We all know that spinach is good for us. Apart from being the source of Popeye the Sailor Man’s super-strength, the vitamin-rich leaf green is thought to help prevent heart disease and cancer.
But it can also be quite annoying: steam it for much more than a minute and it turns into a messy green sludge, and that can happen in your fridge too. In as little as a week, a bag of spinach in your fridge can collapse into an unappetising slimy mess.
Storing spinach near fruits such as apples and bananas, that produce ethylene gas as they ripen, will only accelerate that process. But vegan nutrition expert Carleigh Bodrug says there’s a simple tip that can make your spinach last much longer.
Speaking on the Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast, Carleigh explains: “So if you get a box of spinach, you can put a paper towel in it and it will make sure to absorb some of the moisture.
“If you don’t have paper towel in your home, a clean cloth will work just fine,” she adds. “The same can go for kale. You can kind of chop it up, put it in a glass container with a clean cloth and it will last so long.”
What makes the paper towel hack even better is it is exceedingly cheap. A 100-sheet roll from Tesco costs £1.49 – making it less than 2p a sheet.
Carleigh also points out that, despite a lot of people believing that it’s somehow less healthy, frozen veg can be a great – and long-lasting – way to get the vitamins and minerals you need.
“Frozen vegetables in particular are often more nutrient-dense than the fresh, especially if you have your food shipped in, because they’re harvested and then frozen right away.”
Fresh veg, she says, will inevitably start losing some of its nutrients as its on its way to you, while for frozen produce time stands still while it’s in transit: “, it’s just as just as good as your stuff that you’re buying fresh,” Carleigh says.
And, of course, she adds, you can just thaw as much as you need, so there’s far less wastage.
