Spring Spinach
with a recipe for spinach custard that is pure comfort food.
Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of books featuring kitchen garden designs with recipes for cooks who love to garden. Her newest book is The New Heirloom Garden. Each week you’ll receive artful garden tips and recipes.
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Walking past the produce aisle of a grocery store is one of the best things about growing a garden, and I can hardly wait to get seeds in the ground for spinach; sweet and crispy, I eat it right out of the garden without dressing. It’s the ultimate spring green, resistant to frost, in fact, the cool weather is what gives it flavor. Best of all, it’s one of the few greens that rabbits leave alone, preferring to nibble on lettuce and pea shoots instead.
One of my earliest cookbooks as a new gardener was The Victory Garden by Marion Morash, of PBS Victory Garden fame. She taught me to wash spinach in lukewarm water instead of cold, to loosen the soil clinging to the leaves. Never use an aluminum pan when cooking spinach, she writes, because it will turn the leaves gray. And never soak or cook spinach too long in the water, as this will release all the nutrients. So much for the Popeye theory and the benefits of canned spinach.
To the average palate, spinach flavor is hard to define and fairly tasteless, relatively speaking. It could easily be called sweet when eating young spoon-shaped leaves with tender stems. Mature leaves can still be sweet, yet earthy if the harvest is from your garden. Most supermarket types are bred for durability, where you’ll find the thicker, crinkly leaves. The heirloom variety Bloomsdale is an exception. Bred in the late 1800s by Landreth Bros. it promises both flavor and consistent growth with sturdier leaves to more easily withstand long-distance shipping. The large, branch-like stems require trimming before cooking, yet are still a sure bet for the home gardener as well as the commercial grower.
There are two distinct types of spinach, and getting to know spinach can open new worlds of possibilities for the cook as well as the home gardener.
The difference in leaves is the most obvious; one type has coarse, puckered leaves and thick stems, while the other has a smooth, arrow-shaped leaf. As far as the typical consumer is concerned, if it's green, it'll work in the recipe.
The thicker leafed variety is often best to use cooked, either steamed lightly and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper, and a hint of vinegar or grating of fresh nutmeg. While the smooth leafed variety is best to use in a salad of mixed greens, tossed with a light dressing.Â
As far as recipes go, spinach, beet leaves, Swiss chard, New Zealand spinach ( not true spinach), Amaranth, and Orach, are all part of a big family of leafy greens known as the Amaranth family, yet are completely different plants. Red Malabar spinach is not a true spinach, either, yet produces a stunning ornamental vine with succulent edible leaves to adorn an artful kitchen garden or terrace container planting.
Spinach has the distinction of being of the few vegetables that can be served fresh year-round since it thrives in cool New England weather. Gardeners can grow it almost three seasons out of four if the summer heat is tempered with shade cloth and a good sprinkler system.
When you bring fresh spinach home from the market, store it in the refrigerator unwashed until ready to use. Because the leaves have high water content, they are highly perishable when moist and will quickly rot. Wash just before using, and either dry in a salad spinner if using right away or transfer, still dripping wet, directly into a sauté pan or steamer for a batch of cooked greens.
While some of my favorite recipes use cooked spinach in a variety of ways, my all-time favorite is the spinach custard recipe below. When fresh spinach is in season, I'll make a spinach salad with slivers of sweet red onion and orange chunks, tossed with avocado and dressed in balsamic vinaigrette. If it’s a bumper crop, I'll make a batch of pesto with a fistful of spinach leaves balanced by an equal portion of fresh basil. I've even made a fresh pea soup, adding a handful of spinach greens to the blender in the last pulse to bring out a vivid green color. Eating plenty of spinach may not make me as strong as Popeye, but I'm glad I'm not limited to the canned stuff.
From my kitchen to yours.
Ellen O.
Vermont Cheddar and Spinach Custard
Printable version is available here.
Serves 4 | This is my go-to comfort food on a chilly spring evening. Easy to assemble, healthy, and it cooks up quickly. Serve as a light main course or side dish.
3 cups fresh spinach, rinsed and stems removed
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream ( or 1/2 & 1/2)
1 cup grated Vermont cheddar cheese
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 300*
Immerse the spinach in a kettle of boiling water for several minutes, until wilted. Drain and squeeze out excess moisture. This should yield about 1 cup of cooked spinach. Finely chop and set aside. Whisk together egg yolks with the heavy cream in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the spinach along with the grated cheese. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.
Butter four cup-sized ramekins and pour in the custard. Place these inside a larger baking pan that can accommodate hot water. Fill so that the water measures the height of the custard in the soufflé pan. Place in a preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or test with a clean knife to check if the center is firm.
Remove the custard soufflé from the hot water and allow it to cool on a rack for about 10 minutes before serving warm. For individual servings, run a knife around the edge of the ramekin and invert it onto the plate.
