Spanakorizo is comforting, easy to cook, healthy, and delicious!
Spanakorizo is a deliciously classic Greek recipe that simply combines spinach and rice with alliums, herbs, and lemon. You can find myriad variations from family to family and place to place. And because of that I’m encouraging you to riff on this recipe to satisfy your tastes.
This is one dish that is super versatile and pairs well with anything from poultry to fish. I love it as a meal on its own. It’s one of my favorite recipes to cook for my Los Angeles personal chef clients. It’s also one of the first recipes I ever developed and cooked. And because it’s a one-pot dish, cleanup is super easy.
What rice to use for Spanakorizo?
If you’ve had the opportunity to pick up any Greek, then you will know that Spanakorizo is literally spinach (spana) rice (rizi). So those are the two main ingredients of the recipe. Normally, I use a basic long grain rice or basmati. But, I grew up in the midwest and my yiayia always used Uncle Ben’s. Anyway, use whatever you have on hand. But keep in mind that some rices like basmati and jasmine may have additional aromatic qualities than plain long grain rice. That’s not good or bad, it will just be different.
Can you substitute other grains for rice in Spanakorizo?
Along those lines, more interesting grains have become more widely available. I love making this dish with barley for example. Barley is one of the most ancient Greek food staples, and it’s toothsome texture contrasts nicely to the rest of the softer aspects of the dish. It’s also packed with fiber and amino acids and is one of the healthiest grains you can eat.
You could also use brown rice, farro, or freekeh. My only advice is that if a grain takes longer than 10-15 minutes to cook, I would prepare it separately and then fold it into the spinach mixture at the end. You don’t want to cook your spinach to death and lose all the flavor.
Should I add tomato?
Growing up eating in Greektowns in Detroit and Chicago, Spanakorizo was a staple side dish that came with a basic tomato sauce woven into the spinach/rice mixture. I love the addition of tomatoes. Additionally, in my recipe I’m elevating it a bit using fresh cherry tomatoes. If you want to add tomatoes, you could do that, use regular tomatoes or a can of chopped tomatoes. However, depending on the amount of liquid from the canned tomatoes, you may need to cut down a bit on the amount of water you add to cook the rice, so your Spanakorizo doesn’t come out soggy.
Alliums, herbs, and finishing touches
Alliums are the fancy name for things like onion and garlic. In this recipe, you can pretty much use any onion, or shallot you want. Many people also use leeks. Scallions or spring onions can also work.
Additionally, as far as herbs go, I’m a dill girl all the way. But if you prefer something else, try mint, or a bit of dried oregano.
After that, I always like to top my Spanakorizo with Feta cheese. Finally, Feta gives the dish a lovely tanginess and compliments everything perfectly.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 10 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 pound fresh or frozen spinach
- 1 1/2 cups broth or water
- 1 cup rice
- 1/4 cup fresh dill chopped, or 1 tablespoon dried dill
- 1/2-1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 lemon, garnish
- Feta (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Warm olive oil over medium heat in a 3 quart (or larger) sauté pan or large pot (you want more surface area as opposed to less). Sauté onion with a little salt and pepper and sweat for 3 to 5 minutes, until they become translucent. Add in garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, until it becomes fragrant.
- Pour in tomatoes to the pan and cook until they start to release some of their moisture. Add the rest of the salt and pepper.
- Stir in spinach: If using frozen spinach, just stir it in. If using fresh spinach, you will have to work in batches, cooking down the spinach before adding more.
- Once spinach is cooked down and mixture has reduced, add rice, dill, and broth/water. Mix together thoroughly. The broth/water should just cover the rice/vegetable mixture.
- Bring to a boil, lower heat to low, and cover. Cook for about 20 minutes. Stir the mixture every 5 minutes to make sure rice is cooking evenly. If rice is close to being done, and there still seems to be a lot of liquid left, let it cook uncovered.
- Once rice is cooked, let the dish sit for 10 minutes. Then fluff with fork and serve with a squeeze of lemon and garnish of Feta cheese if you like.
Really good and simple recipe and I will be making this again. I would use 8 ounces if spinach if using frozen as a whole pound of frozen was a LOT of spinach. The rice left a lot of starch because it wasn’t in the instructions to rinse, but I would rinse the rice first until the water runs clear and drain. Personal taste, I love salt but I would only use only about 1 tsp the next time.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks so much for the feedback on this. So happy you enjoyed the recipe. This is definitely a spinach forward dish, but if you want to showcase the rice a bit more, you can definitely cut back. Re: salt, I did amend the recipe. I use Diamond Kosher salt, which has less salinity than some others:
(1 teaspoon table salt has the same saltiness as 2⅛ teaspoons of Diamond. 1 teaspoon Morton kosher salt has the same saltiness as 1¾ teaspoons of Diamond. 1 teaspoon David kosher salt has the same saltiness as 2⅛ teaspoons of Diamond.) Not matter what salt you’re using, just season bit by bit as you go and the dish will definitely taste seasoned.
This was delicious! I used frozen spinach, so I would probably use a little less of that the next time I make it. I will also rinse the rice first to remove some of the starch. I did use a couple of chopped shallots instead of an onion, but that was my only substitution. I also added 1TBL of lemon juice when it was cooking it instead of just as garnish. Also added some shrimp at the end of cooking. This is a keeper!