Eating fresh spinach will keep you strong and it’s so easy to grow. Adam Frost shares how to do it, while Cassie Best from Good Food magazine offers up some tasty recipe ideas.
Get more gardening advice and inspiration at GardenersWorld.com:
https://www.gardenersworld.com/
Right Cassie spinach Char and let’s open it up other leaves right spinach for me straight away cartoon papy’s in trouble the big Fell’s got hold of him the can comes out he pops it it goes up in the air it drops in and then it’s on the world yep are
You old enough to that oh yeah oh that’s right I feel a little bit better that was my childhood so that my first experience of of spinach yeah spinach in a can and and spinach that was going to make you strong enough to Take On The
World yeah and then I tasted it as a kid and when now this is not really for me went downhill it did downhill from there but all joking aside that as an image you know spinach child is incredibly good for us isn’t it it is yeah we all
Think of spinach as iron and dense don’t we it’s packed with nutrients and phytochemicals it can help to dampen inflammation and alleviate muscle soreness it’s just really good and we’re all told that we should eat more greens and there’s a good reason for it it’s it’s really full of the good stuff and
Actually interestingly again you know let’s go back you know it was when I first started vegie garding even chard you know there was a little bit of char kicking around but not anything like there is now I suppose in the cooking world it was wasn’t it not so much
Charge you know and and but growing wise I mean now we’re talking this you do well you do really well to fail with Perpetual spinach or chard and no don’t shoot me down anybody if you know you’ve tried it’s not worked but containers it’s Ry in a container some
Of the leaves looks stunning um especially if you can get a mix of like the rainbow chards yeah and out of one you can have these sort of dark Rich Reds and then right through to sort of glowing go and these stems are absolutely incredible and and and spinach again Perpetual spinach Cuts
Comes again so after pots borders put it in the borders put it in the borders you know I am expecting at some point to rock house for the dinner party that I know you’re going to invite me to and see you having an ornamental kitchen
Garden cuz happen yeah I think I think a lot of what we’ve talked about you know growing it let’s just think about growing it in a veg Garden you know and um and I I think that’s sort of inting but it’s it’s easy to grow and I’ll
Talking as to you know how you go about it but but what about you what about sort of first visions of of spinach and yeah I think same as you popey would relate it to poy and just think you know that’s going to make me strong that will
And I even say it to my Eat Your Spinach that will make you strong because it’s so ingrained in me um but I can’t say I ate a lot of it growing up I remember my mom making a spinach Soule once which I think was a
Disaster actually I think it was a real you know like an old deia recipe or something that she cook for a dinner party and it all went you know terribly wrong so that wasn’t wasn’t a great first memory of it but um I love it now it’s you know something that’s pretty
Much always in my kitchen and I cook with it and it’s interesting isn’t it cuz I think it’s it’s another one of those veggies um even if you don’t grow it you know when we were talking about peas frozen peas I think another frozen veg to keep
Around is frozen spinach which I don’t think we do enough of I couldn’t agree more there’s always a bag of frozen spinach in my freezer and as long as you cook it in a sympathetic way to being frozen you know I even tuck it in smoothies my kids love a green smoothie
Spinach and banana um in a curry a sagalo it it actually benefits from being frozen CU you want it to be broken down so there’ss of great ways you can use frozen spinach as well yeah and exactly cuz I mean sometimes as well if you go and buy spinach think that you’re buying
A lot of spinach and you get home you actually haven’t bought that much spinach nothing it’s sort of you know it sort of steams down really quite quickly yeah but it’s it is a plant it is something that I use a lot and every single member of the family will get
Stuck into to spinach so as say as far as growing it I suppose again it’s not unlike you know some of greens and whatever it will take a certain amount of shade you know semi- Shady conditions i’ also always make sure you know if I’m
Planting in the ground um it goes into a well composted you know good soil um quite free draining um that said I never really want my sort of large leaves to to run out of water if that makes sense so I’ll always keep an eye on the water
As a season but it’s it’s a plant that I definitely do from seed and I sew so it’s one of those you know you create your little drill um probably really spring I mean I I right through the season realistically you know um and I it cuts it comes again but then I
Freshen it up every now and then and start a new one and and sometimes I’ll over winter if we have a mile winter it’ll over winter and I’m still and I let it again the next spring so sometimes you can get more than one season out of the plants and eventually
They get a bit Woody um but no but you you create your little drill probably two 2 and a half centm deep water the bottom of that drill your watering can and then you sew the seeds I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it go to seed but
They’re quite they’re quite big seeds they like little knobbly little things so you can see exactly where you’re going it will tell you on the packets to sew thinly and but you just tuck it in right you got you got it you got it goes
Back to the same thing is you know it tells you to do this D’s only ever a guide it’s another one of those things I have seen it grown in window boxes yeah you know and and I think that that’s the key with this the rules are like we’re
Not call them rules you know I think it’s a bit like you know they guidance it’s like cooking isn’t it it’s like following a recipe and you know you can follow it as a guidance like you say but it’s okay to the rule sometimes I think
This is what I’m learning from you it’s really encouraging me to give things a go cuz I feel like you’re allowing me to just Chuck a few seats down see what happens but that’s exactly what it is and in excitement I I sort of I Us in my
Sort of images um sometimes I mean I I love going to places like Italy and I Always Feel Like rules and regulations in Italy are only just purely a suggestion not actually actually you know they sort of and I Ed that same thing you know I pick a packet up it
Tells me to do X I read the season I think yeah there’s some warmth in the soil now the soil’s a bit cold if I want to start early with my spinage I might start in container if not it’s going straight in once it goes in you know I
Cover it back over germination once the weather starts to pick up I mean we’re talking a couple of weeks you know and what you can do if you want you can let it come you could then thin it properly and what I mean by that is start to
Space out the plants you know probably I don’t know what ever anything from sort of 40 50 cm to 100 cm depending on how much but all those thinnings could be used as baby spinach you know so you could use all those and then start to
Let it mature and I literally I work my way at with the spinach I work my way across the across the row so I I sort of cut the whole lot you know I’m working my way across it and then by the time I get to the end this slot’s coming up
Again so I I don’t necessarily go in and do again what they tell you to do pulling the bigger leaves off I do a whole thing and then for me I get a nice mix of the slightly older leaves and I get a mix of the baby leaves you know
The baby leaves don’t even need the scenters taken out of them whereas you know your older leaves you might just have to strip them back but it’s another one of those nice jobs just pulling them off you know that’s the beauty again of growing your own is that you get variety
Not everything’s the same shape and same color you get a bit of different texture going on yeah you do which is lovely so spinach it was an easy an easy win with spinach cuz I mean it’s quick enough to do quick you know it’s reliable midweek
Dish yeah yeah I think it’s the kind of thing people Chuck a handful of spinach into lots of different things don’t they you might Chuck a handful into a curry or a pasta dish because it’s so good for you and I think we’re all very keen to
Get more greens into our diet we know that it’s super healthy um so there’s loads of different ways you can use it I mentioned sagalo which is one of my favorite ways to eat spinach cuz it’s really it makes the most of spinach isn’t it it’s lovely and Rich and green
Um so I love Yeah making a a spinach Curry out of it what I also love to do with spinach is something we talked about with cavalon Nero yeah where you make a puree and then you can use it in lots of different ways so I now make uh
Like spinach pancakes for the kids green pancakes and they think it’s really fun and they don’t realize they’re getting loads of nutrients in their pancakes I call them little monster pancakes bright green just P so your modern popey it’s not tins anymore mate it’s knocking up with the pancakes you
It freezes really well you know we talked about having frozen spinach in the in the freezer but if you if you’re growing your own and you want to freeze it puree is a really good way to go and then you can use it in loads of different ways stir that through a
Risoto at the end and the color would just amazing that vibrant green um yeah gorgeous yeah cuz I I I use it I suppose a lot I do use it with with pasta dishes in in the week if I’m knocking up something really quick they’re always an instant fix I also find sometimes
Actually um just a really simple when we said about pairing things up um I don’t know if it sound sounds odd but it seems to work sometimes if I do a some spinach I might just do it with a few shots or whatever um I’ll finish it off with
Nutmeg yeah oh yeah that’s a classic spinach nutmeg is a match made in heaven and it really it’s amazing it really does work yeah and again it’s just taking that dish and just putting a a Twist on it and it you know what else works really well simple spinach dish is
If you fry off a little bit of garlic and olive oil add your spinach let it Wilt down and then you add some raisins and some toasted pine nuts and a splash of cherry vinegar and it sounds like a bit of a strange combination it does and
The sour and the iony spinach it’s delicious where would that have originate from something like that that dish probably southern Italy maybe you know the the islands around Italy maybe that kind of feel to it yeah wow from sort of spinach we move on to you know something like
Chard you know and and I thought Spar was growing it do any different you know I suppose the one thing that I might do you know if I think about the different places I grow it cuz I do grow quite a lot of it because again for me
It’s something that really doesn’t I don’t have to worry about pets bits and pieces it gets pretty left alone um so I’ll start somehow in the raised bed and then you know that cuz that warmer quicker and I might fleece that over and then I’ll go into the main sort of veg
Garden but but chard um I normally start just after the spinach I don’t know why it’s maybe just something that i’ you know sort of take myself in that road but but what I love about Chard is is the mix of stuff and I think that the
Bit that always I’m never 100% because again that a lot of the taste in that CH is is in that rib in the stalk but but I’m never 100% sure what to do with the stalk yeah so don’t chut the stalk away don’t like you said so much flavor in it and even
Earlier you said about stripping the the spinach leaves and getting rid of the stalk but I would never get rid of the stalk I think there there are tougher parts of the veg and as long as they’re not spoiled there’s ways to cook them which are which will enhance them so
Think about it like meat you know you get tough cuts of meat and then tender cuts of meat and you cook them in different ways and it’s the same with veg I will say me spinach bits don’t go waste cuz oh good cuz my my two girls R
Horses Don’t They so anything like that any peelings off carrots anything it goes in like goes in a backet and then they take them down the hores you know horses are having a great s they’re having a lunch um so I would do with the stalks is just chop them up finally and
Fry them off same with the chard um you want you just want to treat them in a slightly different way obviously the leaves cook you know within seconds they Wilt down really quickly you don’t want to overcook them but the stalks just take a little bit longer yeah so you
Know just if you’re having a simple kind of fried spinach charred D cook those first and then add the leaves in at the last minute we’ve got a couple of um gorgeous grat hands actually on the good feed website remember when I first started working here
I don’t think I’d eaten much chard and um Barney who I work with brought out this this charred Grattan with cream and Nutmeg and Grier and breadcrumbs on top and honestly it was like one of the best things I’d ever eaten it blew my mind
Yes I still think about it over 10 years later pleasure this like do you think the two taste different I don’t think there’s a lot in it really no I think maybe maybe spinach I would eat more raw whereas CH has a bit more bitterness in
Ra do and you get the sense that I don’t know again it might be a psychological thing but the chard Leaf it not t the wrong word but it does seem there’s more body to it more robust isn’t it yeah there’s a sort of it feels slightly thicker yeah I would agree yeah
But you can I mean it is interchangeable in lots of dishes isn’t there you can both but Chard is I mean it’s just such a beautiful thing the rainbow charge it’s so beautiful isn’t it that like brazed off with some lentils or something if you you know really make
The the stalks the hero of the dish it just looks so lovely yeah and I think again what you’re saying you know it’s it is definitely another one of those doesn’t have to be in a veg Garden yeah you know that this definitely going in your ornamental kitchen Garden you know
I’ve always had this like Vision that one day I would be that person who had a veg Garden outside and I would cook all my meals from my veg garden and I think you’ll help me to slowly become that person good good I’m going to mix it all
In with my you know my flower beds like you said I i’ I’d sort of encourage people to do that so I mean they’re both good hardworking plants really easy to grow you know if I was going to do it in a container um and I suppose this is a
Lot when we talk about container veggies what you might find is I might make a a bit of a a mixup so I wouldn’t just necessarily just use peep free compost I might put a little bit of top soil in or depends if free draining I might add a
Little bit of gravel just to help free drain it a little bit you know or if I know it needs to hold moisture I might put off a tangent a bit but but actually I think it’s this will help you CU you’ll put all of the programs together
And it’ll help um I don’t just use just straight compost a lot of the time I think what does a plant want where’s it where would it be happy in its natural environment and then I have like I have like a baking cupboard type scenario with with compost so I’ll have peep free
Compost I have normally have some top kicking around I’ll have some composted bark probably some grit a little bit Horticultural sand which is sort of lime free sand and then something called perlite and vermiculite you’ve heard me talk about Vermiculite for covering up seeds well that’s just like a particle
And that keeps the moisture in when you’re sewing seeds in in trays and things um and perite is this sort of volcanic thing that it’s like tiny little sort of Rocky type but really quite light you know so I that’s my ingredients covered yeah so when I you
Know so I make these mixes and I just make sure that they suit the particular plant that I’m trying to grow in a pot you know you know so I think in a way that sort of charred greens if we open it up to other leaves a plant that I really really love
And I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea is rocket yeah I think rocket is he’s an undervalued PL and a lot of the rocket the the wild rocket M um you know you know that you would literally cuz when it comes to Growing it it’s easy to
Grow um but it does like slightly cooler conditions so it’s one of the plants that you you can start off quite early in the season probably in a in a near Shady spot in the garden um you know not over shade but good semi- shade um but
Also it’s a really good one to do at the back end of the season okay so I what I tend to do really early Splash on things like rocket and then as the season gets really really hot you’ll find that your rocket starts to bolt and you know goes
To flower yeah um so I might back off it then then I sort of introduce salad leaves to get me through the rest of the season but come the back end of the year you know I’m then boom Rock here sort of September time and I can still be cutting
That well going into November even you know and um and as far as it as an ingredient that that’s got a lot of well it’s got a lot going for it is it yeah it has actually it’s got a lot more flavor than some of the other leaves
Hasn’t it it’s really Punchy and peppery and it can just add a really different kind flavor to a dish so I’m I love rocket as well the same as you um and I think we should use it more because I think you know we use a lot of Water
Crest in this country don’t we um in different ways waterest soup and all sorts of different things with I think it kind of tends to be a bit of a sandwich stuffer you put you put a little sprinkle of it on top of a risotto or something but we don’t often
Make it the star of the show so what I like to do with rocket if I’ve got a lot of Rocket is make pesto yeah talking yeah you are and um that I mean it’s just packed with flavor so much more flavor than a pesto you would
Buy in a jar just bursting with that lovely peppery flavor and you can keep it in the fridg if you you know make a fresh pesto it doesn’t last as long as buying a jar but you keep it in the fridge for a week or so covered with a
Layer of oil whiz it up with some nuts and you can be quite flexible in what you use you know you can use pine nuts or almonds or some cashes whatever you’ve got knocking around really bit of garlic bit of cheese absolutely delicious it is my oldest loves making
Making that she’s some Absolut the oldest one she’s definitely I mean they all love cooking to be fair you know they won’t all well the little one probably not you know not so much but um it’s interesting is it with cooking I sort of some way my first the three of
Them would cook an awful lot you know um my youngest one that’s much but my my number two some the oldest boy um he really got in to cooking when I told him that actually it was the easiest way to get a girlfriend if you can learn to
Cook a few dishes you can invite a girl around and you can cook something you know not just bnes and you know and chili I’ll try that on my son yeah then you got a good chance you know and he was away then he was he was well in but
Yeah she so ABS likes doing and they’ve all got their speciality little dishes actually she’s probably the one that will go Dad have you got anything you know in the garden or actually the boy will go if he’s going somewhere you he’s going somewhere for a weekend you got
Any can take and nice which is nice you know you know you you feel like you’re you’re playing their part as to say but that’s that nice element of sharing when you grow things you know you’re inevitably going to end up with a glove being able to even like I’ve put a
Bucket of apples on the doorstep before just let the let the neighbors help themselves it’s just so nice isn’t it kind of create a bit of a community and I think it’s when we talk about rocket again it’s another one of those plants
Do have to be in a in you know it can go in a pot it can go at the front of a border you know it can go in a window box it’s and I think a lot of you know it’s easy it doesn’t take a lot of
Care you know and things like that and if you look at other leaves I suppose that we we’ve started to evolve I suppose even as gardeners if I look at you know micro leaves are you into those or not or is that is that a little bit cheffy it’s
Quite cheffy a bit cheffy bit Mich yeah I’m all for making dishes look appetizing and I had a really famous cook say something about Michelin star stuff the other day that really made me giggle oh go on this see if you like this yeah too much foam and skid
Marks that’s she said I would agree it was like and I was I was I was lucky enough to be having inner with her and wonderful Irish lady but real amazing well-known cook and um it just made me it made me Google sorry mate I interrupted you then and it was just to
Share that so mro greens a little bit a little bit cheffy I mean I would rather just let them grow on a bit further and get more out of them personally they can look really pretty on the plate can’t they but um I just like nice honest food
That tastes good and I think when you get the leaves bit bigger then you can do more with them yeah I think that there’re if you’re really into growing your veggies and you’ve got either a little bit of warmth in your house you’ve got a spare room or you know
There’s there’s room in the conservatory they’re quite a a fun thing to do because you can do them at you know different parts of the Season you know you can produce things and I suppose that’s the point as well with a lot of you know what we’re talking about you
Know if you have got you know a greenh or some people you know have even got little poly tunnels kicking around or whatever this stuff leaves you know will keep along through the winter months you know because they’re not so strong on light if if it gets really really cold
But it’s if there’s a little bit of warmth there they’ll just start ticking over you know so I have got friends that all the greenhouse are not all paved out or all graveled out you know they’ve got a soil bed still which is the oldfashioned way in the green houses and
They’ll they’ll you know plant something from a pot straight in there and and keep themselves going you know I been even look at some of the salads now we can there’s a lot more they’ve developed a lot more salad leaves that give us winter salads yeah so we always think of
Those leaves and and I feel that if you’re growing you know winter salad which is so easy to grow you know cut and come again salads and like you say even if you’re doing them in a greenhouse as well um the leaves feel they taste strong and whether that’s the weather
Conditions whether they’re a little bit tougher so that they hardier hardier and you know whether they they but they taste stronger it does mean that I tend to slice them a little more so I don’t use big leaves like that but but again you know what about how we’ve moved with
With salad leaves I mean what’s your sort of approach with with salad leaves cuz I I for me they’re one they’re one thing that says this is what you buy from a supermarket yeah right and this is what you have in a garden they are not the same thing yeah
And it’s sad isn’t it that we buy a lot of these you know bags of salad prepared salad these days and it goes off so quickly and I think it’s one of the most wasted products actually yeah in the UK we waste a lot of food way too much food
And salad has a big part to play in that and I think growing your own you know you can prolong the life of it can’t you because you just cut what you need and use it on the day and then the rest of it keeps going and going like
You say so for that reason it is something we should all be growing I think and like you told us you know IND you can grow it anywhere why would you not grow your own instead of buying those those bags of salad which are just causing such waste and they’re not very
Nice a lot of the time you buy them and they go slimy within a day no and the problem is is I I know how they’re grown and a lot of them are hydroponically grown so you know and the speed that they’re grown um you don’t end up with a
Depth of flavor whereas you know when you start as sad as I am getting into the you know the technicalities of of what it’s like to grow your own veg so much flavor comes out of the soil yeah so much flavor you know so caring for
That soil well if you’re just going to pump a load of chemicals into something you know reality is that’s really what you’re eating all right it’s not going to poison you anything like that but you’re never going to get that depth of that pure just that flavor um which is you know
Which is I suppose the reason why I and so many people grow their own yeah and I think taking it back to kids as well and you know introducing them to vegetables and growing and the whole story of their food from the very beginning salad leaves is such a great way to start
Isn’t it because I just you know buy a packet of mixed salad leaves let the kids Chuck them down into a pot and they love picking it they love eating it they love salad I mean not many kids love salad but they they love it because they
Know what it is and where it’s come from but I think it’s that I think it’s that that connection it’s that yeah I’ve grown this wow what so that was all a little handful of seeds and now I’m I’ve grown it away and and again you can use
Mixed salads yeah you know so it’s so easy to grow so little drill water the drill sew the seeds thin it out or just cut and come again leaves and I suppose that’s the other thing we’re doing a lot more now we’re using our veggies things like beetroot example you know you see
You go and buy beetroot leaves don’t you you see that now and and so you can do that growing your own beetroot you know you can use the leaves and and pick your way through and there’s so much more stuff we can do we talked before we
About having these kind of extra parts of the plant like with the cett and you get the beautiful flowers and what an amazing benefit to grow your own and you get these extra bits get you know all the lovely extras which just elevate your cooking as well yeah and talking about lovely lovely
Things I have brought something as always I know I’ve been trying to avoid even looking at it for the last half an hour it does look good go s me through CU it doesn’t just if I’m really honest people at the moment I can see it’s felo
Pastry all right but it it um it looks it looks like a it looks like a flower do you know what mean it it’s got that sort of slightly roughy finish to it you know you could wear it as a brooch it’s got that sort of thing about
It yeah this is one of my favorites with spinach and it’s really good for lunch with friends or if you’re having people over um it’s a spanic Opa so it’s a Greek pie made of felo pastry loads and loads of spinach cooked down um and there’s lots of different ways of it but
This one’s got onion in it feta cheese pine nuts bit of lemon zest uh so it’s packed with flavor Flor but the the bulk of it is the spinach and you can make it with chard as well I’ve I’ve made this many times with chard and it’s equally
As delicious really nice with a simple salad in the summer um it’s just lovely and a really nice mixture of textures as well with the crispy felo pastry on the outside and the soft side you’re doing it again it’s really good and I think
You’re going to like it so go on go on you you so you get stuck in I’m just I’m watching wait for the crunch yeah go on sh did you hear that people hey it wasn’t my leg it was honestly it was just that’s incredible what is it that connection humans
And food and but it’s I don’t know it’s not see to me if ID grown the spinach and then managed to create something like this I would I would feel proud of myself yeah this is so easy to make as well yeah really oh man all
Right tuck in let let me know what you think yeah and so would you have this hot or cold or either either I mean it’s really nice at room temperature um I think it’s probably best at room temp actually but it in a lunch box that’s incredible the flavors that sort of come
Through they’re really good aren’t they I think what we’re hopefully showcasing as well with these EP is that veg can really be the star of the show yeah I think yeah you’re right you know we often put meat in the middle of the table for a special occasion but
Something like that is such a showstopper wouldn’t miss the meat at all I mean I’m a meat eater and I love meat but and interestingly though I I don’t really I don’t call myself a vegetarian but I don’t really eat a lot of meat and I think with me i’ it’s
More been an environmental sort of thing and I and it’s nothing that’s happened I’ve just backed off it over over the years you know and but at home I think the boy the boy’s a bit like me you know number two is a bit like me but but the
Rest are all but sometimes convincing them you know that so I will cook an awful lot of dishes and and they’ll look and they’re not quite sure and and they saying what you’re saying yeah yeah but are we having chicken with it are we having something with it and and it’s
Interesting isn’t it as humans how we I suppose a lot of us have been bought up with that idea of of me two veg and V is ultimately the addon to the main you know it’s it’s the sort of it’s thees and consequently it’s never been
Given the love it deserves really in you know classic kind of British cooking it is always and when we describe you know I mean what do they think do they say something like you should have 30 different color vegetables in a week or something yeah this is the new thing
It’s you know don’t think so much about eating five a day it’s the variety throughout the week and that’s really really good for your gut you know to to try and have a really diverse diet when it comes to fruit vegetables seeds nuts spices all of those things they’re all
So important to health and when you it when it tastes as good as this as well I mean it’s just a win-win that is definitely a win-win so yeah so let’s hear a summary on you know on spinach easy to grow put it in the Border a
Container you know sew yourself some in the garden keep it keep it water don’t let it dry out harvest the leaves in lots of different ways if you grow in Char don’t throw those stems away make sure you cook it all and then just have
A look at the other leaves see what you can get out the season I think that’s about the message on it that’s it yeah that’s say say that is incredible so do you think there’s enough of that that I can take home please take it home for lunch tomorrow thank you cheers Swe