Greek Rice with Spinach, Feta and Black Olives

evelyn/athens's Note:

A delicious, simple, Paula Wolfert recipe. Serve with lots of crusty bread. You can make things easy on yourself by getting the bags of ready-cleaned spinach.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 lbs fresh spinach, washed and tough stems removed
• sea salt
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallion
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onions or 3/4 cup leek
• 1/2 cup fresh tomato puree, reduced by boiling to 3 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup long-grain rice
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• fresh ground black pepper
• kalamata olive (to garnish)
• chunks feta cheese or of thick Greek yogurt (to garnish)

Directions:

1. Wash the spinach and tender stems until the water runs clean; drain.
2. If leaves are large and crinkly, sprinkle lightly with salt and mix well.
3. Let stand in a colander 15 minutes; rinse and squeeze out excess moisture.
4. Shred the spinach to make about 3 cups.
5. Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch straight-sided skillet.
6. Add the scallions, onions, a pinch of salt, and 1/4 cup water and cook, covered, over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
7. When the water evaporates, slowly let the onions turn golden, stirring occasionally.
8. Add 1 cup water, the reduced tomato purée, and rice.
9. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
10. Spread the spinach and dill over the rice, cover, and cook 10 minutes longer.
11. Remove from heat, mix, then place a double thickness of paper toweling over the rice, cover again, and let stand until cool.
12. Adjust the seasoning with black pepper and salt and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon olive oil.
13. Note: This is delicious served at room temperature garnished with black olives and feta cheese or yogurt.

Reviews

[appleydapply]

This was delicious! I agree with another reviewer who thought it was time-consuming. I bought bagged spinach, but all the steps still took a lot of time. To simplify one step, I used a tablespoon of tomato paste instead of boiling down puree. The amount of spinach in the recipe might be wrong. I used somewhat less than a pound, and when it was chopped and pressed into a cup, it was 4 cups. So I did not use the remainder of the spinach I had bought!

[JCC]

This took a long time to prepared (wash and trim spinach) before shredding. The end result was a nice tasting rice dish but I make a lot of tasty rice dishes in much less time.

[Chef Kate]

This was great--but then it contains all things I love, so it would be hard not to like it. The cooking method, however, makes it special. The rice is perfect, no clumps, beautifully distributed. I had thought I would want to add additional seasoning (garlic, cumin) but, Evelyn, I'm so glad I trusted your recipe--Thanks for a geat dish.