Spinach, Iced

As it turns out, that six euros I spent recently on an ice cube tray at the Monoprix was well worth it. You can’t see the cute domino imprint that’s visible on each cube when frozen, but trust me, it’s far more interesting than the plain ol’ cubes without the one, two, three or whatever dots running across them.

To be clear, this was the only ice cube tray I could find anywhere in this nation of non-icers, and I didn’t even notice the dominoes until I got home. Good design is always welcome in my world, however no one, including me, thought beforehand about how tricky it would be to fit a silicon ice cube tray into a freezer that only has drawers — that’s right, no shelves, no sidedoor pockets, nada. So I have to put Mr. Floppy inside of a ceramic baking dish, which really takes up real estate.

You may be wondering why I have spinach in my ice cube tray instead of, well, ice.

It’s part of a rotation that I do with this overpriced ice cube tray due to the aforementioned lack of subzero space that goes like this: spinach/coffee/water. Guess which one I use the most.

I buy spinach every week, sometimes twice a week, at the big Monop about 10 minutes’ away on the 123. I throw it into my post-yoga smoothies. I chop it up and put it in tacos or quesadillas. I eat it raw in a salad, throw it into a stir-fry, put it on top pizzas, or if I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll make a big ol’ spinach quiche.

Occasionally, I’ll get about halfway through the sack and notice that the spinach is about a day away from total death and destruction. In the pre-spinach ice cube days, I’d plan to eat it for dinner, but didn’t always, and I’d end up tossing it out the next day, and with a fair amount of guilt.

Then I read something on a website about freezing fresh spinach. Just purée in the baby Cuisinart, then spoon into the ice cube tray of your choice (it doesn’t have to make domino-themed cubes, but I’m telling you, they really perk up an otherwise ho-hum iced coffee). Freeze. Pop them out. Put in freezer bags. Use when the mood strikes.

Two cubes is just the right amount for my smoothies, I’ve found. Plus the added frozen item makes them extra cold, which with all of this heat we’ve been having lately, is a damn good thing.