spinach salad
{{Short description|Salad of green leaves}}
{{Infobox prepared food
| name = Spinach salad
| image = Classic spinach salad.jpg
| image_upright = 1.2
| caption = Classic spinach salad
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| course = Main dish or side dish
| type = Salad
| served = Room temperature or warm
| main_ingredient = Spinach
| variations =
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Spinach salad is a salad with spinach as its main ingredient. In the US, a version dressed in a hot bacon dressing which slightly wilts the spinach was popular in the 1970s and into the 1980s and has been called the classic version.
Versions exist in Persian, Georgian, and Chinese cuisines, and a US version in the early 1900s used cooked spinach in a molded salad.
Ingredients, preparation and serving
File:Salad_fixins_(3368228269).jpg, eggs, and scallions are set out to make a spinach salad.]]
Common additional ingredients include tomatoes, eggs, cheese, slivered almonds, walnuts and/or fresh or dried berries, such as cranberry or strawberry. Spinach salad and its various recipes is possibly one of the favorite salads for many. Spinach salad is classically served with a warm bacon or vinaigrette dressing, but variations are endless.{{cite book | title= Simply Salads: More than 100 Creative Recipes You Can Make in Minutes from Prepackaged Greens | author = Jennifer Chandler |
year= 2007 | publisher= Thomas Nelson Inc. | isbn= 9781418577742 | page= 19 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5H7_p9yKQMcC&dq=spinach+salad&pg=PA248 | access-date = 9 July 2015 }}{{cite book | title= Joy of Cooking, 1997 |author1=Irma S. Rombauer |author2=Marion Rombauer Becker |author3=Ethan Becker |author4=Maria Guarnaschelli |
year= 1997 | publisher= Simon and Schuster | location= New York, New York USA | isbn= 9780684818702 | pages= 213–214 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tbyW2LeXIOkC&dq=spinach+salad&pg=PA213 | access-date = 9 July 2015 }}
The salad can be served as a main dish or a side dish.{{Cite web |last=Musgrave |first=Christina |date=2021-07-26 |title=Warm Spinach Salad Recipe |url=https://www.mashed.com/466040/warm-spinach-salad-recipe/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Mashed |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Denby |first=Laura |date=20 December 2023 |title=14 Spinach Salad Recipes That Are Hearty Enough for a Fast Weeknight Meal |url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/photos/spinach-salad-recipes |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Food Network |language=en}} The classic version with hot bacon dressing is typically served warm; it was developed with mature spinach as the main ingredients, but as baby spinach became available in supermarkets it became more widely used in the dish. A 1983 New York Times recipe by Florence Fabricant using mature spinach called for the spinach to be washed, dried, and torn into pieces before dressing.{{Cite web |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |author-link=Florence Fabricant |date=6 March 1983 |title=Popeye's Favorite Food is Even Better Fresh |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/06/nyregion/food-popeye-s-favorite-vegetable-is-even-better-fresh.html |website=The New York Times}}
Popularity
Spinach salad's popularity likely arose because spinach is one of the earliest of salad greens to emerge in the spring in temperate climates. Before long-distance shipping of refrigerated produce became common, those living in climates where leafy greens were not available year around eagerly anticipated the appearance of perishable early greens such as spinach and asparagus. Spinach emerges before dandelion greens, which were a traditional European early-spring salad green also often dressed with a hot bacon dressing, particularly in Germany.{{Cite web |date=2012-09-21 |title=Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing |url=https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Spinach-Salad-with-Hot-Bacon-Dressing/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Saveur |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2011-09-19 |title=Best Wine to Pair With Spinach Salad |url=https://www.intowine.com/best-wine-pair-spinach-salad |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=IntoWine |language=en}} The New York Times
Saveur, Southern Living, The New York Times, and TheKitchn called the hot-bacon-dressed spinach salad a classic.{{Cite web |last=Brownfield |first=Elizabeth |date=19 April 2023 |title=Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing |url=https://www.southernliving.com/spinach-salad-with-warm-bacon-dressing-7377765 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Southern Living |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Crowder |first=Sarah E. |date=1 May 2019 |title=Spinach Salad with Warm Brown Butter Dressing |url=https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-spinach-salad-with-warm-brown-butter-dressing-210869 |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Kitchn |language=en}}
Variations
Spanakit is a spinach salad with Persian origins; its name refers to the Persian word aspanakh, or spinach.{{Cite book |last=Nathan |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Nathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfGmDAAAQBAJ&q=king+solomon%27s+table |title=King Solomon's Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World: A Cookbook |date=2017-04-04 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-385-35115-7 |pages=339–342 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Nathan |first=Joan |title=Racha's Spinach Salad with Walnuts and Cilantro (Spanakit) |url=https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2017/05/09/racha-s-spinach-salad-with-walnuts-and-cilantro-spanakit |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Splendid Table}}{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Alan |editor-first1=Tom |editor-last1=Jaine |author-link=Alan Davidson (food writer) |date=2014-01-01 |title=The Oxford Companion to Food |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199677337.001.0001 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199677337.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967733-7 }} According to Joan Nathan it is "a very old recipe". The dish contains ground spinach and ground nuts.
In Dongbei, China, a salad of blanched spinach and peanuts is common and traditionally served as an appetizer.{{Cite web |last=Sin |first=Lucas |date=27 July 2022 |title=Chinese Spinach and Peanut Salad |url=https://www.seriouseats.com/chinese-spinach-and-peanut-salad-recipe-6265685 |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Serious Eats |language=en}}
Ispanakhi Matsvnit is a Georgian salad of cooked and minced spinach mixed with yoghurt.The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia, p. 134, Darra Goldstein (University of California Press, 1999)
File:Wilted_Spinach_Salad_(7562739944).jpg
According to Alton Brown, a spinach salad dressed in warm bacon dressing likely originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch.{{Cite web |date=2019-05-08 |title=Dining In: Spinach is here, as fresh as it gets |url=https://buckscountyherald.com/stories/dining-in-spinach-is-here-as-fresh-as-it-gets,1281 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=The Bucks County Herald |language=en}} Variations of the salad with a hot bacon dressing, also called wilted spinach salad, became popular in the 1970s in the United States and often included canned mandarin oranges, blue cheese and hard-boiled eggs.{{Cite web |last=D'Arabian |first=Melissa |author-link=Melissa d'Arabian |date=2 June 2015 |title=Take the '70s out of wilted spinach salad |url=https://www.cjonline.com/story/entertainment/local/2015/06/02/take-70s-out-wilted-spinach-salad/16628902007/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=The Topeka Capital-Journal |language=en-US}} The spinach salad with hot bacon dressing remained popular into the 1980s but by the early 2000s had fallen out of style; according to Wolfgang Puck writing in 2010, "You practically have to send out a search party to find one in fine restaurants these days." Puck speculated that the salad had become so ubiquitous that "people burned out on it".{{Cite web |last=Puck |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Puck |date=27 January 2010 |title=An opportunity to bring back warm spinach salad |url=https://www.columbiatribune.com/story/lifestyle/food/2010/01/27/an-opportunity-to-bring-back/21481931007/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Columbia Daily Tribune |language=en-US}}
History
Recipes for spinach salad at the start of the 20th century were quite different from modern versions; rather than a fresh salad the dish was a molded salad made from cooked spinach.{{Cite book |last=Mower |first=Robin M. |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973496-2 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Andrew F. |edition=2nd |location=New York, NY |pages=350 |chapter=Spinach}}