This spinach and rice recipe known in Greek as “spanakorizo”, is one of the recipes that I am most often asked to share. It tastes as delicious as it is easy to make and my children are wild about it.
You can enjoy this dish as an entrée topped with feta or as a side, which pairs well with nearly everything. Also, there is leeway with the ingredients. The traditional recipe calls for rice. However, if you prefer a different to use a different grain like quinoa, you can mix things up as long as you adjust the amount of water to correspond to the grain used.
With respect to the spinach, you can use fresh, frozen, whole leaf, or chopped. I prefer to use fresh whole leaf spinach for this recipe but it isn’t always available year round and frozen chopped spinach tastes just as good.
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (divided)
- 1 pound spinach
- 1/2 cup fresh chopped dill
- 1 cup rice
- 4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
Preparation
- Peel and chop the onion
- Cook the onion with a 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until the onions begin to soften
- Add the spinach, dill, rice, water, salt, remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil and tomato paste and stir together
- Simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is fully cooked
- If needed, add water during the cooking process
- The spinach and rice should be thick without being dry. If too watery, raise the fire to evaporate some of the water. If too dry, add water 1/4 cup at a time until the desired consistency is reached and simmer for an additional 5 minutes
