I started a series “Arabic cuisine” featuring my traditional food. Today the dish is a heartwarming spinach stew with lamb meat and chickpeas from Palestine. This spinach stew is very nutritious fulfling , yet light on your stomach. and it’s naturally gluten free.
Spinach
This recipe has been in palestanian cuisine for a long time, when spinach is fresh and in abundance in winter-you may find it all year round, but its sweeter and tastier in winter- So families looked for ways to use it. And. this stew is one of them, of many recipes that uses spinach. The spinach fatayer (pastries) also very popular.
Qouted also from that post of fatayer , one i published 10 years ago “To be true and honest, I didn’t like them so much, even I used to love the spinach stew with lamb meat (I don’t anymore). But after I started this series, and creating other recipes, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try new items. Even the ones, I used to hate like eggplant, and spinach in pastries” . Today, I did the same, prepare dishes I had in he past even if it is not a favorite for me .Mostly for nostalagia, and for all the benfits and sense of comfort.
For more recipes of spinach click here
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Spinach Stew
This stew is very easy and straight forward recipe. You need to cook the meat first, get the broth and throw spinach and you got a delicious meal. Chickpeas added here for texture and flavor, as spinach has mild flavor. It gives this nice earthy flavor , yet it is optional.
What do you need for this recipe
You don’t need anything fancy, just basic utensils !
3 pots:
- 1 pot for boiling meat ( you could that ahead!)
- 1 pot for boiling spinach and meat togther for the best flavor
- 1 pot for making white rice, you could also use pita bread
- Cutting board and knife for chopping spinach if you use fresh
- A ladle
Why you should include spinach in your diet
- Just you should know, even if spinach has good amounts of calcium, it does have a compound called oxalate that bind with calcium, and inhibit its absorption . Therefore, it is good if you can have spinach with other calcium rich food, so oxalate will bind to the calcium from other resources.To understand this issue better This is great article explains oxalate and calcium absorption, and what dietary source we should consume in order to get enough calcium.
- For iron, phytates a non-nutrient compounds exists in spinach, can inhibit iron absorption ,by 80%, but adding citric acid like lemon juice can counteract this effect. So remember to add lemon juice every time you eat spinach, or other food items that has citric acid like some berries, strawberries, and blackberries.
- Vitamins : It’s high in Vitamin C, another B vitamins like folate which is very important vitamin, especially for pregnant women, also vitamin B6 , Riboflavin, and of course vitamin A, and vitamin K
- 1 lb of lamb meat , boneless or with bones
- 1 Tb olive oil or a vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion cut into big pieces
- Salt and pepper
- 100g boiled chickpeas
- 400g frozen spinach
- ½ cup uncooked white rice short grains*
- Optional:
- ½ Tb ghee
- pine nuts
- Heat a large pot, add 1 Tb of vegetable oil on high heat.
- Cut onion in quarters, and add it to the pot.
- Add the Meat, brown it, and add water, make sure there are no pink areas. and leave it until its done.
- in a medium pot, add ½ Tb of olive oil, garlic pieces and spinach, sautee for few minutes then add salt, and black pepper, meat pieces, frozen spinachas it is, boiled chickpeas and leave it simmered, covered with lid until its spinach is softer, and the sauce is thicker.
- In a medium pot, heat 1 Tb of vegetable oil on high heat, then add 1 cup uncooked white rice, and cover it with 1 cup boiling water. you many need more water, the important thing is that rice should covered completely with water.
- After 10 minutes, reduce heat to the minimum, and let the rice simmered for 5-10 minutes, or until the water is completely absorbed and the rice is fluffy.
- Serve the spinach stew with white rice on the side.
- Refrigerate any leftovers in a airtight container for 3 days, and up to 1 month in the freez
Have you tried spinach stew? would youd try this at home? Let me know in the comments?
