Catalan way spinach

Today I’m going to present my favourite meal: Catalan style spinach. Although I’m not big fan of plain boiled spinach, I like this meal because of the way the spinach is done: fried with meat, pine nuts and raisins. An unusual but tasty combination!

DIFICULTY: Low – medium

CALORIES: Around 400 – 500 Cal per portion

INGREDIENTS (for 2 persons):

- 1 kg of frozen spinach
- 1 onion- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 or 2 pork chops
- 2 or 3 Catalan sausages (although I used 4 small Irish ones, because I didn’t have any Catalan or similar style sausages)
- Raisins- Pine nuts
- Olive oil
- Salt

PREPARATION:

Boil the spinach in a big pot for 5-10 minutes, just enough to defrost them. Then leave them draining for a while, trying to press drain all of the water. The drier the better.


While the spinach is draining, chop the onion. Then, heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and fry the chopped onion and garlic cloves. When it looks half cooked, add the spinach leaves. Leave it to fry at a medium heat for 20 minutes, without covering the pan, so the rest of the water can evaporate (we don’t want watery spinach!).


Meanwhile cut the pork chops into small dices and the sausages in small pieces. (**A lower fat alternative to this will be ham or turkey ham).
Once the spinach have been drained, salt the pork and add all the meat to the same pan. Cook everything through for 5-10 minutes. Once the meat is golden, add a handful of raisins and a little less of pine nuts and cook it for 5-10 min more.


The result is a very green meal with a tasty combination!
Although is not a recommended recipe for a low fat diet (because of the pine nuts and the pork) it is a very Mediterranean and healthy dish, rich in iron and vitamins.

Bon profit!