Why was sauteed spinach watery?
I sauteed some spinach in a little oil and when eating the oil with spinach I noticed the oil tasted a bit watery and I could have sworn I saw water(likely from spinach) in the oil while it was frying.
Am I doing something wrong when cooking, can you explain these results? As far as I understand, since the oil should be so hot the water should evaporate rapidly.
Best Answer
There is a lot of water in spinach. It's 91% water.
Raw spinach is 91% water, 4% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and contains negligible fat (table).
In my experience, sauteeing spinach still requires a good amount of cooking time to actually cook off much of the water and usually still requires draining it or squeezing it to get rid of all of it.
Yes, high heat will evaporate some of the water but "rapidly" doesn't mean "instantly" when you have 6 oz of spinach, that's almost 5.5 ounces of water. Even on the highest heat, that'd likely take long enough that your spinach would be unappetizing to eat.
So, if you're doing a quick saute, just to wilt it, you're still going to have most of that water in the pan.
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Does spinach get watery when cooked?
Cooking spinach is easy and can be done in minutes but it's worth noting that the leaves contain a lot of water, which is released rapidly when heated.What happens if you overcook spinach?
Avoid Overcooking Leaving the spinach to cook for any longer causes the leaves to become slimy and makes the bitter flavor more prominent. Don't reheat cooked spinach after refrigerating it, either. This overcooks the leaves and creates a stronger bitter flavor than when they were freshly cooked.Why you should always cook spinach \u0026 throw away the water
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