Extra Healthy Spinach and Mushrooms

Can you call it a saute if you don't use any oil? This dish is probably closer to steamed vegetables, although it's made without a steamer. This is a super low-calorie vegetable side dish that would work really well if you're serving a rich entree and want something really light to serve with it. Or you could mix this into risotto, or use it to top pasta with tomato sauce. Either way, it's definitely packed with vitamins and the parmesan adds a lot of flavor.

I "created" this recipe last night as I was about to eat some leftover spinach and mushroom salad, and I realized that raw spinach leaves are actually kind of gross as a salad base. Baby spinach is fine, and just as healthy, but regular spinach really needs to be wilted to taste any good. So I figured that rather than add dressing, I would just throw it in my saute pan. It was about a hundred times better.

Steamed Spinach and Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS:

1 10 oz bag spinach

8 oz mushrooms (1 box), sliced paper thin

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup water

Coarse sea salt

Additional parmesan, to garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. Wash spinach. Rub mushrooms with a damp cloth to clean, immediately before using them.

2. Pour water into the bottom of a saucepan, add spinach, mushrooms, salt and parmesan (if the spinach doesn't fit into the pan, wait until some has wilted and put in the rest).
3. Let steam for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from pan. Garnish with extra parmesan and serve.