Perfect Spinach Everytime

From the plant-based kitchen dept.

One part of making life easier with the plant-based lifestyle is to avail yourself of appropriate kitchen technology. For me, induction heat is one of the must-haves.
First came my Induction Heat Rice Cooker, and then came an induction heat cook top from CopperChef, which works fine, different from their pans, which do not hold up very well in daily use.

So, as I reported in that last post about CopperChef, I have since moved on to both a Demeyere Silvinox stainless steel Dutch oven, and a frying pan as well as a 4-Qt Sauce pan from ScanPan, which do everything I need. The CopperChef pans are relegated to steaming, as they are not very useful for cooking without oil, even though they claim to be. Their non-stick becomes increasingly sticky after the first half dozen uses.

ScanPan 4Qt Sauce Pan in Action

Perfect Spinach (for one)

Ingredients:

• One medium onion chopped fine
• One jalapeno pepper, seeded
• Two green chilis
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• One bunch of spinach, washed

Preparation

• Chop up the onion fine, along with the chilis and the jalapeno
• Dry-fry it on medium heat (275F) for 5 minutes
• Chop up the garlic cloves
• Add 2 ice cubes of veggie broth, and the chopped garlic and heat for another 5 minutes at 275F
• Add the washed spinach. Cook for 7 minutes at 275F.
• Drain the remaining cooking liquid, and freeze it in your ice-cube tray.

Besides anything else, here is where the advantages of IH cooking show. If I just set my onions for 5 minutes, it no longer matters if I get a phonecall, the plate just turns itself off after 5 minutes. When you put it all together, the above gives you perfectly cooked spinach in 20 minutes (assuming 3 mins for chopping the onion and the chilis and jalapeno).
Also, you are now cooking your spinach with spices, not with salt, which is an essential piece of the Whole Foods, Plant-Based diet. NO ADDED, Sugar, Oil, or Salt.

The ScanPan cookware holds up very well, in exactly 5 minutes the onions just begin to turn brown, and, in the ScanPan, there is no sign of sticking. For ScanPan, non-stick means what it says.

Making a meal as opposed to a recipe

With the above, I can cook a meal in no time. Usually, I cook various sauces for 6-8 servings and freeze the left overs. You can easily boil pasta, or a potato, or rice (which I usually also cook in batches for 2-3 days). So, while I am making the spinach, I can re-heat the sauce in a double boiler (I do not have a microwave). This type of a meal can be ready in a half hour.

It all becomes a system, and by using your freezer effectively, you can make your kitchen very effective, by leveraging frozen foods you prepared in batches, and fresh foods you make that day. And making a salad is always easy - and I usually throw in a half a cup or a cup of quinoa and/or some beans, such as black beans or one-eyed peas, or whatever is around.