Spanakorizo - Greek Spinach Rice

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Spanakorizo - Greek Spinach Rice

Spanakorizo is a Greek dish with spinach and rice. It’s really easy to make, and incredibly nutritious, making it an excellent vegetarian main course.

Prep Time3

Cook Time20

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Greek, Mediterranean

Keyword: lemon, rice, spinach, vegan, vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 317kcal

Author: Tonje

Cost: Cheap

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
2 cup water
2 lbs spinach
2 onion
2 garlic clove
1 lemon (juice only)
2 tablespoon fresh dill
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt
pepper

Instructions

Start by finely grating the garlic and dicing the onion.
Heat half of the olive oil in a pot, then add the spinach. Cook while stirring and turning the leaves until the spinach wilts. As you will be starting with a large amount of spinach, you might want to split it up in several batches.
Set the wilted spinach to the side in a separate bowl. The amount of spinach will have reduced significantly now.
In the same pot, heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil, and add the diced onion. Saute for a few minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent. Then, add the garlic and saute for another minute.
Add the wilted spinach, rice, cumin and water to the pot. Bring it to a boil on high heat, then reduce it to low. Leave it to simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes (check the package instructions of the rice), or until all the water is absorbed by the grains. Do a taste test to make sure that the rice has cooked through completely.
Then, add the lemon juice and chopped fresh dill to the rice. Give it a stir and leave it for another 1-2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, then serve.

Notes

Leftovers

Leftover spanakorizo can be stored in a refrigerator for up to 3 days.

The dish can be enjoyed warm or cold. Reheat it in a microwave or in a stockpot on the stove top until it’s warm throughout, or serve it chilled straight from the refrigerator.

I would not recommend freezing spanakorizo, as the rice and spinach can get a very unpleasant texture after thawing. You can however prepare the spinach, onion and garlic, and freeze this. Then, you can thaw the wilted spinach later, and simply add water and rice for a quick and easy spanakorizo. Perfect for using up a surplus of spinach!

Top tips

Here are my top tips to make the best spanakorizo:

Cook the spinach and rice on a low heat. This will ensure that the dish has the ideal texture, and prevent it from burning.
After you add the rice to the pot, you should avoid removing the lid before it’s cooked through. Taking the lid off too often could make the rice dry.
Although frozen spinach can be used, you will get a far better result if you use fresh spinach.
The recipe calls for a LOT of spinach, but keep in mind that the vegetable reduces in size when it cooks.

Nutrition