
Step 1
Bring 4 quarts of water or more to the boil in a large pot. Pile the washed spinach into a colander, and dump it all at once into the boiling water. With a spider, turn the leaves over once or twice, then lift them all out quickly after 3 or 4 seconds total in the boiling water. Drop the spinach back into the colander; let it cool and drain for a minute or two, but do not squeeze it.
Step 2
While it is still warm, turn the spinach into a mixing bowl; after a few moments, pour off all but a spoonful of the liquid that’s accumulated in the bottom. Dress and toss with the lemon juice and olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper—tasting and adding more as you like. Serve still slightly warm or at room temperature.
Ideas for spinach and other salads with cooked greens
Step 3
Additions to cooked spinach salad: fold in hard-cooked eggs, roughly chopped, after dressing.
Step 4
Instead of spinach, use 2 pounds of fresh dandelion greens, washed and cooked in boiling water for 10 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain without squeezing and cool slightly; pour all but a spoonful of the liquid out of the bowl before dressing. Try adding 1 cup of cooked dried beans to either of these salads.
