Puree Basics

• Puree involves the chopping, blending or straining of a food into smaller particles to form a smooth, viscous paste. Purees require moisture such as water, oil or cream. A vegetable with a higher natural moisture content requires less additional liquid to puree.

Preparing Spinach for Puree

• Take a look at your spinach leaves. How big are they? Do they tear easily? Press one between two fingers. Does it release moisture? You might choose to toss raw spinach leaves into a blender, pour in a little extra water and blend to a puree. Larger leaves will require some chopping, but you might as well roughly chop all leaves to assist in the breakdown of cell walls. Adding salt will also draw out natural moisture, which will reduce the need for extra liquid.

Pureeing Chopped Spinach

• Try pulsing the spinach for a few seconds in a blender or food processor to cut up leaves and release moisture. Add more liquid, scraping down with a spatula, if leaves just spin around or stick to the vessel's walls.

  Using a hand blender is not recommended as that tool is meant for submersion in liquid. Raw spinach could be pressed through a fine-mesh strainer or food mill, but stringy spinach leaves will require sharper blades to fully break down. You should steam the leaves if using a strainer or mill.

Other Considerations

• Spinach contains oxalic acid, a bitter compound that's more pronounced in raw leaves, which are also tougher. When cooked, spinach is softer and milder, and it more readily takes on surrounding flavors. Baby spinach leaves are even more tender. In any case, spinach is quite sandy and must be thoroughly rinsed -- you may or may not choose to drain off this excess moisture.
  A lot of raw spinach cooks down to very little.