Spinach

Spinacia oleracea is a leafy vegetable with many cultivars, ranging from light to dark green and from smooth-textured to highly crinkled leaves. Spinach tastes slightly bitter (owing to the presence of oxalic acid), reduces dramatically in volume when cooked, requires several washings before being eaten, delivers few calories, and contains a nutritional powerhouse of beta-carotene, minerals, fiber, protein, and vitamins B, C, and E. Cultivated as early as the fourth century CE in Persia, the country to which it owes both its name (from the Persian aspanakh) and its highest accolade (“prince of vegetables”), spinach traveled east to China before reversing direction to Europe and thence to America in the seventeenth century.