Sautéed spinach is a quick healthy side dish that is ready in 10 minutes. A large bunch of spinach is wilted with garlic olive oil lemon flavors. One of the easy ways to incorporate spinach into a meal, it pairs beautifully with the protein of your choice.
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Saut̩ed spinach Рfastest way to cook spinach
This recipe is the easy and best way to cook spinach. Including greens in your meal is easy, it only takes 10 minutes to pack in as much flavor as you like. When you wilt the spinach in olive oil, add minced garlic, season with salt and pepper, and a touch of red pepper flakes you’ll get the most delicate savory side dish. Pairs beautifully with any protein of your choice.
As spinach cooks in the pan, it wilts and incorporated flavor from olive oil and garlic. It’s finished off with fresh lemon juice to give it brightness.
The recipe calls for a huge bunch of spinach, which wilts down to almost 80% in less than 10 minutes.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need-
- 1 pound baby spinach (fresh)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- ½ lemon
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Baby spinach –you can use the vast volume of fresh spinach. Pre-washed baby spinach works best.
- Olive oil – I love extra virgin olive oil for extra flavor. You can swap olive oil for butter or ghee.
- Garlic – I used 2 large garlic minced. I love the garlicky flavor in sautéed spinach recipe. Feel free to use more or less garlic as per taste.
- Lemon juice – I can’t recommend enough to use only freshly squeezed lemon juice. It brightens up the dish.
- Red chili flakes – adds a hint of heat to spinach giving it a savory flavor.
- Season with salt & pepper – a sprinkle of salt and pepper brings the dish together.
How to make sautéed spinach with garlic and lemon
Make sure to give fresh spinach a good wash to get rid of the dirt. Skip this step if using pre-washed spinach. If using regular spinach, chop it into smaller bits. Use a large skillet, spinach takes a lot of spinach before cooking.
Pro-tip: dry spinach leaves as well as you can before cooking. Use a salad spinner if you have one.
Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet. Then, sauté minced garlic for 30 seconds.
Add a handful of baby spinach at a time to the skillet. Pack it down, it’ll take up a lot of space before it’s cooked.
Move spinach around to toss in olive oil and garlic.
Cover skillet and allow spinach to cook for briefly 30 seconds until spinach begins to cook down.
Toss spinach once again. Cook spinach until it’s just wilted.
Pro-tip: don’t over-cook spinach.
Spinach releases a lot of liquid while cooking, don’t continue to cook spinach until all liquid is evaporated.
Pour off excess liquid from the skillet if needed.
Season sautéed spinach with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes.
Remove the skillet from heat, and squeeze fresh lemon juice.
Toss well to combine. Serve immediately.
Serving suggestion
Sautéed spinach is a healthy side dish that can be paired well with almost any protein of your choice. Grilled fish, pork chops, steaks, ribs, roast chicken, roast turkey, with and lamb shanks are some of the best proteins this dish can be paired with.
It’s a highly versatile dish that goes with anything.
Sautéed spinach variations
You can spruce up spinach with almost any flavor that you like. Garlic is the main flavor that I highly recommend you use to your heart’s content. Other ingredients that you can add to make it interesting –
Don’t skip the freshly squeezed lemon juice and red chili flakes.
Add grated Parmesan cheese at the end.
Add crispy bacon bits.
FAQS
No, I don’t recommend using frozen spinach. Fresh baby spinach is best. Although you can use frozen spinach if you have no other option. Just make sure to defrost frozen spinach and drain thoroughly before sautéing.
While garlic, salt, and, pepper is all you need with spinach, you can use other spices too. Cumin powder, onion powder, and nutmeg are some of the spices that can be used.
Spinach naturally has slight aftertaste bitter after taste. Oxalic acid present in spinach often imposes a bitter aftertaste. Using young baby spinach leaves helps a bit in reducing the bitter taste. Don’t overcook spinach. In addition to that, citrus from freshly squeezed lemon juice at the end helps too. Freshly squeezed orange juice can be used too.
Storing and reheating
Though this dish tastes best when served fresh. Leftover sautéed spinach can be stored in air tight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Microwave it for 30 seconds or reheat it in a skillet until warmed through.
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📋Lemony Garlic Sautéed Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 pound baby spinach fresh
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- ½ lemon
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet. Then, sauté minced garlic for 30 seconds.
- Add a handful of baby spinach at a time to the skillet. Pack it down, it’ll take up a lot of space before it’s cooked.
- Move spinach around to toss in olive oil and garlic.
- Cover skillet and allow spinach to cook for briefly 30 seconds until spinach begins to cook down.
- Toss spinach once again. Cook spinach until it’s just wilted.Pro-tip: don’t overcook the spinach.
- Spinach releases a lot of liquid while cooking, don’t continue to cook spinach until all liquid is evaporated.
- Pour off excess liquid from the skillet if needed.
- Season sautéed spinach with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
- Remove the skillet from heat, and squeeze fresh lemon juice.
- Toss well to combine. Serve immediately.
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Nutrition
Created by Jyothi Rajesh
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Jyothi Rajesh is the founder of the food blog, Curry Trail. She lives in Bangalore, India and is the mom of two beautiful kids. Her passion is creating and sharing delicious and easy recipes for the home cook. She’s been blogging since 2007 and many of her recipes have appeared in both online and print publications over the years. Learn more about Jyothi Rajesh.
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