Spinach Pesto
We’re still getting early, greenhouse spinach from a few small farms at the Co-op.
Baby spinach soon to become pesto (you can use baby spinach or regular leaves).
The spinach is “on again, off again” for the next 2-3 weeks, according to Produce Asst. Manager Jason Pappas. After that, we should see a steady spring-time supply of the good green stuff, so there’s no reason not to pick up a bag!
The local spinach has been so good, and the weather so warm (though not today!) that my taste buds have been tricked into thinking it’s high summer, and pesto weather.
Spinach pesto is really delicious. It does taste a lot like basil pesto, and if you throw in a few basil leaves, the resemblance is even more uncanny. When we make this in the winter or early spring, we often throw in parsley leaves instead; either way you get a bit of zing (you can also make spinach pesto without other herbs).
If you follow nutrition news, you will have noticed the great spinach debate initiated a few years ago: The question on the table (so the speak!) is whether raw spinach is difficult for our bodies to digest, and needs to be lightly blanched in order to partially break down the nutrients properly for absorption. It seems that spinach contains oxalic acid, a compound that can be irritating to the intestines when consumed raw, and also reduces our ability to absorb calcium and iron. (Spinach is rich in minerals, which is why we’re supposed to eat it. Thinking about this, I have often wondered about where spinach pesto falls in the nutrition ratings, because it just seems so…..healthy!
For a little while, I did an experiment where I lightly blanched the spinach before putting it in the blender. This was not very good, as the resultant pesto was watery and….blech, as Nikolas would say. Now I’m back to stuffing handfuls of washed, raw spinach directly into the blender, but with this rationale: The heat of the blade processing all that spinach, combined with the heat of the hot pasta I pour over it, must be cooking the spinach somewhat, just enough to render it digestible, maybe even perfectly digestible! That’s my reasoning, anyway, though really the taste is what keeps me making it.
I don’t want to bore you with the other health benefits of pesto, but let me just say these words: raw garlic, raw olive oil, a few drops of raw lemon juice (if you have it), raw nuts or seeds. Cheese optional. And one last note on nuts and seeds: There’s another nutrition debate about raw nuts and seeds that runs similar to the spinach debate, only this one involves whether the nuts/seeds need to be soaked and sprouted to make them digestible. I haven’t been able to pull that off as a regular kitchen habit, but I discovered a couple of things: First, the Co-op carries sprouted almonds in the Bulk section (lately out of stock, also quite expensive). Second, sprouting your own sunflower seeds is a cinch, and simply involves letting them soak overnight in a little water. You can eat them just like that, or – put them in pesto! Sunflower seeds are by far the cheapest option among the nuts for pesto, so this has lately seemed like a healthy and affordable way to go.