Spanakorizo

Spanakorizo on a Sunday 💚 One of my favorite dishes, there’s probably no tastier way to eat this much spinach in one sitting. I always smile when I make it, thinking about the first time I tried making it way back when. I was a teenager, spending my summer in Athens. I thought I knew what I was doing, but the end result was a a ton of rice with some flecks of green, when it really should be a ton of spinach with some flecks of white. My dad and uncle wouldn’t eat it and my uncle joked that I had made “pilafi”

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RECIPE:
1 bunch green onions
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 c medium grain rice
2 (1 lb) bags frozen whole leaf spinach
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste
hot water
METHOD:
In a large sauté pan, cook green onion in olive oil over medium heat till softened. Add rice, stir to coat, and cook 1-2 minutes. Add frozen spinach, salt and pepper. Stir, breaking up the spinach and letting it “defrost” in the pan. Once no longer frozen, stir in tomato paste and then add hot water from a kettle to just cover (about a cup to start). Partially cover and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently and adding more hot water as needed until rice is tender. If rice is cooked and there is too much liquid in the pan, remove lid and simmer to reduce. Serve hot or at room temperature with fresh lemon juice squeezed over each portion.
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Notes:
You can of course use fresh spinach! But I find organic frozen whole leaf yields delicious results and is infinitely easier. Don’t use frozen chopped - it’s not as nice.
The lemon juice squeezed over the spanakorizo to serve is essential to the flavor, I find, but also helps your body absorb the iron in the spinach.