Wednesday 21 May 2014

Contrasting Crunch


Fizzy has a point to make

Here's a tip from Fizzy the unofficial Let's Get Physical! maggot...I mean mascot:-

He sings the praises of frozen spinach. It's cheap, nutritious, easy to prepare, and delicious. It's available everywhere but a good buy is Sainsbury's 2 kilos for £2.50 - see here. Fresh leaves in a bag will cost you about five times that price per kilo but nice for salads.

You can grow spinach easily in the garden - or try perpetual spinach: it's a bit coarser but keeps coming which is handy.

But actually frozen spinach is a great product which loses almost nothing from not being fresh; and one of the useful qualities of spinach is that it has a substantial, almost meaty texture and taste so you can make a satisfying meal without gobbling down too many calories.

A classic for breakfast, lunch or dinner is spinach on toast with a poached egg on top: just follow the instructions to heat up the spinach (and you may need to squeeze out a bit of water and roughly chop it up), poach your egg and away you go - lovely yoke oozing sensuously through the spinach and the contrasting crunch of the toast. Mmm.

There are recipes which call for olive oil or parmesan but Fizzy is adamant that you should resist such continental frippery and stick to the UKIP version - just add a little salt and pepper to taste.

If you are a bit daunted about poaching eggs try this link and pick your method. But whatever you do don't microwave your egg unless you want it to bounce off the plate - microwaves have many valuable uses but eggs aren't one of them.

Spinach is good for you. Note in particular it's a source of calcium and vitamin A as well (famously) iron. For the record it also contains vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, vitamin B2, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids (for which there is some evidence of a useful effect on Bipolar Disorder - and it's in your poached egg too!).

The wise readers of this Blog will already know that the concept of "superfoods" (wondrous stuff which miraculously prolongs life) is a deception put around by cranky health food shopkeepers - but the nearest real thing to the concept is probably spinach.

Thanks, Fizzy.

And here's another advocate of spinach...