15 ways to incorporate more spinach into your diet

Most of us eat some sort of pasta with a sauce at least once a week. And since spinach cooks down so quickly, you can easily add some to your favorite sauce, whether pesto, vodka, or bolognese. Alternatively, mix spinach with recently drained pasta, olive oil, capers, and tomatoes for a quick and tasty meal.

Everyone knows omelets and scrambles are more fun with fillings, especially veggies and cheese. Spinach, in particular, is a perfect addition, along with feta and olives, you can imagine waking up on the Med!

Fruit, yogurt, and protein powder aren’t the only ingredients that blend nicely into a meal replacement. Try a green smoothie with spinach, avocado, and banana. It also pairs well with berries and peanut butter.

Whether making a fresh batch or reheating leftovers, throwing a bunch of spinach into a soup won’t change the taste too much. It’s a fantastic way to ensure your favorite soup is extra nutritious! 

As an alternative to salads, sauteed spinach is a healthy and delicious side to any meal. Pair with a meat main dish, a sandwich, or a casserole.

Another way to “hide” the green ingredient is to blend it into dips like hummus, beans, or even salsa. Then you can feel good about your chip-dipping tendencies during the day.

If you want to feel even better about consuming chips, make them out of spinach. It’s quite easy. You just place spinach on parchment-covered baking sheets, cover with some olive oil and spices, and bake for about 10 minutes. 

You can swap spinach for a vitamin-packed alternative pretty much anywhere you’d use iceberg or other greens. A super simple area is your lunch sandwiches. Spinach mixes well with most lunch meats and cheese, so it’s a no-brainer.

Basil on pizza might be standard in Italy, but in the US, spinach topping is a fantastic way to increase your dinner’s nutritional value. And it doesn’t even require getting a side salad!

Making veggie-filled bread isn’t new, but spinach isn’t always top of mind for these recipes. But since the leafy green cooks and blends down quickly, it’s easy to sneak into your favorite baked goods for extra vitamins and minerals.

Who says pasta can’t be good for you? Sure, thick noodles, loads of cheese, and meat aren’t usually considered the healthiest. However, layering in a certain green vegetable can add a wholesome component to your lasagna and keep you full longer.

Meatballs, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, or whatever you like to whip up with ground beef (or turkey, plant-based products, etc.) don’t have to be completely absent of veggies. Chopping up a bunch of spinach and adding it to the mix is a simple way to sneak in valuable nutrients without changing the menu to a salad or roasted carrots.

Okay, sure, this sounds a bit unconventional, but spinach is actually undetectable in brownies — as long as you use an appropriate amount of chocolate, fudge, and frosting. Chop a generous amount, cook it down on the stove, blend in with the brownie mix, and bake as usual. You’ll have a great sweet treat packed with a superfood.

In Italian, pesto is the word describing the crushing action done to make the sauce. Americans know pesto as a green sauce made of basil, garlic, parmesan, and pine nuts. However, it’s any sauce made by pounding and blending the ingredients into a liquid in Italy. Spinach is easy to add to any sauce of this type.

Vegetables and rice are hardly a new concept. Spinach isn’t the typical companion to everyone’s favorite quick starch, but it cooks nicely into rice. Add a bit of feta, and you can almost imagine you’re somewhere in the Mediterranean!