Boost your leafy green intake: Use spinach instead of starch

A bed of spinach, originally uploaded by Ríona.

it's always a good idea to find new ways to boost your intake of leafy green vegetables, especially during the last few months when the cold, gray days don't make me crave salad.

An easy way to do this is to serve food on a bed of spinach instead of rice, potatoes, or other starch. This photo shows a big soup I made of cabbage, vegetables, white beans, ham, tomatoes, a little orzo, and plenty of garlic (delicious) - it thickened since yesterday and was very, very good over spinach.

I've found that this also works especially well with spicy Indian-style dishes, like dals and vegetable curries ( try this sweet potato and pumpkin curry that's a favorite round these parts).