Mighty spinach, the go-to green

Popeye was right. Spinach is mighty tasty and good for you, too. And in the world of super-food greens, this old favorite still has plenty to offer both in flavor and nutrition.

The famous cartoon sailor man has been munching spinach since 1929 as his secret to bulging muscles. He was onto a good thing. Recent research shows that nitrates in spinach actually are energy boosters and help muscles perform more efficiently.

Many of us are part Popeye, especially in the West and Northeast where spinach consumption tends to be highest. According to the USDA, spinach has particular appeal in Asian households and for women over 40.

But it’s also trending up with millennials — as drink fodder. With its mild flavor, low calories and high protein content, spinach has become a favorite ingredient in fresh juices and smoothies.

It wasn’t always that way. After spiking in popularity (with Popeye’s help) during the 1940s, fresh market spinach all but disappeared during the early 1970s. Spinach only occasionally was consumed; it was mostly frozen and usually creamed.

Then, fresh spinach salads became restaurant darlings and America’s appetite for this leafy green grew. From 1970 to 2005, spinach consumption increased 12-fold, according to USDA statistics. On average, we eat more than 2.2 pounds a year.

Thanks to all those salads, the U.S. ranks as the world’s No. 2 spinach-growing nation, behind China. But it’s a distant second; the U.S. accounts for 3 percent of the world’s crop compared to 85 percent in China.

Interest in healthy eating and global cuisines also have bolstered spinach’s popularity. Nutrient dense, spinach offers a wide range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, particularly iron and vitamin A.

A staple of the Mediterranean diet, spinach can be found in cuisines around the world, thanks to early trade routes. Believed native to what’s now Iran and Turkey, spinach has been cultivated for at least 2,000 years. Arab traders introduced spinach to India and other parts of Asia. By 700 A.D., spinach was common in Chinese kitchens and nicknamed the “Persian green.”

Colonists brought spinach with them to the New World. Prickly-seeded spinach was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, his Virginia home two centuries ago. Current first lady Michelle Obama included that spinach variety in the White House’s vegetable garden.

Today, Americans like their spinach fresh and crunchy. About three-quarters of all American spinach is eaten fresh, thanks in part to the popularity of triple-washed, pre-packaged cello bags of baby leaves.

Spinach varieties come in three basic types: savoy; smooth- or flat-leaved; and semi-savoy (hybrid crosses between the first two). Savoy varieties such as Bloomsdale and Merlo Nero have crinkly, dark leaves that can be a challenge to wash. Smooth-leaved varieties are much easier to clean, which is why they are so popular commercially. Semi-savoy varieties have a slight crinkle, but fewer challenges to washing than true savoy types.

As for Popeye, why did that comic character’s creators get their sailor man hooked on the green stuff? Blame it on a typo — or not.

According to Samuel Arbesman’s “The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date,” an 1870s scientist noted that cooked spinach contained 35 milligrams of iron per half-cup serving. (It should have been closer to 3.5 milligrams.) That incorrect measurement stuck with spinach for many years.

But it was the vegetable’s high vitamin A content, not iron, that attracted cartoonist E.C. Segar to spinach, according to his biographers. Regardless, Popeye’s love of spinach significantly boosted sales.

While we now prefer it fresh instead of canned, spinach still can give muscles some pop. And our taste buds like it, too.

Warm spinach salad

This comfort-food salad’s bold dressing has big umami flavor and meaty texture, thanks to mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, plus a heady smokiness from Spanish smoked paprika. Together they match the taste experience that bacon typically provides, but in a much more healthful way. Serves four. Recipe from nutritionist and cookbook author Ellie Krieger.

4 medium sun-dried tomatoes, not oil-packed (1/2 ounce)

1/2 cup boiling water

8 ounces baby spinach leaves (about 8 cups lightly packed)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons

3 tablespoons olive oil

8 ounces mixed mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed and sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton)

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the sun-dried tomatoes in a medium bowl. Pour the boiling water over them, then allow them to soak and rehydrate for 15 minutes. Drain and reserve the soaking liquid, then thinly slice the sun-dried tomatoes.

Toss the spinach and red onion together in a large bowl. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the mushrooms and stir to coat; cook for about eight minutes, stirring occasionally, until their moisture has evaporated and they are well browned. Stir in the rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes, the garlic and smoked paprika; cook for one minute. Reduce the heat to low, then stir in the reserved sun-dried tomato soaking liquid, the vinegar, salt and pepper and the remaining two tablespoons of oil.

Pour the warm mushroom mixture over the spinach and onion in the bowl; toss well until the spinach is well coated and slightly wilted. Taste, and add salt as needed. Serve right away.

Stuffed flat iron pinwheels

The flat-iron-shaped cut of meat used here is also sometimes called top blade steak because it comes off that section of chuck (shoulder). You’ll need kitchen twine or water-soaked bamboo skewers to secure the stuffed steak. Serves four. Adapted from “The Primal Low-Carb Kitchen: Comfort Food Recipes for the Carb-Conscious Cook,” by Kyndra Holley.

1 1/2-pound boneless flat iron steak

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup packed fresh spinach leaves

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (oil- or vacuum-packed)

3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

3 cloves garlic

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place the steak on a large cutting board. Use a very sharp, flexible knife to make a shallow cut at the center, with the grain (lengthwise), then make shallow cuts as you pull away one side of meat, then the other, to form a butterflied steak. Place a piece of plastic wrap over it; use a meat mallet to flatten the steak to a thickness of about 1/2 inch.

Season liberally with the salt and pepper on both sides. Arrange the spinach on top of the steak in an even layer. Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into halves or quarters (if needed), then scatter them evenly over the spinach.

Scatter the feta over the sun-dried tomatoes. Cut the garlic into very thin slices, then scatter those over the feta. Roll the steak as tightly as possible, taking care not to lose the filling. Tie at several intervals with the kitchen twine, or secure with the skewers.

Place on a rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan; transfer to the oven and cook for about nine minutes or until the internal temperature of the meat registers 160 degrees (medium). Let the meat rest for five to 10 minutes before cutting it into slices. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Spinach and Portuguese white bean soup

Total time: 45 minutes. Recipe from the Detroit Free Press.

1 cup chopped onions

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium red or yellow bell pepper

1 bay leaf

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon ground fennel

1 medium peeled potato

2 tablespoons dry sherry

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

8 ounces fresh or frozen chopped leaf spinach

2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock

1 can (15.5 ounces) no-salt-added cannellini beans, undrained

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

In soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil, stirring often, for about five minutes or until the onions soften. While the onions saute, chop the bell pepper.

Add the bay leaf, salt, fennel and bell pepper to the pot, and continue to cook for about five minutes, stirring regularly. Cube the potato and add to the pot along with the sherry, lemon juice, greens and stock. Cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until the potatoes and greens are tender.

Stir in the beans and gently reheat. Add black pepper to taste and garnish with parsley.