Blanched spinach does not make a meal on its own, but it’s a handy dish to know. It’s great in omelets and can be used to make eggs florentine.  It can also be served as a side at the dinner table, and it’s the first step in a lot of recipes that use spinach. Since it keeps well in the fridge for a few days, you can make a large batch and come back to it for other dishes throughout the week. I learned to blanch spinach on my way to learning how to cook omelets.

This recipe comes from the amazing Julia Child. I would recommend that anyone who wants to learn how to cook and cook well go and find her cookbooks on Mastering the Art of French cooking and check out her old shows on youtube.  I watched Julie and Julia back in South Korea, and after that, I went out and got Mastering the Art of French cooking, both volumes.  I only put the books to use this year, but they are simply great; wonderful recipes along with clear explanations of cooking techniques. After using the books again this year I re-watched the movie.  Meryl Streep was phenomenal, as was Stanely Tucci.  This recipe illustrates my point about the book.  Whereas other books would just give you a list of ingredients and directions. Julia Child and her co-author, Simone Beck describe in detail how to properly wash the spinach as well as the differences in handling young and mature spinach before presenting the recipe.

Blanched Spinach
Ingredients 1 kg fresh spinach, stems removed 5 L Boiling water 2 Tbsp + 1.5 tsp salt

Removing the stems is straight-forward if you’re using young spinach.  They can easily be plucked from the leaf.  If using mature spinach, fold the leaf vertically, exposing its underside.  Grip the leaf with one hand and pull the stem off with the other.

Rinse the leaves in cold water to remove any dirt on them.  I use the same pot that I’ll blanch the spinach in to do this. Fill it up with cold water and add put the leave in. Swirl them around and pump the water up and down with my hand about a minute.  Remove the leaves, empty the water and do it again.  If there’s still a lot of dirt in the pot after the 2nd try, do it one more time.

Rinse the pot to remove any dirt and fill it with water.  Fill another bowl with cold water. Stir in the salt to dissolve it. Bring the salted water to a rolling boil. You shouldn’t try to cook the entire batch of spinach in one shot. Just add the spinach by the handful.  Cook it for about two minutes and then transfer it to the cold water for about 30 seconds to prevent the spinach from over-cooking.  Remove the spinach from the cold water and give it a squeeze over a bowl if you need the liquid as a part of whatever dish you are cooking. Otherwise, you can just squeeze the excess water out over the sink. Add a couple of ice cubes to the cold water to keep it cool.   By now, the hot water should be boiling again, and you can add the next batch of spinach and repeat the process until you’ve used up all the spinach.

* I use the bowl with ice because I live in the Middle East and the tap water doesn’t get very cold.  If you’re cooking this recipe in a place where the tap water is cold, you can just put the blanched spinach in a colander and run the cold water over it, much simpler!