Korean Spinach

This dish is inspired by one of my favorite dishes from the all natural grocery I sort of co-owned back in Ithaca. I don't know if this is, in fact, a Korean dish or if just the flavors are inspired by Korean food, but the resulting concoction is amazing and fairly impossible to mess up. Plus it's great warm or cold, so make a huge batch and keep in the fridge for a healthy snack.

Once again I refer to the lists from Alton Brown's "Live and let Diet" episode of Good Eats. in his "Eat Daily" list, dark leafy greens were listed. Dark leafy greens, as opposed to pale almost white iceberg lettuce. Oh, iceberg has its place due to the refreshingly high water content and crisp fork friendly crunch, but there's not a whole lot to it beyond that. And there's nothing wrong with a fabulous Caesar salad with crunchy Romaine lettuce. In fact, that is my go to salad of choice in order to avoid getting iceberg at a restaurant when they don't mention what kind of greens are in their salad on the menu. You just can't make a Caesar without Romaine. 

The dark green color denotes the nutritional powerhouse presence of a bonafide Super Food!

Now, spinach cooks down to almost nothing and you want some leftovers to try this dish cold too, so scale the recipe up as needed. I've given you the recipe for using one lb of spinach which might feed only one person if they really dig their greens. Also, feel free to substitute the chili sesame oil for regular toasted sesame oil if you don't want the spicy kick.

• 1 lb fresh spinach (baby leaves won't need their stems removed)
• 1 small shallot, diced
• 3 T soy sauce (I recommend using reduced sodium tamari)
• 1 T chili sesame oil (this has a very wonderful, but strong flavor and a little goes a long way. If you don't want the spice, use the regular toasted sesame oil)
• 1 T toasted sesame seeds
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 1 inch peeled and diced fresh ginger

In as large of a pan as you have, heat the sesame oil over medium heat and add in the garlic and ginger and shallot. Stir to combine and spread around the pan, you don't really need to cook this for any length of time. Add in the soy sauce and stir to combine.

Drop the heat to medium low and try to work fast. Add in the spinach in large handfuls at a time. I find it helpful to use tongs as the bottom will cook, you flip over so the top leaves can cook as well. The bulk will decrease dramatically. As soon as there is room in the pan add in another large handful using the same turning technique until all of the leaves are incorporated. Remove from the heat and add in the sesame seeds, stir lightly to incorporate throughout the salad.

Eat immediately or refrigerate for a cold salad.