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We get it. You’re just not a spinach person. And if we’re being honest, you probably came up with every excuse in the book to avoid it whenever your mum made it for lunch when you were a kid. But now that you’re older (and slightly wiser), you know spinach isn’t the enemy. It’s actually loaded with vitamins and minerals your body simply doesn’t want to miss out on.
But cooking spinach can be quite tricky and it isn’t the easiest thing to master. Not only does this leafy green vegetable shrink a lot and become slimy if overcooked, but it can also easily leave you wondering what made it bitter and what to do about it. Thankfully, Tara Punzone, author of “Vegana Italiana,” the must-have vegan Italian cooking guide set to release in October 2025, told Chowhound that blanching spinach is all it takes to nail both the taste and texture and keep it both vibrant and green at the same time.
“Blanch all the green vegetables in order to keep the vibrant green color,” Punzone, who is also the chef and owner of plant-based Italian restaurant and wine bar Pura Vita located in Los Angeles, explained in our exclusive interview. “It is a simple technique that we all use in restaurants and it is so easy to do at home.” This method involves boiling or steaming the spinach and then giving it an ice bath to stop the cooking process. And it isn’t just a fancy trick – blanching vegetables can make your dishes truly stand out.
A couple of minutes is all you need to make spinach taste amazing
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While paper towels are the key to storing spinach long-term, when it comes to the most flavor-preserving way to cook spinach, Tara Punzone revealed that she’s included a few of her best tricks in her upcoming cooking guide. “My favorite way to cook spinach is in a sauté pan with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar,” she pointed out. This combination will beautifully enhance the spinach’s mild, earthy, and slightly sweet flavor, while at the same time retaining its nutrients and brightness.
When commenting on what you should know to successfully meal prep frozen greens, Punzone highlighted that frozen spinach can cook just as well as fresh spinach, as long as you know how to handle it properly. However, the best part about it is that you don’t really need any complicated prep tricks or cooking methods to make it work. It only takes a few simple steps to make it taste just as good as if you had just bought it fresh from the market.
“Frozen spinach can be a life saver if your refrigerator is empty,” Punzone told Chowhound in our exclusive talk. She added that sautéing the frozen spinach straight from the freezer into a pan with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and a splash of lemon juice can do wonders for both the spinach’s taste and texture. “It takes 5 minutes and you have an extremely healthy addition to any meal.”
Dining and Cooking