Recipe – Homemade [Vegan] Spinach Pasta and Dipping Sauce

The Offspring and I are omnivores through and through, but there are some vegan recipes that are so good, even committed meat-eaters like us fall in love with them. Spinach Pasta with Dipping Sauce is one such recipe. The Offspring discovered it on Youtube, and it’s become a family favourite. No pics, sorry.

As with many of my recipes, there’s an official version, and then there’s my version. You’ll find both below. Enjoy. 🙂

Official Version

1. Prepare one large bunch of English Spinach by washing thoroughly to make sure there are no grains of sand or grit hidden amongst the leaves.
2. In a large soup pot, bring just enough water to the boil to cover the bottom 1/2 inch of the pot.
3. When the water is boiling, drop the spinach leaves into the pot and quickly toss them in the boiling water. This should not take more than a minute as the spinach wilts very quickly.
4. Take the spinach out of the water but reserve the liquid.
5. Allow the spinach to cool before chopping.
6. Once chopped, add 3 cups of all purpose flour [plain flour for Aussies] and 2gm of salt to the spinach and mix together by hand until it forms a dough. If it’s too dry, add some of the reserved cooking water.
7. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
8. Knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic.
9. Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge until ready to roll out.
10. Fill a large soup pot with cold water and bring to the boil.
11. While the water is coming to the boil, divide the dough into 4 -6 lumps and roll each lump out individually on a lightly floured board.
12. Cut the rolled dough into strips.
13. Lay the strips on baking/parchment paper until they’re all cut out.
14. Once the water is boiling, drop the pasta into the water and cook for 1 – 2 minutes.
15. Remove the strips from the boiling water and rinse in icy water.
16. Set aside until all of the strips are cooked.

My Version

1. Thaw a packet of frozen spinach… [During the pandemic we grew our own spinach, but once it went to seed I wasn’t happy about substituting supermarket spinach because it didn’t look great after ‘decontaminating’ for 3 days. Enter the frozen spinach. It made everything easier. 😀 ]
2. Place the thawed spinach in the blender with just enough cold water to blend until smooth. At this point, the spinach looks like a beautiful green soup.
3. Pour the blended spinach into a large bowl and add all purpose [plain] flour – a BIT AT A TIME – mixing as you go until the dough starts to hold together.
4. Continue mixing and kneading lightly until the dough is soft but no longer super sticky.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes. [From here on the process is the same as for the official version.]
6. Fill a large soup pot with cold water and bring to the boil.
7. While the water is coming to the boil, divide the dough into 4 -6 lumps and roll each lump out individually on a lightly floured board. The thinner you can get the dough the better.
8. Cut the rolled dough into strips – we make them quite wide, say 2 inches or so.
9. Lay the strips on baking/parchment paper until they’re all cut out.
10. Once the water is boiling, drop the pasta into the water and cook for 1 – 2 minutes. I let them float to the surface and then give them an extra 30 seconds.
11. Remove the strips from the boiling water and rinse in icy water. set aside until all of the strips are cooked.

NOTE: if you make too much of the dough to cook for one meal, put the uncooked portion in a freezer bag and freeze until you want to use it again. To thaw, simply take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge overnight. It should be ready to use by the time you are ready to roll it into strips. This is the only pic in the entire post:

A ball of frozen spinach dough straight from the freezer

Dipping Sauce [quite spicy]

Ingredients:

• 3 – 4 spring onions [they’re the long, skinny ones that look like leafy cigarettes]
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 of a teaspoon chilli powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon sugar
• 30 mls of peanut oil
• 60 mls of Chinese dark vinegar
• 30 mls of soy sauce
• 3 mls of sesame oil
• 125 mls of water

Method

1. Clean the spring onions and cut the whites and greens separately
2. Peel and crush the garlic
3. Gently cook the white part of the spring onions in the peanut oil [to infuse the flavour].
4. Strain the infused oil and discard the whites.
5. Pour the hot, infused oil over the dry ingredients [and garlic] and mix.
6. Finally, add the vinegar, soy saunce, sesame oil and water.
7. Mix and set aside until ready to serve. Can store in the fridge for 2 – 3 days.

To serve, simply place some of the spinach pasta in individual bowls and spoon over as much of the dipping sauce as you like. Chopsticks can be used but I find the pasta is a bit slippery so stabbing it with a fork is easier. 😉

cheers,
Meeks