Spinach Stem with Wheat Berries (Buğdaylı Ispanak Kökü)







































The move is finally over and we have been Californians for almost two months now. I am loving the Palo Alto farmer's markets (who wouldn't when you can buy a celery root for a dollar!) and cooking a lot; just not blogging. Finally emergence of fresh spinach at the market made it. In Turkey, when you have a bunch of fresh spinach you can cook a variety of different dishes with green spinach leaves: such as "the" spinach dish,   spinach dish known as "the bachelors' dish", or delicious börek/phyllo dough dish. Before cooking any of these dishes, you pinch off the stems and save them for other equally scrumptious dishes. They are great in salads, in stir fry, or in avgolemono sauce. The following simple recipe is inspired by the traditional spinach dish or the most common spinach dish, for which you basically stir spinach, onion, and tomatoes with rice. I replaced leaves with stems and rice with soft wheat berries. It is simply delicious. More spinach stem recipes to follow.