Love and Olive Oil

Fresh Spinach with Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

This was, well, interesting. I thought it had a nice flavor. The garlic yogurt really pulled it all together. Next time we’ll pre-cook the rice though – it took much longer than the 10 minutes in the recipe and use much more than a few tablespoons of water before the rice was even close to tender. By that time our spinach was so far beyond wilted… so much for ‘fresh’ spinach!

Excuse the bad photo… like I said, the spinach was overcooked. It’s better than it looks! I promise!

Fresh Spinach with Garlic-Yogurt Sauce
Fresh Spinach with Garlic-Yogurt Sauce

Recipe from Bon Appetit. Makes 6 side/appetizer size servings. Maybe we should stop trying to turn intended appetizers into main courses, eh?

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
4 dried chilies de arbol
1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach leaves (four 6oz bags), divided
1 1/2 tablespoons uncooked medium-grain white rice
2 garlic cloves
6 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir 1 minute. Add chiles and 1/3 of spinach. Cook until spinach wilts, adding remaining spinach in 2 additions and tossing often, about 4 minutes.

Mix in rice. Cover and simmer until rice is tender and moisture from spinach is absorbed, adding water by tablespoonfuls if needed for rice, about 10 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook until mixture is dry, about 2 minutes. Discard chilies.

Meanwhile, press garlic cloves into small bowl, stir in yogurt, and season with salt and pepper. Melt butter with 1 tablespoon oil in small skillet. Mix in cayenne and remove from heat.

Spread spinach mixture on platter; make indentations with back of spoon. Spoon yogurt into indentations and drizzle with cayenne butter.

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