Monday, February 7, 2011

You gotta eat your spinach baby!

Well, those scientists have done it again - as outlined in this article spinach has been found to be good for you...as we thought all along. As it turns out, it's not the iron that makes it so special but rather, the nitrates. Admittedly, I can't understand the scientific explanation for this but apparently the benefits can be cancelled out by mouthwash - weird hey?

I love hearing this because spinach has proved to be, in my experience, an excellent hiding vegetable. I quite like to sneak it into all things containing mince like spaghetti bolognese, chilli con carne, shepherds pie, and even an unconventional san choy bau.

Here is the shepherd's pie recipe that has been working for us lately - enjoy!

Eleanor's sneaky spinach shepherd's pie

Ingredients
500 grams lean mince beef
half a jar of low salt pasta sauce (we use Stromboli)
One handful spinach finely chopped
2 cups mashed potato
1 handful grated cheese

Recipe
Heat the oven to 180 degrees
Brown the mince in a saucepan and add the pasta sauce
Simmer for 15 mins then add chopped spinach
Pour mince mixture into a pie dish and cover with mashed potato
Sprinkle with grated cheese
Bake in over for 30mins or until golden on the top

1 comment:

  1. I love the way spinach, chopped really finely, goes under the radar. I think it's because it looks like parsley, which is acceptable to both my children!

    I have a recipe for brownies which uses a spinach and blueberry puree. Spinach brownies! And they actually taste really good!

    ReplyDelete