Spinach stir fry is a type of humble dishes that by no means goes out of fashion. Fast, straightforward, and extremely good for you, it’s a staple in lots of Chinese language households. It’s probably the most continuously made dishes by my mother and it’s all the time in our dinner rotation. She would prepare dinner such a big plate of it, however we devour the entire thing inside a couple of minutes.

Substances

My spinach stir fry recipe requires simply 5 easy substances:

• Spinach
• Garlic
• Rooster bouillon powder (or mushroom powder for vegetarian adaption)
• Salt
• Chinkiang vinegar (or distilled vinegar for gluten-free adaptation)

Rooster bouillon is a continuously used ingredient in Chinese language residence cooked meals, to boost the flavour of a fundamental dish. The aim is fairly just like MSG, however my mother prefers hen bouillon for its additional richness.

The splash of Chinkiang vinegar works very nicely with the wealthy spinach greens, to counterbalance the sunshine bitterness of the leaves and brighten up the dish.

The very best sort of spinach for stir fry

In Chinese language cooking, we all the time favor to prepare dinner with bigger heads of spinach which are longer and thicker than younger spinach, with thick massive leaves. As a result of as soon as it’s cooked, spinach shrinks rather a lot. Youthful spinach doesn’t stand stir fry and can wilt an excessive amount of and have a barely mushy mouthfeel. 

Once you buy spinach from a Chinese language market, the spinach bunches often include the foundation half nonetheless hooked up. This fashion, the spinach will final some time longer within the fridge earlier than it’s cooked.

Blanching spinach – the key weapon

Blanching spinach earlier than stir frying creates a a lot better mouthfeel, style and texture. This can be a step my mother by no means skips.

A fast blanching brightens the colour of the greens, tames the bitterness, removes extra water, and maintains the crunch. And spinach has a excessive degree of oxalates, which bind to calcium as they depart your physique and might improve the chance of kidney stones in some folks. Blanching the spinach helps cut back the degrees of oxalic acid that it comprises, which is sweet to your physique. 

As soon as the spinach is blanched, drain the water and gently squeeze the water out, however to not a level that the spinach crumbles into a little bit ball (squeezing all of the water out is a step usually utilized in Chinese language spinach salad, however not for stir fries). You need the spinach to nonetheless have sufficient construction and be capable of be unfold out throughout stir frying. 

The right way to prepare dinner spinach stir fry

Warmth up your wok or high-sided saute pan actually scorching, and rapidly prepare dinner the garlic to launch perfume. 

Then unfold out the blanched spinach and sprinkle salt and hen bouillon over it as evenly as attainable. Shortly stir fry the spinach till tender, then end up with a splash of vinegar. 

You will see that that spinach cooked this manner has little or no liquid pooling on the backside of the dish. And the mouthfeel of the spinach is tender but not mushy, with a pleasant taste introduced out by the garlic and vinegar.

Now you possibly can serve this dish alongside your principal dish to create a nutritionally balanced meal.

Different fast and simple aspect dishes