Tag

Spinach

Browsing

Bright green, fresh, and incredibly healthy: There are lots of important minerals and vitamins in spinach. Above all, the trace element zinc. With this, the body regulates metabolism, for example. The fact that spinach contains a particularly large amount of iron is a myth debunked. However, you shouldn’t miss out on enjoying the vegetables. We have put together ten great spinach recipes for you that are guaranteed to inspire you!

Foam omelet with spinach

Foam omelet with spinach – what could be nicer? Heavenly fluffy with a colorful and seductively crunchy topping, this omelet is a real eye-catcher on the plate. By the way, you can adapt the ingredients to your own taste and vary them as you like. How about, for example, Parmesan or goat’s cream cheese?

Asparagus cannelloni with spinach

Cannelloni loves small and large pasta fans alike. In this case, they are coated in a creamy spinach sauce and filled with delicious white and green asparagus. It makes your mouth water – or what do you think?

Ricotta Spinach Cookies

You should not miss this vegetarian starter, because it brings together the best ingredients and – thanks to ricotta and parmesan cheese – provides a very special aroma. Of course, you can also enjoy the crispy cookies as the main course. Freshly prepared, this dish is simply irresistible!

Melon Spinach Juice

This version of a green smoothie is very popular with all juice fans. Spinach and melon harmonize in a special way and provide lots of vitamins and nutrients that ensure vitality and well-being. So dare yourself to try this delicious drink. We’re sure you can’t get enough of it!

Salmon and spinach pan

Salmon and spinach is a combination that always works and leaves nothing to be desired. And best of all, this dish is prepared in no time and is almost star-worthy… Don’t you think so? Give it a try and let yourself be captivated by this wonderful meal…

Spinach Mango Vegetables

Spinach and mango – do they go together? Oh yes, and how! The combination may sound a little strange at first. And that’s exactly why we advise you to prepare this dish without fail and completely surrender to the special aroma. You’ll see: the combination of spinach and mango creates a real explosion of flavors in your mouth!

Creamy Spinach Soup

The spinach soup is a classic that is rarely prepared these days. Too bad actually! Because this soup is a real delicacy that is easy to prepare and offers perfect enjoyment even on cooler days.

Sweet potatoes with spinach salad

Sweet potato fans will love this wonderful dish. The vegetarian delicacy is ideal for discerning connoisseurs with little time to cook. So feel free to invite friends and family over and present this culinary highlight on a plate. You can be sure of the applause!

Asparagus salad with spinach and mushrooms

Another recipe from the category: simple, but extremely delicious! The fresh vegetables awaken the spirit of spring and make you want a variety of dishes that you can easily prepare yourself. Don’t you agree?

Baked spinach rolls

Last but not least, we would like to recommend our baked spinach rolls. Basically, you don’t have to say much about this dish, because the look speaks for itself. But it should be emphasized once again at this point that these small rolls not only look great but also taste sensational!

A new study confirms More strength gains thanks to spinach! That’s why the Free University of Berlin is now calling for spinach to be included in the doping list.

There is no denying that spinach is healthy: the green vegetable provides an incredible 800 micrograms of vitamin A per 100 grams of spinach – perfect for good eyesight and healthy skin. In addition, spinach contains all the important minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium, plenty of iron, and vitamins A, C, and E, which have a positive effect on the nerves, healthy cells, and the immune system. In addition, the consumption of spinach promotes blood formation and gently drains the body.

New human study on the effects of spinach

The Freie Universität Berlin, in cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), carried out a human study in which the effect of a substance contained in spinach, ecdysterone, was tested (1).

The double-blind study involved 46 people who took different doses of spinach extract or a placebo for 10 weeks—neither the researchers nor the participants knew who was taking which dose. The maximum dose of ecdysterone was 800 milligrams, which is about 6.6 kilograms of spinach.

At the beginning and end of the study, the muscle mass and the strength of the classic bench press were determined for all test participants. There was a clear difference here: The subjects who took ecdysterone for ten weeks had a significantly higher increase in muscle mass. Bench press performance also increased significantly, which confirms the performance-enhancing effect of the spinach ingredient.

Will athletes now be banned from leafy greens?

Since the substance ecdysterone can lead to a significant increase in muscle mass and strength in connection with the sport, the researchers at Freie Universität Berlin recommend including ecdysterone in the doping list, since a large amount of spinach can act as a classic doping agent. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which supported the study financially, ultimately decides whether this case will actually occur. One of the hurdles that could arise with such a ban is doping control: Here it should be possible to check whether the athletes have taken ecdysterone tablets or simply eaten a lot of spinach.

The scientist Maria Parr explains: “The lower dose in our experiment, i.e. two capsules per day, corresponds to around 250 grams to four kilograms of spinach leaves per day, depending on the variety. This is the amount you would have to eat every day for ten weeks to consume the same amount as some subjects in our study. In order to achieve the effect of the higher dose administered, one to 16 kilos of spinach would have to be consumed.”

Connoisseurs appreciate lamb because of its typical taste and the particularly tender yet robust structure. As a naturally produced product, lamb is increasingly in demand among consumers.

Ingredients for 4 to 6 people

  • 750g spinach leaves
  • 80g of pine nuts
  • 200g of Gorgonzola
  • 2 tbsp breadcrumbs

  • 2 eggs (class S)
  • Salt
  • black pepper
  • 1 leg of lamb (2kg net, have the butcher remove the bone)
  • 250 ml lamb stock
  • 1.5 kg very small potatoes
  • 12 small tomatoes
  • 2 sprigs of rosemary
  • 200 g Italian butter cheese

Preparation

  1. Clean the spinach, sort, and wash thoroughly in cold water several times. Pour into a saucepan. Allow collapsing in a closed saucepan over medium heat. Drain in a colander. Then squeeze out portions in a tea towel and chop coarsely.
  2. Roast the pine nuts in a pan without fat until golden brown. Let cool down. Debark the gorgonzola and chop roughly. Knead the spinach, gorgonzola cubes, pine nuts, breadcrumbs, and eggs in a bowl. Season the farce generously with salt and pepper.
  3. Remove the thick layer of fat from the leg of lamb with a sharp knife, save part of the fat and later place it in the juice pan with the leg. Slice the leg of lamb open and place, skin side down, on the work surface.
  4. Make a deep slit in the thick muscle of the leg on both sides, working from the inside out. Pepper and salt the meat.
  5. Place the prepared filling in the center of the leg and flatten. Sew everything together with large stitches using a lace needle and kitchen twine.
  6. Place the leg with the pieces of fat in the juice pan of the oven and cook in the preheated oven at 160°C for 75 minutes on shelf position 2. After 10 minutes of cooking time, pour in the lamb stock.
  7. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and score the top of the tomatoes with a cross. After 1 hour, wrap the potatoes around the leg and salt. Place the sprigs of rosemary in between. Turn the potatoes from time to time. After 40 minutes add the tomatoes.
  8. Take the leg out of the oven, remove the kitchen twine, place the leg on an ovenproof dish, and top with the butter cheese cut into strips. Crust lightly under the grill.
  9. Slice the leg and serve with the potatoes and tomatoes.

Useful additional knowledge

The platters should be preheated as the meat tastes best while hot.

With the tips for heating up spinach, you can enjoy too much spinach later with a good appetite. If you often serve yourself delicious spinach for lunch, then you won’t be able to complain about iron deficiency. But again and again, it happens that too much of a good meal was served. But that’s no reason to throw the healthy spinach in the trash as many do.

Is Spinach Healthy?

Spinach brings us an important building material for our body, namely iron. You should provide your body with enough iron, not only if you are striving for a figure of steel. The nitrate contained in spinach is also healthy. It widens the blood vessels and thereby lowers blood pressure.

Proper storage of spinach

Proper storage of spinach is in the refrigerator. But before the spinach goes into the fridge, it must be well cooled. To speed up the process, you can put it in a container and let it cool in cold water. Then, when the spinach has reached the desired temperature, place it in a covered container in the refrigerator.

So that the nitrate in the spinach does not become too much nitrite
If stored improperly, nitrate can form nitrite. In small amounts, this is completely harmless to adults.

As a result of the heating itself, only a small amount of nitrite is formed, as is also the case when smoking or grilling meat. This nitrite is usually eaten by us humans without any problems. Reheating should only be discouraged for small children because even the small amounts of nitrate formed can have a negative effect on the delicate body.

Reduce nitrate levels by blanching

However, you can also blanch your spinach before preparing it, thereby reducing its nitrate content by up to 70 percent. However, if the spinach is stored too warm, bacteria become active and convert the nitrate contained in the spinach into nitrite. However, this only causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in larger quantities.

This is how spinach is properly reheated

You should not keep the spinach for longer than a day. If you want to reheat the spinach the next day, that’s perfectly safe.

Whether in the microwave in the oven or in the pot, the spinach should be reheated at around 80 degrees Celsius for at least two minutes to prevent salmonella. didn’t get a chance to survive. Also, note useful tips for freezing and reheating mushrooms.

The opinion that spinach should not be reheated persists. However, one cannot say so in general terms.

That’s why reheating spinach is potentially dangerous

One of the main reasons reheating spinach is discouraged is because of the nitrate ingredient.
In itself, nitrate is harmless to humans. However, babies cannot tolerate the ingredient and can develop blue fever if they eat spinach. It becomes problematic if the spinach is left at room temperature for a long time. Then the nitrate can be converted into nitrite.
In connection with proteins, so-called nitrosamines, which are considered carcinogenic, can be formed. Because of this fact, you should definitely refrain from reheating unchilled spinach.

You can still reheat your spinach this way

However, if you keep the spinach in the fridge, you can safely reheat it the next day.
If you have leftover spinach, cover it with cling film and put it in the fridge as soon as possible. Then you can warm it up the next day without hesitation.
However, you should not keep the spinach for longer than a day, even under these conditions.
You should also reheat it at most once, not more often.

When it comes to sweets, most people realize that they are bad for your teeth. But who would have thought that the following foods would do the same?

1. Bad for your teeth: spinach, chard, beetroot and co.

Spinach, chard, beetroot, sorrel or rhubarb are true all-rounders in the kitchen. They provide us with valuable vitamins, such as vitamin K. Spinach and chard are also rich in potassium. However, the healthy all-rounders often cause teeth to feel rough after eating. This is due to the oxalic acid, which is found in relatively high concentrations in these foods.

Oxalic acid removes the calcium from the tooth and thus promotes erosion. In addition, oxalic acid inhibits the absorption of iron, magnesium and calcium from food. In addition, oxalic acid can be toxic in high concentrations.

Oxalic acid can promote the formation of kidney stones and should therefore be avoided by patients with kidney disease.

2. Bad for your teeth: honey

Honey is definitely a healthier option for the body than refined sugar. It has a positive effect on heart health and even lowers blood pressure. However, sweetening with inferior honey diluted with sugar is just as harmful to the teeth as sweetening with industrial sugar.

Due to the stickiness of the honey, it also sticks to the tooth for a particularly long time and can therefore cause tooth decay. According to the latest studies, the dental insurer Dentolo knows that high-quality natural honey works against the formation of caries-causing bacteria.

It contains so-called inhibe (inhibitors), which are actually quite good for dental health. In addition, high-quality, natural honey helps with gingivitis, as it has an antibacterial effect.

3. Bad for your teeth: smoothies

Smoothies are popular because they are so healthy. They provide many vitamins, minerals and fiber. However, smoothies have two factors in their luggage that are harmful to dental health: on the one hand, the sugar and, on the other hand, the fruit acid.

The ratings for so-called “ready-made smoothies” from the supermarket are the worst. You can read about it at Stiftung Warentest. Here it would be a better decision to make the smoothie yourself.

That way you can at least control the industrial sugar content. However, the fructose and acid remain and are harmful to the teeth. If you still don’t want to do without smoothies, green smoothies are the better choice. They are preferable to fruit-based smoothies for long-term dental health.

4. Bad for your teeth: juice spritzers

Regular drinking of supposedly healthy juice spritzers can severely attack the teeth due to the (fruit) sugar content and the acid it contains. Dental erosion can even go so far as to affect the dentin, i.e. the tooth bone, under the tooth enamel.

If you still don’t want to do without juice spritzers, you should rinse your mouth out with lukewarm water after drinking the spritzer to protect your teeth. Furthermore, the teeth should be brushed promptly after drinking the spritzer. If you wait too long, the fruit acid in the juice of the spritzer will roughen the enamel on your teeth.

If you then go over the tooth with the relatively hard toothbrush, you promote the abrasion of the tooth enamel. In addition, one can say at this point in a figurative sense that constant dripping wears away the stone. If you suck on a spritzer from a straw all day long, the risk of tooth decay increases significantly instead of emptying a glass of spritzer in one gulp.

5. Bad for your teeth: ready-made fruit yoghurts

In principle, ready-made fruit yoghurts shouldn’t be seen as a supposedly healthy snack, but as a hidden sweet that has a lot of sugar in it. In some ready-to-eat fruit yoghurts, the sugar content is so high that it accounts for half of the recommended daily amount.

In contrast, high-quality (natural) yoghurts are characterized by a lot of high-quality protein, calcium and saturated fatty acids. Due to the very high sugar content, ready-made fruit yoghurts can pose a risk of tooth decay and damage tooth enamel.

In addition, depending on the type and manufacturer, a certain percentage of acid is added, which also attacks the enamel. The consumer advice center has evaluated various ready-made fruit yoghurts for their health value and sugar content.

6. Bad for your teeth: Balsamic vinegar, black tea, beetroot, and soy sauce

Some healthy foods can severely stain our teeth. These include balsamic vinegar, which stimulates the metabolism, black tea, which lowers cholesterol, and the all-round beetroot, which has calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C, folic acid and iron in its luggage.

Soy sauce is low in calories and high in protein. However, these acidic foods roughen the tooth enamel and unsightly discolorations can be permanently deposited in the tooth enamel and form patches.

The controversial coffee also has this property. The same applies here: Rinsing your mouth with lukewarm water after eating helps to keep your teeth white.

7. Bad for your teeth: white wine and red wine

The article is actually about healthy food – but as so often in life, the quantity makes the poison: A good wine is not necessarily unhealthy. However, red wine and white wine can severely stain teeth.

But anyone who thinks that red wine stains the teeth much more due to its color and the pigments it contains is mistaken.

White wine is the more intensive cause of tooth discoloration, because it dissolves more calcium from deeper layers of the tooth. Ultimately, and in the long term, this leads to significantly stronger discoloration of the teeth than drinking red wine.

8. Bad for your teeth: spices

Spices support the body positively in every respect. They can inhibit cancer, lower blood pressure, have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system and much more. But spices such as curry, saffron or turmeric can also severely discolor teeth.

The unsightly discolouration is due to the high number of color pigments that leave a color film on the teeth. If the tooth enamel is already roughened before the spices are eaten, the color pigments can be stored permanently.

Ginger and mint can also stain teeth. As already mentioned, rinsing your mouth out with lukewarm water after consuming the spices also prevents ugly changes in the color of your teeth.

Many people know spinach primarily as a warm, creamy vegetable, but it is also delicious raw in a salad. Here you can find out when you can eat spinach raw and when you should be careful.

In addition to many healthy nutrients, spinach also contains oxalic acid. This binds calcium, iron and magnesium. Your body can therefore absorb less of the substances you eat if you have consumed oxalic acid. If you suffer from a deficiency of the substances mentioned or suffer from kidney stones, you should be careful with raw spinach.

Eat spinach raw to avoid oxalic acid

In particular, long-ripened, strong spinach leaves with a wavy structure contain a lot of oxalic acid. When cooking, some of the acid is released into the cooking water. If you drain the cooking water, the amount of acid will be reduced. However, nutrients also dissolve in the water, which are then also lost.

Young spinach leaves contain less oxalic acid. You can use them raw in salads or in smoothies. So no nutrients are lost. In addition, the consistency of the delicate, smooth leaves is more pleasant than that of the somewhat coarser, long-ripened leaves.

Nitrate in raw spinach

Spinach can be high in nitrates, especially during the darker months. This substance reacts in the body to form nitrite. Nitrite can turn into carcinogenic nitrosamines. In addition, nitrite inhibits oxygen uptake. The intake of nitrite can therefore be life-threatening, especially for children.

Nitrate is primarily contained in the stems and larger leaf veins as well as the outer leaves. When you remove these plant parts, you remove some of the nitrates. You should also eat spinach when it is still very fresh. This not only tastes better, but also ensures that microorganisms have less time to form nitrite.

Be sure to buy organic spinach, as organic farming doesn’t use nitrate fertilizer. Therefore, organic spinach usually contains less nitrate.

Healthy combinations with spinach

Since oxalic acid binds calcium, among other things, it is worth combining spinach with foods containing calcium. How about a delicious yoghurt dressing for the spinach salad? This not only tastes good, but also ensures that you don’t lose too much calcium.

To mitigate the risks of nitrate, for example, add lemon juice to the dressing and drink freshly squeezed orange juice. This is how you absorb vitamin C, which limits the formation of nitrosamines.

You don’t always have to season spinach with nutmeg, salt and pepper. With our spice combinations, you can vary the healthy spinach with herbs and various extras.

Spinach provides many vitamins and provides you with protein, and it also tastes good. It doesn’t matter whether you use the leafy greens fresh or use frozen spinach – we’ll show you how you can season it deliciously. Because with salt, pepper and nutmeg – anyone can do that. With our variations, spinach becomes a culinary highlight…

Seasoning spinach: 7 delicious flavors

You only need to warm up spinach from the freezer before you can season it with delicious spices. But fresh spinach is even better because it contains the most vitamins and nutrients. In addition, the CO2 balance is better with fresh spinach from the region, since refrigeration and long transport routes are no longer necessary. We recommend organic spinach to avoid unnecessary pesticides.

You can season spinach in seven flavors:

Classic: Spinach is most commonly served with sautéed onion and seasoned with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Cream: Creamed spinach is another classic in the kitchen. Add some garlic and (whipped) cream. You can find the whole recipe for creamed spinach in a detailed guide.
Curry: Prepare the spinach with coconut milk and a good curry powder or homemade curry paste, season with a little salt and pepper and you have a delicious curry spinach.
Hearty: Translucent steamed onions, blanched spinach and season with (rosy)hot paprika powder, ground cumin, black pepper, salt and some dried or fresh marjoram. This makes the spinach aromatic and spicy with a slightly sweet note.
Italian: Fry finely chopped garlic in a pan, add the spinach and one or two chopped tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon juice and your spinach dish with an Italian touch is ready. If you like, you can also add some gorgonzola, feta or parmesan and toasted sunflower or pine nuts.
Arabic: Fry finely chopped garlic with a little oil, add spinach, coriander and dill, season with pepper and salt. At the very end, add yoghurt or a vegan alternative and the Arabic-style spinach is ready.
Indian: In addition to onions and lots of garlic, the Indian version also includes chopped ginger and a bit of coconut oil in the spinach. The whole thing is then seasoned with coriander powder, garam masala, ground cumin and turmeric. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if necessary add some Indian cream cheese Panir – et voilà, the spinach dish is ready and will bring variety to the kitchen.

Spinach is very healthy – not only because of its iron content. Here’s everything you need to know about the nutrients in green leafy vegetables.

These nutrients make spinach healthy

Even natural sciences are not infallible. In 1890, the physiologist Gustav von Bunge determined the iron content of spinach to be 35 grams per 100 grams. However, he examined dried spinach. This is how the rumor came about that spinach was extraordinarily rich in iron. Because fresh spinach consists of 90 percent water and therefore only contains 3.5 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. However, this value is still high enough to make spinach an important source of iron. Nevertheless, spinach is very healthy.

According to Ingeborg Münzing-Ruef’s “Healthy Nutrition Course Book”, spinach contains several other vital vitamins in addition to iron, magnesium and zinc.

Spinach is rich in folic acid. This nutrient from the group of B vitamins is essential for cell maturation and cell division processes in your body.
Spinach is also rich in beta-carotene. Your body uses this to produce vitamin A, which is needed for cell renewal in the skin and mucous membranes. Carotenoids also have an antioxidant effect, which means that they protect your cells from free radicals.

Other vitamins in spinach include vitamin C and vitamin K.

healthy spinach: You should pay attention to that

Spinach is high in oxalic acid. This makes it harder for your body to absorb iron and other important nutrients. You can work around this problem with the following two options:
Blanch the spinach before cooking it. This reduces the oxalic acid content.
Calcium binds the oxalic acid in the stomach. That’s why it’s good to eat spinach with calcium-rich foods.
Some people are also critical of the nitrate content of spinach. Nitrate by itself is not particularly harmful to the adult body. However, the substance can convert to nitrite if you store the spinach incorrectly. Large amounts of nitrite are hazardous to health. That’s why some say you shouldn’t reheat spinach that’s already been cooked.

According to the BfR, the advantages of a diet rich in vegetables outweigh possible risks from slightly increased nitrate and nitrite levels. You should not do without spinach, but eat vegetables alternately.

Spinach is healthy

Conclusion: Spinach is healthy if you prepare it properly. And since the vegetables are in season from March to December, you can incorporate fresh spinach into your diet most of the year. Frozen spinach is also rich in healthy nutrients.

When buying, pay attention to organic quality – because conventional spinach is often contaminated with pesticide residues. When you cook spinach, don’t overheat it for too long.

Cleverly and effectively remove spinach stains. While spinach is healthy and delicious, spinach stains can be very stubborn. But you can remove spinach stains from clothes with simple home remedies.

If you got some spinach on your clothing or carpet, treat the stain quickly. In order for this to disappear completely, you can use home remedies for pre-treatment.

Remove stains successfully

Stains are very common in everyday life. If you’re not paying attention, something from lunch ends up on your favorite piece of clothing. If there are also foods that cause particularly stubborn stains, it is very annoying. For example spinach. Quickly reheat and eat the spinach. Then it happened the stain on the white T-shirt or your favorite pair of jeans. So that you can still enjoy the healthy spinach and remove stains, you should pretreat it immediately. Because then the chances of success are greater than the stain disappears completely. Also, note tips for removing carpet stains.

1) Remove spinach stains with raw potato

Before you put the laundry soiled with spinach in the washing machine, you should pretreat it with a raw potato. This will ensure that the stain is actually washed out. To do this, cut a potato in half and rub the affected area well with the cut patch. Then you can wash your clothes normally.

2) Pre-treat the stain with buttermilk

You can also remove spinach stains by soaking the affected garment in buttermilk. Then the buttermilk should soak up the green color. Then wash the clothes as usual. Also, read how to remove carrot and carrot stains.

3) Remove spinach stains with gall soap

The gall soap is an effective home remedy for stains of all kinds. You can also rub the spinach stain with gall soap and pretreat it. Then let the whole thing soak for about 15 minutes and then put it in the washing machine. Gall soap is also a good home remedy for grass stains.

4) Alcohol against stains

If you want to remove a stubborn spinach stain, you can put some rubbing alcohol on it. But only if they are not sensitive substances, as the alcohol is corrosive. Depending on the size of the stain, one or two drops will suffice. You can then wash the clothes normally. Also, note that you can get rid of wax stains and remove cream stains from fabrics.

5) Washing soda to remove spinach stain

Laundry soda is an environmentally friendly alternative to other cleaning products. Accordingly, you need to mix the soda with water and let it soak the affected clothes. Then wash as usual and the spinach stain is gone.