Spanakorizo (spinach and rice)


Spinach and Rice (Spanakórizo)

Cook:  20 minutes

Prep: 20 minutes

Servings: 4-6

 

Spinach and rice is a hearty side-dish or main dish with crumbled feta on top for some protein. Additional herbs such as dill or mint may be added to taste.

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups water

¼ cup olive oil

1-pound fresh spinach

1 cup long grain rice

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce

1/2 lemon, juiced0

 

In a large sauce pan, sauté onion in olive oil until tender. Add rice and sauté for a few minutes more. Add tomato sauce, water, spinach and cover sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then lower temperature to simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Squeeze half a lemon over dish. Add salt and pepper to taste. 


Background and variations


I made spinach and rice for dinner tonight - 

a dish I loved while growing up  

    I use to make this spinach and rice dish when I moved out of my parent's home, but it never tasted right.  There was always too much fluid.  When I made it tonight using the recipe from the original Long Beach Greek Festival Cookbook, I cut down the water in the recipe to one cup of water and used an 8 oz. can of diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce because that is all I had available and really liked it.  However, as a friend mentioned,  tomato paste is often used- just giving it a slight tomato favor which you can do, too.  This made me wonder if tomatoes are truly ubiquitous to Greek cooking,  as I had always believed.

        Tomatoes didn't became pronounce in Greek cooking until the mid-1800's even though tomatoes arrived earlier via Columbus. Agliai Kremezi very astutely writes in a 2010 Atlantic article, "... Greek cuisine and most cuisines of the southern Mediterranean, stubbornly stick to regional traditions and change very slowly".* 

*https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/07/tomato-a-latecomer-that-changed-greek-flavor/60436/



    Once I used Calavita diced tomatoes and found them less sweet than canned Contadina diced tomatoes. You can add spice of choice. I used 2 tablespoons of a dried Greek seasoning mix that a friend of Olympia Stapakis makes in Mason City, Iowa.   Another variation would be to add a bit  of tomato paste plus some sugar. 

    I wonder why I never asked my Mom about why two cups of water and one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce was used in the original recipe in the cookbook when even the directions for making rice on the Uncle Ben's box calls for a total of two cups fluid- my loss.!!!!



 


 

 

 

 


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