Spinach: Buying, Storing, and Cooking It Right

Three practical kinds: baby spinach, tender and mild, sold washed for salads and quick wilts; flat or smooth leaf, the all-purpose bag spinach for sautes and smoothies; savoy, the crinkly dark bunches, sturdy flavor, and the ones that hide grit in every crease. Frozen spinach is blanched and squeezed dry, the honest choice for dips, curries like palak paneer, and anything baked, and it beats fresh for those jobs.

A pound of fresh spinach wilts into about a cup, the most dramatic shrink in the produce aisle, which is why a recipe calling for four servings wants a whole bag, not a handful.

Leaves should be deep green, dry, and crisp, with stems that snap. Slimy leaves, yellowing, or a wet smell inside the bag means the rot has started, and one slimy leaf seeds the whole bag. Bunches let you see what you get, bags are faster; triple-washed bags are genuinely clean enough to use without rewashing for salads.

Do not wash before storing, moisture is what turns leaves to slime. Keep spinach in its original bag or a container lined with dry paper towel, lid slightly loose, in the crisper drawer, and it holds 5 to 7 days loose, 3 to 5 days once washed. Swap the paper towel when it feels damp, it is buying you days.

Wilted but not slimy spinach is still good eating, cooked into anything hot. Slimy, sour-smelling spinach is done, compost it. Frozen spinach keeps 8 to 12 months and thawing is a squeeze job, most recipes want it pressed dry.

For gritty bunch spinach, wash in a basin of cold water, lift the leaves out, and leave the sand behind in the bowl, repeat twice, because running water over leaves just moves grit around. A salad spinner or a dry towel finishes it.

Cooking is quick either way: saute in a wide pan with the water still clinging to the leaves, 2 to 3 minutes, or blanch 30 seconds and shock cold for bright green. Spinach sheds water all through cooking, so salt late and reduce any sauce accordingly, or you will serve soup. For raw salads, dress at the table, acid wilts it within minutes.

• Kale: sturdier and longer cooked, de-stem it and expect 10 minutes of saute instead of 2, flavor is brassica bitter rather than grassy, good in the same garlicky preparations.
• Swiss chard: the closest swap in texture and speed, stems cook 3 minutes longer than leaves, flavor is slightly earthier, and it wilts to a similar fraction.
• Frozen spinach: replaces fresh one to one by thawed weight in cooked dishes, squeeze it very dry first, and skip it for salads entirely.