No, this is not a post about all the healthy things I've been eating.
It's a poem about the dismay that I feel because I can't seem to like spinach, and I SO want to.
Spinach Tastes Like Blech To Me
It sounds so easy in the cookbooks
In the newspaper articles
In the food bloggers' blogs:
Add a handful of spinach to everything -
Eggs, pasta, soup, stew, sandwiches, lasagna -
Possibly even cake, although I haven't see that recipe yet.
Spinach looks so good.
Green. Tender. Full of vitamins.
But honestly?
Spinach makes me queasy.
It doesn't matter if it's raw or cooked or halfway in-between.
To me it tastes like earth smells.
Does that make sense?
It has an "earthy" flavour
And for me that is not a good thing.
How I wish I had the gene to enjoy spinach . . .
Alas! I have not.
The last uncountable number of containers of spinach I bought
Went to compost.
I could not face eating them.
Now I save money
And leave them at the store.
*****
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Spinach and noodles? |
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No! |
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Spinach for breakfast? |
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I said "NO"! |
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Spinach and tofu? |
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Seriously? NO. |
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Spinach on pizza? |
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Noooooooooooooo . . . |
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Spinach and kiwi smoothie? |
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What a way to ruin a good kiwi! |
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What's scarier than a bunch of ghosts? |
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Spinach and fish, that's what! Look, you can even see where the fish tried to get away and they had to drag it back onto the plate! |
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Just Say No . . . to spinach |
Is there a healthy food that just doesn't suit your taste? Tell me all about it, and help me blot out the memory of writing about spinach. Please.
And have a good healthy week, if at all possible :)
I like cooked spinach and I can eat it in a salad but i don't like it much. I don't taste the earth in spinach but I love the earthy taste of beetroot.
ReplyDeleteSo far, kale has been blech every way I tried it
I'm afraid to even try kale! From the descriptions I've read, and the advice to massage it before you eat it, I'm thinking I'd be just as well off to cut a hunk of shrubbery and eat that!
DeleteI'm not a fan of spinach either, baby soinach isn't so bad, but I get really mad at pre-packed bags of salad that are 90% baby spinach. no one I know eats that much spinach in a single salad.
ReplyDeleteI also dislike asparagus and avocado, I know they're good for me, but I don't even look at them in the produce section at the supermarket. They're invisible to me. Both of them just feel wrong in my mouth.
I know what mean, River - and it makes it hard to get them down.
DeleteJanie Junebug said we should follow you, and I see that she's right. She always is. Just ask her.
ReplyDeleteYou have a fun blog too.
Cheers and have a great week.
www.Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com
Thanks for taking the time to come over and read - and I'm caught in a tough place here, do I say Janie's always right and sound like a braggart or do I say she's not always right and sound like a criticizer?? ha ha
Deletehahahahaaha
ReplyDeletepoor you
when i was child i hated spinach but i remember that i start liking it in my mid teens finally mom was happy that i am eating healthiest vegetable according to her
i like it with turnips but not cooked by me ,mom was magical to cook it sooooo deliciously
now when i think i make choices of food little by thinking about what is good for health i eat it happily as it keeps my stomach relived
lots of love and hugs my special friend!
I think most kids dislike spinach but our taste buds can change as we get older. I wonder how your mom cooked it with turnips? I do like turnips!
DeleteI'm glad that you get some relief for your stomach by eating good foods. And I hope you are feeling better now after your illness, baili!
No too much I can’t eat. Don’t eat a lot of spinach though. It’s been broccoli and kale this winter.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have a good healthy diet, Marie!
DeleteI feel the same way about Kale.
ReplyDeleteYour post started my day out with a laugh, Jenny
I keep hearing and reading about kale and it just ends up with a big Nope in my head!
DeleteGlad you got a laugh, Arleen :)
Baby Kale finely chopped into a coleslaw mix is quite nice.
DeleteI don't think we have baby kale in our stores (we just started getting kale within the last year) but you've made me wonder how chopped spinach in coleslaw would be. I think the secret for me will be to have plenty of other flavours to mask the earthiness. Thanks for the tip, River.
DeleteI'm with you. I don't like spinach and I don't even like to hear people talk about it. Unfortunately I live with a spinach lover.
ReplyDeleteOuch! That's got to be difficult, especially if she's in charge of the meals!
DeleteSorry about talking about spinach :)
You're spelling it wrong. Chard. Chard! CHARD! It's beautiful stuff. Makes you smile.
ReplyDeleteNO NO NO! We ate chard when I was growing up because my father grew it in the garden. Chard is just another way to spell "blech"!!
DeleteI actually can eat both spinach and chard, but I really, really don't like them.
I always thought Chard was what we call Silverbeet, similar to spinach but darker green and a bit sweeter.
DeleteChard is marginally more palatable to me than spinach, so you're probably right about the difference, River.
DeleteI once read an article that explained how people really DO taste things differently. Some people don't like cilantro, for example, and some people love it -- and they don't taste it the same way. It just depends on our individual taste buds. So I'm perfectly willing to accept that you may taste spinach differently from me! (I've always liked spinach, though I do get a hint of that "earthy" taste you talk about.)
ReplyDeleteWhy, thank you for believing me, Steve - ha ha
DeleteBack when I was a kid it was called "being fussy" . . . but there has to be an underlying reason for being fussy or everyone would just LOVE every single food, wouldn't they?
Exactly. The point of the article was that it's not just a matter of subjectively "liking" or "not liking," but an actual physical, chemical difference in the way one person tastes something vs. another.
DeleteYou left your spinach at the store but that's okay....it's in good company...mine is there too.
ReplyDeleteSpinach dislikers UNITE, Delores!
Delete(doesn't really have that special ring to it though, does it?)
Kale! That’s the one I can’t stand and am so tired of seeing it everywhere. There is just too much kale on this planet🤢
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I've never tried it and I don't think I will; there are already too many things I'm trying to choke down! Thanks for reading :)
DeleteI hate the way a cup of spinach boils down to a thin slab of slime.
ReplyDelete"A thin slab of slime" - Oh, you have nailed the cooked spinach, John :)
DeleteSteam it, don't boil it. It will taste the same but won't look like slime.
DeleteODE TO A CAN OF SPINACH
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm weary, feeling down
When tears are in my eyes
I will reach for you
You are in my inner pocket
Close to my heart
We shall never part
If I suffer an attack
You've always got my back
I yam what I yam
I'm Popeye the Sailorman
Toot toot!
And now my ears are bleeding :)
DeleteI mean, Thank you, YP, for writing this most original piece of . . . ah . . . verse . . .
To tell you the truth, I would never eat canned spinach. I sometimes buy fresh spinach, boil it for five or six minutes and then I drain it off, squeeze out as much water as possible and then toss it in a little butter. I like the strong, earthy taste. We also like spinach in Indian cuisine where it is usually known as "sag".
DeleteOh my gosh...BAHAHAHA...this was hilarious! The one about the fish having to be dragged back...LOL
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to make this spinach with rice dish regularly that the rest of the family liked and I absolutely hated. Made me sick. I don't hate spinach but I don't go out of my way to eat it. The one way that I do like it is in the Greek recipe for Spanakopita. It has so many wonderful ingredients in it, including feta cheese. Perhaps all the other goodies hide the spinach and that's why I'm okay with it :)
What I really can't stand ever E-VUH and will not eat no matter what is okra. Now there's a horrifying food. Like I wrote on my blog once:
"Hairy, slimy, nausea-inducing okra. I suspect that it’s nothing more than a mutated green bean that some farmer successfully introduced as a new discovery after a crop gone bad. My mom used to make it regularly when I was growing up...oh the trauma...and I would not touch it. Not. One. Bite. Nothing’s changed over the years; I hate it now as much as I hated it then."
Not really a ringing endorsement - think I'll put that on my "don't even try" list, Martha!!
DeleteSpinach isn't too bad as a green, but I like it better in a salad. We used to serve a spinach and cheese crustada at the last restaurant I worked in, and they had spinach salads that were pretty good: topped with real bacon crumbles from the breakfast shift and kalamata olives.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at the Bay Area Organic Express, an organic produce delivery company, we had red chard that was so beautiful it made me want to eat it, but I never did. I remember the green chard my parents fed us when I was a kid, and like spinach, it was OK as a green.
Some folks don't like greens, and that's fine.
I think I must be one of those people who don't taste the bad part of spinach, because I really don't even notice it in a salad.
-Doug in Oakland
I wish I could like it, I really do. It's so healthy, and also low-calorie, which I could really use. I like romaine lettuce and that's as far into greens as I can get :)
DeleteOkra. So slimy.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot of bad things about okra, and then I've heard that it needs special cooking and it's okay. Think I'll pass, as I'm unlikely to ever master the art of cooking it!
DeleteHi human, Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to believe that Pupeye, or whatever his name is, got it all wrong with spinach.
Now then, lettuce think about something I would hate to eat.
Pawsitive wishes,
Penny! 🐶
Ha ha! Penny, you and Gary are the Queen and King of Puns! I'd have to work all day to come up with even a handful, and you two can find them everywhere! Pawsitive wishes back to you both :)
DeleteJenny, anything done to spinach besides serving it raw is an anathema to me.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, like "Just say No" carved in a eucalyptus tree.
--I believe we've got a couplet there!
Yes, I believe you're right! Well done!
DeleteI had no idea that was a eucalyptus tree. When I was little and had a head cold and stuffy nose, my mother would put oil of eucalyptus on a tissue for me to inhale to clear my sinuses. I've had a soft spot for those trees ever since, even though I wouldn't have recognized this as one.
I don't think someone should have carved into the bark, though. Ouch.
I like spinach because I made a decision to eat whatever was put in front of me. No other reason. If they’re good enough to make sure every meal is vegetarian it’s the least i can do. I’ll give anything a go. I can understand why people don’t like it though.
ReplyDeleteYour good attitude puts my "blech" to shame, Terry! If spinach is served, I will eat it; but since I am the cook, spinach is not served much here, and only for my husband's sake :)
DeleteI didn't like peas or spinach as a kid, but they were always out of a can. When I grew up and tasted them fresh my world changed. I really enjoy spinach in quiche. Since we have chickens the eggs are fresh, too.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of funny, because I actually prefer canned peas - but I know that's not an opinion widely held. Never had canned spinach. I'm thinking I never will :)
DeleteFresh eggs! Yum.
"... you can even see where the fish tried to get away and they had to drag it back onto the plate" - you made me roar with laughter! Poor much-maligned spinach. I actually like it, but I won't attempt to convert you. Even I think a spinach smoothie would be disgusting!
ReplyDeleteIt's just so . . . green . . .!
DeleteI love fresh spinach, but I'll pass on the smoothie thanks!
ReplyDeleteIf you love a food, you want to chew it up and get the most taste, right? Besides, that green is just . . . very bright . . .
Delete