How Much Fresh Spinach Equals A Cup Of Cooked Spinach? That is the question we are answering for this week’s Kitchen Tips.
Have you ever needed cooked spinach for a recipe and you did not know the right amount of fresh spinach to cook down?
Yes, you can use frozen spinach and I usually do if I have some in the freezer, but often times all I have is fresh spinach.
Besides that fresh spinach is fresh. It is often better than frozen spinach both in taste and texture.
So, how much does fresh spinach cook down? How much fresh spinach equals a cup of cooked spinach?
One pound of fresh spinach will cook down to about one cup of cooked spinach.
Now, next time you are wondering how much fresh spinach to cook you will know. Or did you already know that?
Let’s Talk about cooking spinach for a minute.
We didn’t eat a lot of cooked spinach when I was a kid, but my husband’s family did. Want to know how my husband’s grandparents cooked spinach? They cooked it to death! Seriously they did.
I had no idea that is how a lot of people eat spinach. When I moved to Oklahoma I realized that a lot of people cooked their spinach for hours. It didn’t matter if it was canned, frozen, or fresh.
They would take spinach and add liquid, salt, maybe a little or a lot of bacon grease and they would let it cook on the stove for at least an hour. Sometimes they cooked it for several hours.
I think this was an older generation thing. Or maybe more of a southern thing. But spinach doesn’t need to cook that long. Spinach cooks fairly quickly.
How long does it take to cook spinach?
It really only takes a few minutes if that to cook spinach. Spinach cooks quickly. As soon as it wilts it is pretty much done.
If you cook it too long it will become slimy and more biter.
What to do if you don’t like spinach?
Here is where I admit though that spinach is not one of my favorite foods. I know it is healthy, so I do cook and serve it, but it is right up there with coffee and peas on my list of least favorite foods.
However, my husband and girls love cooked spinach and will eat it by the bowlful if I serve it to them. If I am going to eat spinach I prefer it to be in a dish like a quiche or a pasta dish or even fresh in a salad.
My tip for learning to like spinach is to eat it in something. A lot of people don’t like it as a vegetable side dish, but when eaten in a quiche, soup, of fresh in a salad it is much more enjoyable.
If you love spinach here are some of our favorite spinach recipes. Our list of favorite includes cooked and fresh spinach.
- Crustless Spinach Quiche
- Sausage Spinach Soup
- Spinach Salad with Dried Cheeries
- Potato Spinach Skillet Dinner
- Triple Berry Spinach Salad
What are your thoughts on spinach? Is it on your list of favorite foods or least favorite foods?
We love spinach! Cooked or fresh. Whenever I serve it my four year old thinks it will make him strong like Popeye.
I LOVE spinach! And actually, I was wondering about the difference between cooked spinach vs fresh from a nutritional value. If you eat cooked spinach, say 3 cups fresh, how many servings of veggies are you eating?
I love fresh spinach too, but can’t stand frozen spinach. How do you keep yours once you bring it home from the store? When I buy it fresh (not packaged at all), it’s always soaked from the grocery store’s sprayers. Even when I try to salad spin it dry it never works, and I end up having to throw half of it away because it’s mushy and gross. It’s not quite as bad when I buy a bag of pre-washed spinach but still, it goes bad so quickly. Any tips?
I know this is an old post, but it may help someone else. I buy spinach all the time. Fresh only. Sometimes pre-washed in the bag, or in those plastic containers. Either way, you want to make sure you get it completely dry. It’s the wetness on the spinach leaves that causes it to get mushy. So once you use your salad spinner, dry the leaves completely, and it always helps to place a paper towel in the container with the spinach to absorb any condensation that may form on the bottom or the lid of the container in which you store it.
May we get volumetric equivalents? I.e. 3 cups raw to 1 cup cooked….
That’s exactly what I was looking for too…
About 10 cups of torn raw spinach
I used to hate cooked spinach. Many years ago I started making oysters Rockefeller and from there I started to change up my recipe for cream spinach. I had a business dinner party and one of our guys hated spinach and he was in his 50’s. I made my creamed spinach and he had three helpings and came back for a fourth. He asked me for my recipe which I gladly gave but he later told me that his didn’t come out as tasty as mine. 1 pound of raw spinach is equivalent to 1 cup of cooked spinach. Sauté sweet onion at least one and probably two for 5 cups of cooked spinach. Caramalize The onion and cook a heaping tablespoon of garlic as well. Make home made bread crumbs preferably from bread you made at home. After cooking the spinach down, mix it with the caramalized onion and garlic and add salt and a pinch of anise and at least one stick of butter to the batch and cook for about 7 minutes. Mix in about 1-1/2 cups of homemade bread crumbs and then pour heavy cream in and stir well. Place it all in your food processor and using the main blade process for about 1 minute making sure everything is being processed. That being done, place it all back into your big skillet that your cooking with and add heavy cream to taste and for the consistency your looking for. The final product should taste incredible but don’t go cheap on the salt. Salt enhances the flavors. Don’t over salt but use enough to get that great taste. I have a shortage of salt in my blood work so I don’t have to worry about salt. The final dish will be very rich but for even more richness, you can add more heavy cream and equal portions of Velveeta and a good aged cheddar cheese to a portion placed in a ramekin. You can bake the spinach au gratin in individual ramekins and add the cheese and cream as desired. It should taste incredible but it will be so rich that an 8 ounce ramekin might be too much. I’ve been asked to make my creamed spinach and sweet dinner rolls for a semi large Thanksgiving group.
why dont you give the answer…
1pound raw spinach equals 1cup cooked spinach