Try this super quick and easy Filipino-Style Spinach recipe for a simple, savory, and healthy vegetable side dish! It only takes a few minutes to have this sweet, oil-free, and tangy salad for lunch or dinner!
Looking for more healthy salad recipes? Try my Mango Salad, Talbos Ng Kamote Salad, or my Asian Cucumber Salad.
What is Filipino Style Spinach?
This Filipino-Style Spinach is a quick and easy vegetable side dish recipe made of blanched fresh spinach leaves mixed well with spices and a sweet, sour, and savory dressing made with white rice vinegar, sugar, and oyster mushroom sauce.
It’s a super simple, oil-free, and budget-friendly spinach dish that is perfect to pair with any grilled or fried dish during lunch or dinner. It’s a great way to get more vegetables into your diet, too. Cooking this Filipino food recipe is as easy as 1-2-3! Give this a try and let me know how it goes with you in the comment section below. Enjoy!
Health Benefits of Spinach:
- Helps reduce hypertension.
- Good for bone and eye health.
- Prevents cancer, acne, and anemia.
- Supports the body’s immune system.
- High source of anti-inflammatory properties.
Tips and Procedures:
- If you don’t have ice cubes, you can place the blanched spinach on running water until it is cool to handle. Then squeeze out the water.
- Feel free to use calamansi juice, soy sauce, and brown sugar as alternatives for the dressing. Water spinach (ong choy), baby spinach, or bok choy can be used also instead of spinach for this Filipino dish.
- You may opt to sauté the spinach and spices such as garlic, ginger, and onion with olive oil for a few minutes before mixing the dressing, instead of blanching.
- This Filipino recipe, spinach salad, is best eaten immediately.
How to Make Filipino-Style Spinach:
Listed below are all the ingredients you will need:
- white rice vinegar
- granulated white sugar
- oyster mushroom sauce
- water
- salt
- spinach
- red onion
- Roma tomatoes
- red bell pepper
Combine rice vinegar, granulated sugar, and oyster mushroom sauce in a small bowl; set aside.
On high heat, add water and salt in a pot and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Stir in the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds. Strain and place on an ice bath until it cools down. Squeeze the blanched spinach to remove excess water:
Roughly chop the blanched spinach and place it in a serving bowl. Add in onion slices, tomatoes, and bell peppers:
Pour the dressing over and mix well and serve immediately:
Enjoy a delicious spinach salad!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Blanching or boiling spinach is a healthy way to eat it but according to a new study, the best way to eat it is to add it to smoothies or juice.
Spinach can be blended into shakes or smoothies, stirred into soups and stews, used as a salad green, topped on pizza, stacked on sandwiches, sautéed as a side dish, and more.
Kale and spinach differ slightly in terms of nutritional value and health benefits, but both are extremely nutrient-dense and can be included as part of a nutritious diet.
Filipino Style Spinach
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons white rice vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons granulated white sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon oyster mushroom sauce
- 4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups spinach
- ¼ cup red onions sliced
- 3 roma tomatoes deseeded and thinly sliced
- ½ red bell pepper deseeded and thinly sliced
Instructions
- Combine rice vinegar, granulated sugar, and oyster mushroom sauce in a small bowl; set aside.
- On high heat, add water and salt in a pot and bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
- Stir in the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds.
- Strain and place on an ice bath until it cools down. Squeeze the blanched spinach to remove excess water.
- Roughly chop the blanched spinach and place it in a serving bowl.
- Add in onion slices, tomatoes, and bell peppers.
- Pour the dressing over and mix well and serve immediately.
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