The BEST Frozen Spinach Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is frozen spinach good for? ›

It excels at versatility. There's not a stew or soup that couldn't benefit from a little frozen spinach. Put it in smoothies, add it to stir fry, toss it with pasta. Keep your freezer stocked with this powerful vegetable artillery, and deploy it when necessary.

Take a colander and line it with a couple sheets of paper towel. Place the mushy spinach on the paper towel. Wrap the paper towel around the spinach and squeeze the water out of the spinach. Make sure you do this over the colander just in case the paper towel tears.

In the case of soup, no. A little extra water never hurt a broth. But when it comes to pretty much everything else—be it eggs, quesadillas, or skillet pizza—moisture is the enemy, so you're going to want to let the spinach thaw.

Bruning says you can use frozen spinach in applications, like adding it into soup, but she notes that this may lead to uneven cooking. "It may also cause more liquid to run off than if you thaw it first and squeeze out excess liquid in a towel or sieve, so this doesn't work well for casseroles or stir frys," she says.

We prefer frozen spinach over canned because it has better flavor and is lower in sodium. Plus, 1 cup of frozen spinach has more than four times the amount of nutrients—including fiber, folate, iron and calcium—compared to a cup of fresh spinach, so if you want to power up, do it with frozen spinach.

4. Spinach. When fresh spinach sits during transportation over long distances or stays in your refrigerator for a week, its folate content drops so much that frozen spinach becomes the better source.

Thawing :Allow the frozen leafy greens to thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. This step helps prevent excess water during cooking. - Heat a pan over medium heat and add a small amount of oil or butter.

Most varieties of frozen spinach come in 10 oz packages and needs to be drained once it's thawed because it will produce a lot of water. A 10 oz package of frozen spinach is the equivalent about a 1 pound bunch of fresh spinach.

Before spinach is packed and frozen into block form, it is washed and blanched in order to protect it's bright green color and fresh flavor. Blanching is a process where food is partially cooked in boiling water and “shocked” in cold water to immediately stop the cooking process.

If the package suggests to drain or rinse the vegetables, then they should be washed. While there has been some controversy in the past about the food safety of frozen produce, the AFFI assures that frozen produce is highly safe and manufacturing facilities are held to high standards of cleanliness.

Do I need to drain frozen spinach? ›

Frozen spinach is a time saver and I'm all about saving time in the kitchen. For most recipes, it needs to be thoroughly drained after thawing before using.

One package (10 ounces) of frozen spinach leaves yields about 1-1/2 cups after cooking.

According to PSU Food Safety News, "Spinach is blanched before freezing. Blanching, if done correctly, would eliminate the Listeria. The issue is with post-blanching contamination.

Ways to use frozen spinach

The best part, you do not even need to thaw it beforehand. Toss it into a blender with the rest of the ingredients or add it directly to the simmering soup or sauce.

Frozen leafy greens, like broccoli, spinach, kale, and collards, are all great choices to neutralize your immune system. Broccoli is unique because it's rich in sulforaphane, an antioxidant that suppresses some of the body's inflammatory response.

Obviously it's a bit easier to use frozen spinach rather than cooking down fresh. But if you're willing to take the extra step, your tastebuds might thank you. Frozen spinach is usually boiled or blanched, but the method I use is to saute it.

Spinach is a superfood that's a rich source of antioxidants and vitamins A, C, and K. Those nutrients help protect you against cognitive decline, heart disease, and eye problems.

Spinach is rich in iron, vitamin C and E, potassium, and magnesium. As part of a nutritious diet, it can help support immune function, aid the digestive system, may even have anticancer properties. However, certain individuals may need to eat this vegetable in moderation.