Garlicky sautéed spinach
A mountain of spinach wilts down in two minutes into a silky, garlicky side, the quickest green thing you can put next to dinner.
- 10 min total
- 10 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $3.33 a serving
- 130 calories
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: It’s ready in 10 minutes, start to finish.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 3 cloves garlic
- 10 oz baby spinach
- ¼ lemon
From your pantry
- 1½ tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
Each serving has about 130 calories, 4 g protein, 7 g carbs and 11 g fat, and costs about $3.33 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the garlic.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Put the oil and garlic in a large , set it over medium heat, and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the garlic sizzles and turns pale .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Starting garlic in cool oil gives you more time before it can burn.Add the spinach a big handful at a time, with tongs and letting each handful a little before adding more.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: It looks like far too much. It shrinks to almost nothing.Cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until it’s all just and bright green.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
with the salt, squeeze the lemon over, add the pepper flakes if you like, and serve right away.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
