When it comes to the Popeye anime, many people’s fondest memories are of the main character’s “spinach eating” that became a worldwide phenomenon. With the airing of Popeye, the use of spinach has increased significantly. Although eating spinach won’t make you strong, it does have a high nutritional value. Spinach contains more protein, a variety of vitamins, dietary fiber and iron, calcium, magnesium and other minerals, especially carotene and iron content is more prominent, in the early spring season, eat more spinach is a lot of benefits.
I wonder if you have found such a problem? Sometimes the spinach from the market is very tasty, but sometimes the spinach bought back, even after blanching is astringent, not good, why is this?
01
Rounded leaves? Sharp leaves?
Spinach is more than two thousand years ago the Persian cultivation of vegetables, also known as “Persian grass”, the Tang Dynasty by the present-day Nepal and other places into China, in China has taken root for more than a thousand years of history. Su Shi has written a poem about spinach: the bitter cold in the north has not yet, the snowy bottom of the waves as iron armor. Do not know my Shu rich winter vegetables, frost leaves and dew buds cold more thrive. Here, the “wave ridge” refers to spinach, from the poem can be seen at that time in Sichuan has been widely planted spinach, and can be over winter open field production.
Spinach planting from ancient times to the present, the formation of two types of pointed leaves and round leaves; realize the annual production, planting stubble spring and autumn stubble, summer stubble, overwintering stubble, etc.; both open-air production, greenhouses, greenhouses and other protected production. The reason why we buy spinach is sometimes delicious, sometimes not good, the key reason is not pick the right spinach and stubble. Generally eaten in the spring of the sharp leaf spinach taste is tender and slightly sweet, astringent flavor is relatively small; and round leaf spinach if not cooked and cooked through to eat, will taste a relatively large astringent flavor. In addition, round leaf spinach has plump leaves and a rougher texture than sharp leaf spinach.
So what’s the difference between these two types of spinach besides the taste? And how do you cook it?
02
The shape is different
Pointed leaf spinach leaves apex pointed, this spinach leaves narrow and thin, halberd-shaped or arrow-shaped, smooth leaf surface, petiole slender, leaves and rhizomes are more tender, the color is light green, the appearance is more beautiful.
Round leaf spinach, as the name implies, has nearly round, ovoid, oval or irregularly shaped leaves, with an obtuse rounded or slightly pointed apex, truncated, halberd or arrow shaped base, plump, wrinkled leaves, short petioles, and a green color throughout. Comparing the two types of spinach, round leaf spinach has a bit thicker leaves.
You can easily distinguish from the appearance of the spinach, which is a pointed leaf spinach and which is a round leaf spinach.
03
Different selection goals
The earliest spinach imported into China for the early spring vegetable supply needs to retain more cold-resistant, easy to shoot the tip of the leaf type, the general late fall and overwintering stubble more selection of this type of cultivation.
Round leaf spinach is a lot of recent imported from Europe, in order to adapt to the diversified market demand, selection and breeding goal is heat-resistant, fast-growing, shoot-resistant, in order to solve China’s spring and fall stubble and over-summer cultivation varieties need.
Because of the different breeding goals, breeders will cross different types of spinach varieties with each other, and over time, the correlation between leaf type and varietal characteristics and quality traits is not very obvious.
04
Different cooking methods
Pointed leaf spinach overwintering cultivation (marketed in early spring) accumulated sugar, water content is relatively high, eat sweet, will not feel astringent. Coupled with its thin leaves and tender texture, so this type of spinach, generally do not tolerate a long period of high-temperature cooking, more suitable for eating cold, or rapid stir-fry cooking methods. Round leaf spinach leaves are thick and large, the petiole is relatively short, the taste is not sweet, but the dietary fiber content is high, more resistant to cooking, more suitable for soup, dumplings and buns. If you like to eat it cold or fried, of course, but be sure to eat it after cooked, especially cold, be sure to blanch beforehand, not only to remove astringent flavor, but also to preserve its nutrients.
Whether it is round leaf spinach or pointed leaf spinach, when buying, we have to pick fresh, not water, stems and leaves are not old, no shoots and flowers, not with yellow rotten leaves is good. You can identify the degree of freshness by touching the leaves. Fresh spinach is thick and elastic to the touch; while soft and wilted to the touch indicates that the spinach has lost its moisture. Fresh spinach contains more nutrients, more chlorophyll content, more beneficial to the body.