great tastes. great stories.
Spinach with rice can be made with or without meat, it’s the garlic and the fresh coriander which pack the flavour into this popular Lebanese dish. Sadly this photograph doesn’t do it justice, but it is comforting and so simple to make. It requires a fair mountain of spinach. You’ll need to find the large, dark green leaves, not salad spinach. Wash them briefly, keeping the stalks, but chop them roughly so that they wilt easily.
Once the spinach has reduced in size, in a separate frying pan, gently fry the garlic and chopped coriander leaves in some Zejd extra virgin olive oil. Adding this to the stew right at the end, and allowing the aromas to infuse in the spinach pan, is the key to the wonderful flavour of the dish. In our house, we serve this with Lebanese rice – which is rice cooked with vermicelli gently fried in oil and butter. But feel free to serve it with plain rice or bulgur wheat. Just before eating, squeeze some lemon juice over the spinach, this helps your body absorb the iron.
It heats up well the next day if there are any leftovers.
serves 4
1 tbsp Zejd extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
250g lamb mince
750g spinach, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground all spice
1/4 tsp nutmeg, grated
1/4 tsp black pepper freshly ground
pinch of cayenne
2 tbsp Zejd extra virgin olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed with a little salt
25g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
lemon to taste
Serve on top of rice or bulgur wheat.
