A few years ago I had heard that eating raw spinach didn’t have an many health benefits as eating cooked spinach. Your body can’t break down the spinach enough to get the nutrients. My mind heard, “raw spinach is useless, don’t ever eat it.” In my attempt to eat healthier and take better care of my body, I decided it was time to actually do a little research on spinach and get my facts straight!

Turns out what I heard, or thought I heard about spinach had a sliver of truth, but was mostly wrong. Cooking spinach will get you three times the health benefits of raw spinach because it is broken down and easier to digest. Raw spinach is still good for you.  However, it looks like the very best way to eat spinach is in raw juice form, like a green smoothie. If I had to guess, I would say that juicing it breaks the spinach down even more making it easy to digest.

Here is one more little tidbit about spinach. When you are choosing your spinach, pick small tender leaves. Larger leaves have a greater likelihood of being stringy or tough. Oh and one more thing. Freezing spinach can cut down on the nutritional value, so buying fresh and using right away is the best best.

After I did my research, I thought it would be a good idea to round-up some spinach recipes. So here are 25 different spinach dishes you could make.

I tried to break them into categories so it is easier to find what you are looking for.

Raw:
Green Monster Protein Smoothie  pictured above
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Maple Syrup Dressing 
Strawberry Spinach Salad pictured above
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed dressing
Guacamole Veggie Wrap
Spinach Ice Cream pictured above

Breakfast:
Apple Spinach Breakfast Muffins
Power Egg White Cups pictured above
Greek Omelet
Spinach Neufchatel Mini Quiche pictured above
Garlic Scapes Spinach Frittata

Appetizers: 
Spinach Mini-Pies 
Bacon Spinach Artichoke Dip
Spinach Monterey Jack Bacon Pinwheels
Spinach and Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms pictured above

Soup:
Zero Point Spinach Soup
Kielbasa Spinach and Rice Soup  pictured above
Tuscan White Bean Spinach Soup

Dinner: 
Shrimp with Peppers and Spinach
Easy Vegetable Pot Stickers pictured above
Spinach and Feta stuffed chicken breast pictured above

Pasta:
Spinach and Bacon Mac & Cheese
Cheese and Spinach Manicotti pictured above
Chicken and Spinach Cannelloni Rolls
Cheese Tortellini in Tomato Spinach Sauce

So which recipes are you going to try out? I think I’m going to try out the Spinach and Feta stuffed chicken and all of those soups. Yum!