Guiso de Patatas con Espinacas

This is a simple dish which is very easy to prepare but nevertheless is tasty and wholesome. It is a bit of a cross between a soup and a stew and is good to serve as a starter. The recipe can use saffron but I find food colouring cheaper to use and it also adds a little more colour to the dish.

You may want to experiment with the quantities of spinach and potatoes as you may prefer more of one than the other.

Ingredients

Serves 3 to 4

• 700g of fresh spinach
• 3 medium potatoes peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
• a little saffron or alternatively 1 teaspoon of yellow food colouring
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• water
• salt and pepper

Cooking Method

For this recipe I use bags of spinach which have been previously washed and had all the necessary bits removed. If you don’t use this make sure you wash it well and remove roots and so on. Drain the spinach, put it in a saucepan with some rock salt and cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile put the olive oil in a deep frying pan and heat it. Then put the 2 cloves of garlic (uncrushed) into the oil and fry them gently till they go a golden brown colour. Remove them from the oil and keep for later. Add the chopped onion to the oil and again fry gently until the onion goes transparent – this should take about 5 minutes.

Add the cooked spinach and the potatoes to the frying pan and cover the mix with water. Add the saffron or food colouring, the bread crumbs and the garlic which you should first crush. Check how the mix is for salt and add more if required, add some freshly ground black pepper and cover the frying pan. Cook this over a gentle flame for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.

Serve in soup bowls with crusty bread.