a dish from greece —

Spanakorizo

Greece 40 min total Serves 4 Easy

Greece Village Recipes Vegetarian Easter Recipes

the history —

How this dish came to life

Spanakorizo is the dish a Greek mother makes when somebody is sad. Or sick. Or has driven a long way and walked in the door looking thinner than the last time she saw them. There is no celebration in it, no theatre — just a pot of olive oil, a bag of spinach that's been growing in the garden since October, a handful of dill, a fistful of rice. Cooked low and slow, never rushed, the rice drinks the green broth and the spinach softens into it until the whole pot turns the colour of an old emerald. It is one of the laderá — the 'oily' dishes of the Greek table, cooked in olive oil and meant to be eaten meatless. Friday food. Lenten food. Tuesday food, if the spinach in the garden is asking to be picked. The lemon goes on at the table — never in the pot — because Greek cooks know that a fresh squeeze of citrus over hot rice opens a dish like a window in summer. Serve with bread, a slab of feta, a few olives. Eat in a slow chair, looking at nothing in particular. The dish heals you in ways you don't notice until later.

Cultural significance

Spanakorizo is one of the great Greek laderá — a Lenten and everyday dish that pre-dates olive oil being measured in tablespoons. It belongs to the same family as fasolada and gigantes: peasant dishes that turn pantry staples and one perfect vegetable into a meal complete in itself. The Greek combination of leafy green + rice + olive oil + lemon is centuries old — Hippocrates would have eaten a version. Today it is on every Lenten table and most Friday tables, and a cornerstone of the Greek-Mediterranean diet that gives the country its long-lived villages.

now let's cook

step by step

Instructions

1
Wash the spinach in several changes of cold water — grit hides in the leaves. Drain well. If the leaves are large, roughly tear them.
2
Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, leek, and the whites of the spring onions with a pinch of salt. Sauté gently for 7–8 minutes until soft and golden, not coloured.
3
Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the tomato paste and stir for a minute, until darkened and fragrant.
4
Add the spinach in big handfuls, stirring it down as it wilts. It will look like an impossible mountain — it always collapses. Wait until each addition has wilted before adding the next.
5
Once all the spinach is in and wilted, pour in the rice and stir to coat in the oil.
6
Pour over the hot water, season generously with salt and pepper, and bring to a gentle simmer.
7
Cover the pot loosely and cook on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring once halfway, until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed — there should still be a glossy little broth at the bottom (it'll thicken as it rests).
8
Off the heat, stir in the dill and the green tops of the spring onions. Cover the pot and let it sit, undisturbed, for 3 minutes.
9
Squeeze the lemon over the top, drizzle a generous final thread of raw olive oil, crack on plenty of black pepper.
10
Serve warm in a wide bowl with crumbled feta, olives, lemon wedges and bread.

tips from the village —

Wisdom from grandmothers

01Wash the spinach twice. There is no shortcut for grit between your teeth.
02Use a wide, heavy pot — the wider the surface, the better the rice cooks. A shallow casserole is perfect.
03Don't oversalt early. Spinach releases water as it wilts and the dish concentrates as it cooks.
04Lemon goes in at the table, not in the pot. Squeezed over hot rice, the steam carries the citrus right through the dish — Yiayia's most quiet trick.
05Like all laderá, spanakorizo tastes even better the next day, eaten at room temperature with a fresh squeeze of lemon.

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καλή όρεξη —

Cook it slowly. Share it with someone you love.

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