Spanakorizo – Greek Spinach Rice – a light and lemony dish

Spanakorizo - Greek Spinach Rice

The Taste of Greece

Lemon and herbs are beautiful together.  I love this rice dish with the flavours of garlic, lemon, dill and parsley.  It also has the goodness of spinach.  Spanakorizo or Greek spinach rice  is a super simple risotto you can whip up for lunch or dinner.  Because it is lemony it is lovely with a piece of grilled fish but we usually eat it as is.

We honeymooned in Greece and I have never forgotten arriving there in the early morning, driving the car off the ferry and finding a bakery where we bought fresh bread and spanakopita for breakfast.  The Greeks love their high K greens!  It is what makes for a super healthy diet.  Since being married I have learned to cook many recipes passed down from my father-in-law that my husband grew up with.  I have also explored many other Greek recipes and I have experimented with the traditional ingredients of Mediterranean cooking time and time again. Mediterranean food wins out above all other cuisines in my family.  It is what my husband and children most enjoy and while I cook food from other cultures all the time I know how much they will love a meal that comes from that part of the world.

The Benefits of this Simple Dish

To me the flavours of this meal are reminiscent of the meals I have enjoyed in Greece and with my husband’s family.  The lemon and dill particularly stand out for me. Usually I don’t opt for a dish that is so high in carbohydrates but really the benefits of the enormous amounts of vitamin K in the spinach are unbelievable. But the benefits don’t stop there.  Spinach is high in nutrients which support your skin, hair and bones.  It has enough vitamin C to meet 34% of the recommended daily intake.  The nutrients in spinach can help control your blood sugar levels if that is a problem for you and the magnesium aids in controlling blood pressure.  It is also known to aid cancer prevention,  So is it any wonder that the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world?

Feel free to add extra spinach to the rice.  Some recipes call for 500g of spinach but however much you want to include is fine. I usually start with about 250g and then add a small bunch of parsley and dill along the way.

Child Friendly

Surprisingly my most critical taste tester does not object to Spanakoriso so if you can introduce it to your children you would be doing them the world of good. I find that with gentle encouragement and the constant offering of healthy meal options, children do eventually begin to enjoy healthy food on a regular basis and meal times become less of a battle.

Simple and Effective

This Spanakorizo is quite simple to prepare.  I use arborio rice because I love the creamy texture but plenty of cooks use long grain rice instead.  You could make it vegan by using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock but it is delicious either way. If you can chop onions and herbs and stir some stock into the rice for 20 minutes then once you have added the herbs, spinach and lemon juice it is ready.  If find it is a simple dish yet so pure in its flavours.  It is worth a try!

Spanakorizo Greek Spinach Rice

Spanakorizo Greek Spinach Rice – the Taste of Greece

Spanakorizo - Greek Spinach Rice

A lemony, filling rice dish that is brimming over with nutrients.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 3 minutes
Total Time 8 minutes
Servings 6
Author Jane Georgiades - Milly, Molly and Me

Ingredients

  • 3 cups arborio rice
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 7 cups chicken or vegetable stock boiling
  • 250 g baby spinach
  • 1 small bunch parsley
  • 1 bunch dill
  • 1 lemon juiced

Instructions

  1. Gently fry the garlic and onion in olive oil.  Add the rice and stir until translucent.  Add the stock one cup at a time.  Add more stock as it is absorbed.  Keep stirring to ensure creaminess.  After about the fourth cup of stock add the spinach and herbs.  Keep stirring until all the stock is absorbed.  Take the rice off the heat and add the lemon juice.  

    Feel free add spinach and herbs in different quantities or adjust the lemon juice to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Comments

  • Maryna Staver May 12, 2019 at 11:11 am Reply

    Your recipes all sound great! Looking to try them out soon 🙂

  • Maryna Staver May 12, 2019 at 11:12 am Reply

    Hi Jane! Your recipes all sound great! Looking to try them out soon 🙂

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