Sauteed Spinach

Article by Layla Khoury-Hanold

Sauteed spinach makes for a flavorful, easy vegetarian side dish or addition to pastas, eggs and grain bowls, but it's easy to overcook. With Tyler Florence’s easy recipe, you’ll learn how to make sauteed spinach, including how long to saute spinach to ensure a tender (not soggy!) texture as well as tips and tricks for maximizing flavor. Eating your greens never tasted so good!

How to Make Sauteed Spinach Like a Pro

Reach for baby spinach. Tyler uses fresh baby spinach, which has a mild, earthy flavor profile and much less bitterness than mature spinach. Pre-washed, bagged spinach also saves prep time by skipping washing and drying the spinach.

Use both olive oil and butter. Adding olive oil to the melted butter creates a rich flavor and imparts a silky texture to the spinach. The olive oil also raises the butter’s smoke point to ensure that it doesn’t burn.

Opt for shallots to boost flavor. Sauteed shallots add a mild, garlicky flavor and mellow allium sweetness to spinach without overpowering it, letting the earthy spinach flavor shine.

Stir the spinach as it cooks for the best results. This helps to evenly distribute the spinach leaves in the pan as it cooks down and ensures that it cooks evenly.

How long to sautee spinach? Spinach cooks quickly, so watch it carefully and pull it off the heat once it’s just wilted, about 3 minutes.

Season for a flavorful finish. As soon as the spinach is done, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat to make the flavors pop.

Serving Suggestions for Sauteed Spinach

Serve sauteed spinach as an easy side dish to accompany mains such as Tyler’s Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Smothered Pork Chops or NY Strip Steaks. Try incorporating sauteed spinach into egg dishes such as Spinach and Feta Frittata or Mushroom-Spinach Baked Eggs, or add sauteed spinach to omelets, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict. Enhance pastas with sauteed spinach, such as Tuscan Chicken Skillet or Mushroom-Spinach Stuffed Shells, use sauteed spinach as a pizza or sandwich topping and to agument rice dishes and grain bowls, like this Roasted Veggie Grain Bowl.