Those Turkish Spinach Roots

If I had a Turkish mother-in-law, I'm sure she would yell at me for some of the atrocities I've committed in my kitchen here in Istanbul.

My friend, Sharon, has told me so. She's married to a Turk and has lived here for 17 years.

Sharon has scolded me for throwing away those precious spinach roots. I buy the bunches of spinach at the pazar, wash it several times in the kitchen sink to remove all the dirt, trim it and then steam it or use it in various dishes such as my Turkish Green Eggs.

Perfectly stacked bunches of spinach at the pazar in Istanbul.

AND yes, I throw away the spinach roots!

But this weekend, I finally saved those darned spinach roots from the kilo of spinach we had bought at the pazar. And I actually cooked them up in a fabulous little meze dish that was loaded with slivers of garlic and pul biber.

My husband and his friend were impressed! So was I! We served them with grilled antrikot and some Turkish-style okra.

Guess I'll be saving those darned spinach roots after all.

Afiyet olsun!

BTW, Claudia at A Seasonal Cook in Turkey mentioned these spinach roots awhile back too.

A delicious Turkish meze of spinach roots at home!

Spinach Roots Meze (Ispanak Kökü Mezesi)
This is a loose recipe as I didn't really measure anything this time.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

4-6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped (You can never have too much garlic!)

1/2 onion, small diced

Spinach roots saved from 1 kilo of spinach, trimmed and washed (about 2-3-inches in length)

Generous spoonful of pul biber, if you like it spicy like we do

To taste salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small pan, heat the olive oil.

Saute the garlic and onion for a couple of minutes until softened.

Add the spinach roots with just a little water to help them cook. Cover the pot with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes or until tender.

Season the spinach roots with pul biber, salt and pepper.