I am not a winter gardener. I just can’t bring myself to battle with the frost and ice and mud that we get here over winter, so I pretty much give up gardening during the colder months.
But despite crazy icy mornings this year, and total and utter neglect, good old reliable spinach is growing like a weed out in my garden at the moment, and we’ve been eating it in everything for months!
How to Grow Spinach
We grow Perpetual Spinach (Beta vulgaris). This variety is easy to grow, survives a hot summer, self seeds willingly, and you can harvest it again and again as it grows.
We’ve also tried Bloomsdale Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and this spring I’m giving some climbing spinach (Basella rubra) a go, but I’ve found the perpetual spinach is easiest to grow, even for black thumbs.
Sow spinach seeds directly into the garden bed, in a sunny position, at any time of year, I find the seeds seem to germinate best for during late summer or early autumn and then I have lots of spinach all through winter and spring. Spinach likes lots of water, and you’ll need to protect it from snails and slugs.
You can also grow spinach very nicely in pots if you don’t have a garden.
Super Spinach Recipes
On it’s own cooked spinach is kinda boring, but it combines really well with loads of different flavours and ingredients, it adds a nice nutrient boost, and a bit of colour, so I put it in just about everything at this time of the year!
Wash and dry your spinach well before cooking then just chop up some fresh leaves and chuck a handful into your spag bol, or chili, or curry.
Or, add some garlic and olive oil to a hot pan, pop in the spinach, and cook until it has just wilted and softened. Then use it in a variety of recipes or as a side dish with a little salt.
If your kids are not used to greenery in their meals, chop the spinach finely to begin with and combine it with flavours they love. If you get them involved in growing the spinach and they will hopefully be more likely to give it a try!
These are our twelve favourite kid-friendly spinach recipes:
Images from left to right.
- Beef and Spinach Burgers
- Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake from Joyously Domestic
- Nut Free Spinach Basil Pesto from Two Peas and Their Pod (just stir this through a bowl of pasta and dinner is ready!)
- Spinach Pasta Bake
- Creamy Tomato Spinach Pasta from Budget Bytes (we use sour cream instead of cream cheese and it’s just as good)
- Spinach Burgers from The Domestic Mama and The Village Cook.
- Cheesy Spinach Bites from Super Healthy Kids
- Spinach Muffins from Mess For Less (A great way to colour cakes bright green naturally!)
- Spinach and Potato Slice
- Spinach and ricotta rolls from Yellow Dandy
- Ham cheese and spinach muffins from Learn With Play at Home
- Spinach Wraps from Katie at the Kitchen Door.
I have one turning up his nose at ‘green things’ in his food at the moment. But I persevere.
I like to add it onto pizza, I finely shred it and put it after the tomato paste but before the other toppings.
oh pizza! Great idea!
Thanks for the tip about the varieties – last summer we grew Ceylon spinach which wasn’t particularly nice – kind of tough so not good raw. I’ll give the perpetual a go. Do you buy seeds from Diggers or similar or just the packets from Bunnings/supermarket? We have lots of rocket and silverbeet this year and I’ve been shoving them in everything, particularly soups. Works well in minestrone and dried bean & ham hock soup, it just wilts down to nothing. Also mashed potatoes are delicious with some greenery wilted in a frypan with garlic and then stirred through. I’ve been having a few guilty mashed potato lunches when no one else is home or awake!
I buy my seeds from Diggers at the moment. I find I have better success with them than any others. I also really like Eden Seeds, but I think because they come from warm Queensland and I live in freezing Victoria some of their varieties just don’t do as well for me.
We love silverbeet too… you can sub that for spinach in just about anything too!
Yum to the Pesto and Spinach Burgers, we eat a lot of Baby Spinach in our house, yet I don’t often serve any other variety for fear of the turned up noses. Great recipe selection, I will start experimenting. x
I’ve explained to my kids that things like spinach and zucchini take on the flavours of other foods really well, so you don’t really taste them. This explanation has helped even my picky eater give spinach a go, though it it’s not always a success… but at least she tries it! Good luck!
I’ve just realised what I’ve got perpetual spinach growing. We didn’t know what it was and the kids tipped heaps of packets of seeds into the garden.
You think hiding the green stuff will do the trick getting kids eating it, but they can’t be fooled! I really like the spinach burger idea, I am sure they are super juicy and tasty! And although the ham cheese and spinach muffins are green, it’s kinda cool! Very eye catching and sure to win the kids’ appetites :)
I actually don’t believe in hiding anything in my kids’ food. I think it is counter productive to try and trick kids or lie to them about what they are eating. This post of mine talks about it more – https://picklebums.com/why-i-dont-hide-veggies-in-my-kids-food/
But I do think that if someone is not used to having spinach in their food, or is a bit unsure, chopping it finely to begin with is a good way to introduce both the idea and the flavour. And yes the green muffins are really cool… my kids love them because you just don’t expect a muffin to be green! LOL
You’re totally right. You want them to grow up having a healthy relationship with all types of food, hiding it is never a good idea and is most likely not going to be received well by the child :P
Thank you sharing that great post. Very interesting! And so true… definitely not a long term solution and what an exhausting exercise!