The Trick To Cooking Spinach Without Turning It Soggy

As you probably know from old Popeye cartoons, spinach is full of healthy nutrients that give you energy, for things like beating Bluto. But on top of that, it's packed with Vitamins A, C, and K, as well as minerals like iron, calcium, and potassium (via Healthline). It's got lots of fiber and is considered to be good for eye health, and useful in bringing down blood pressure.

Although some kids might wrinkle their nose at the mere mention of the leafy green, given its mild flavor compared to other stronger flavored vegetables like arugula or asparagus, it's something of a crowd-pleaser as well, and is versatile in a number of preparations.

Spinach is also a vegetable which isn't stripped of its nutrients when cooked (via The Vegetarian Times). The only thing that's a bit difficult when it comes to spinach is preventing it from getting soggy when you cook it. Luckily, there are a couple of easy fixes.

Many people boil spinach in a pot full of water, but this method can result in a wad of soggy spinach that no amount of seasoning or pretty presentation can help.

One simple (and frankly, genius) way to fix this problem by introducing water to the spinach rather than introducing spinach to the water. By putting your spinach in a colander and pouring boiling water over it, and allowing it to drain, the spinach will become nicely wilted rather than completely overcooked and waterlogged (via Delish).

The second option to turn out non-soggy spinach is to bring a small amount of water to boil in a pan, and then add the spinach. Because of the shallow amount of liquid in the pan, some of the spinach is being boiled, while other leaves are cooking by steaming. The cooking process shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds (yes, that fast) so it's not something that you can throw on the stove and walk away from. The good news is you'll have prepared spinach people actually want to eat!