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Sneaking-in a Superfood (spinach)
By Moriah on October 29th, 2008
Lately I’ve been trying to get Adelaide to eat fresh spinach and the best way I’ve found is to whip it through my food processor with some water and add it into her food. Putting it in spaghetti sauce is super easy because the spinach looks a lot like the other herbs and you can hardly taste the difference.
Cooked spinach is stringy and has a distinct flavor that is hard to sneak past children (and older babies in particular). My older kids will eat fresh spinach like lettuce, but Adelaide is slightly prone to choking on it.
I put a bunch of fresh leaves in my processor and pour in a little water and turn it on:
It looks about like this when done:
Paste it on (shown with vegetarian refried beans) and hide it under some fresh salsa or pico:
Although not vegan, sometimes we add cheese:
How I usually serve this dish, folded over and cut into a more manageable size:
(Sometimes I’ll just make a bowl of the pureed spinach/beans/salsa/cheese and just give that to Adelaide with a spoon and she LOVES it.)
I use very mild (but fresh!) salsa, by the way. Try it out, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
14 Responses to “Sneaking-in a Superfood (spinach)”
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I make the kids “green eggs” sometimes this same way. But Ad. might not be too thrilled about that.
Good idea…fresh spinach is so much better for them than cooked, anyway! Way to be creative! :)
Looks good! I’m always on the lookout for healthy lunch options.
Thanks!
yum!
Oh, there’s a cookbook you need to check out, it’s called Deceptively Delicious, and it’s all about sneaking in pureed veggies into different meals! I don’t use it, alas. Maybe I’ll pull it out and give it another looksie though. (I need good processor, that’s the problem. Nothing more frustrating than ending up with a mess you can’t even really use.)
i’m starting to love the idea of sneaking-things-in! eve’s a terrible eater! she’s completely revolted by the idea of anything new- i need some suggestions, since all she eats now is toast, banana, and yogurt…
I rotate b/w oatmeal and “smoothies” for my kids breakfast. The smoothies are 1/2 spinach (fresh or frozen), with oj, blueberry, banana, pomegranate juice and ground flax meal. It looks like a blueberry smoothie and the kids love it. So you have about 4 super foods in there.
I vary with different frozen (or fresh if you have on hand) fruits, like peaches, strawberries, etc. but always have 1/2 of the smoothie spinach.
My hubby calls this food trickery. (I do it to him all the time)
Great idea! My daughter is just starting to branch out on “real” (read: non-jar) foods, so I’m sure this will come in handy!
Great idea. My kids prefer spinach over lettuce for salad. They tell me to buy the “little leaves” and they love dipping them in ranch. I’m thankful b/c it’s one of the few veggies I can get my youngest to eat without protest.
This is brilliant! Maybe…maybe I could get Carson to eat this!
i love new recipe ideas.. especially since i’ve been getting bored of cooking lately! — great to see you at BlissDom! wish we could have chatted a bit more, but glad to connect with you here!
Hmmm.. have you ever tried baking it in the oven? I have recently been to caffee where they served Fajitas – it is very similar to what you have on the dish, only baked:) tasty…
There was a recipe in a parenting magazine that you put spinach in your brownies. They never knew when I tried it out on them. :D