Fresh Spinach for Spinach Coconut Soup

Our answer

Nigella uses frozen chopped spinach in her Spinach And Coconut Soup (on the Nigella website) for convenience and speed. Frozen spinach has been blanched and chopped before it is frozen. If you are averse to frozen spinach then you could substitute fresh spinach. However as spinach is mainly water the quantities for fresh can be quite large.

It will also depend on whether you are using baby spinach leaves or older spinach leaves, which need tough cores removing. If using baby spincah then you need roughtly double the weight in fresh spinach (so about 1kg or 2 pounds of fresh leaves). If using older spinach leaves then we would suggest 1.2 kg/2 1/2 pounds of fresh spinach, to allow for the parts that will need to be removed. Wilt the spinach in a large saucepan, or wok, with a couple of tablespoons of water and then squeeze out as much of the exess water as you can (though the spinach does not have to be completely dry). Roughly chop the spinach and then add it to the soup and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes (as you don't need to thaw the spinach it will not take quite as long to cook).