Catalan-Style Spinach with Pine Nuts, Golden Raisins, Garlic, and Onion

Pal Maria gave me for my birthday last year this fabulous cookbook called, "Fresh Spanish" by Sergio Vasquez, a book with over 80 healthy Spanish recipes. In the cookbook was this most unique spinach dish I'd ever seen so I had to make it. I altered the recipe slightly to serve two people, and to cook the spinach differently to keep as much as the nutrients in the spinach as possible.

I'd never think to mix raisins along with garlic and onion in with spinach, and surprisingly (at least to me) the combo is very nice. Best part. This recipe literally takes about 5 minutes to cook in the pan. Prep time will take longer and even then it's mostly chopping time and there isn't much of that.

Ingredients
(Good for 2 people)

• 1 bag of fresh spinach (Something like the Fresh Express 6 oz bag )
• 2 tbsp golden raisins. I used Thompson Golden
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1/4 yellow onion cut into slivers (see picture)
• 2 small garlic cloves cut finely (see picture)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• a sports bottle with a squirt top filled with some water

Let's get cookin'

• Soak the golden raisins in some hot water for about 10 minutes to plump up the raisins. Drain and set to the side. The plumper raisins will taste less sweet which is nice because it compliments the spinach rather than take over.

• Slightly toast the pine nuts in either a toaster oven or in a hot pan and then set to the side. I put the pine nuts on a small sheet of aluminum foil and put it into the toaster oven. Toast for less than a minute on medium. You need to watch the pine nuts toasting because they can go to burn color pretty quickly. If you use a pan, toast til the pine nuts get a bit golden.

• In a skillet, saute the garlic and onion in a medium heat (I use about a 6 setting) until everything gets slightly golden about 2-3 minutes. I just love the smell of cooking onion and garlic. That aroma always reminds me of my mom cooking meals for us kids.

• Throw in the raisins and pine nuts with the garlic and onion, and mix around for about a minute.

• Now this next part is going to go really fast. The whole spinach part will take less than 90 seconds practically because spinach shrinks mighty fast in heat. First, get your sports bottle with water ready because you're going to squirt some of the water onto the spinach as it cooks.

• Throw the bag full of spinach into the pan with the garlic, onion, pine nuts, and raisins. Start mixing everything together. Give the spinach about two squirts of water and continue to stir around. At this point, the spinach will start to really shrink. You want to be sure to not squirt too much water because then your spinach will be too wilty. Better to start off with less water than more.

• Give the spinach a couple shakes of salt, and continue to mix everything around until the spinach looks wilted yet still leafy. Again, literally this last part where you add the bag of spinach will take under 2 minutes. This picture is a bit blurry and has the steam oozing from the pan, but it gives you an idea of how everything should look at the very end of cooking.

• Immediately, place your Catalan-style spinach onto a serving dish. Do not leave the spinach in the pan because the spinach is sensitive and will still cook in a hot pan even if the pan is off the burner.

Enjoy!