Vegetable - Spinach Leaves

Spinach Leaves

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About the Vegetable :Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a wonderful green-leafy vegetable often recognized as one of the functional foods for its wholesome nutritional, antioxidants and anti-cancer composition. Its tender, crispy, dark-green leaves are one of the favorite ingredients of chefs all around the planet. Spinacia plant grows about 1 foot in height. Although, it can be grown year round, fresh greens are best available just after the winter season in the Northern hemisphere from March through May and from September until November, in the South of the equatorial line.

Scientific / Binomial name :Spinacia oleracea

Popularly Known as :Paalakura, Paalakoora, sabaanix, Palong Shak, spinazie,épinards, Spinat, Palak, Bayam

Usage :

• Fresh, tender spinach leaves (baby spinach) can be eaten raw either in salad and vegetable burgers or as juice. Antioxidant properties may decrease significantly on steaming, frying and boiling for longer periods.
• Along with other vegetables, its leaves are used in the preparation of noodles, pie, pasta, pulov, and soups as well as in the preparation of baby-foods.
• In India and Pakistan, where it is popular as "palak", spinach features in variety of delicious cooking such as palak-paneer (cottage cheese), aaloo-palak (with potato), fried rice, chicken and meat preparations.
• In India and Bangladesh spinach is mixed with other seasonal greens like goosefoot (chenopodium album), fenugreek, mustard greens, Malabar spinach (Basella alba), etc., to prepare "saag" which is eaten with unleavened bread (roti), and rice.