By Joel Denker
In one ancient civilization, few had to be prodded to “eat their spinach.” The Persians venerated the plant for its nobility and sprightly taste. A member of the goosefoot family, a group of greens whose spines have a distinctive webbed shape, spinach was born and nurtured in Central Asia. Unknown to the early Greeks and Romans, it was beloved by the Persians, who first cultivated it in the fourth century A.D.
The Persians called the plant isfanakh or green hand. In their kitchen, spinach occupied a lofty perch. Like coriander, parsley, mint, dill, and other lively greens known as “sabzi,” spinach was prized as an herb that added verve to a dish.
Spinach also had medicinal virtues, the Persians believed. Al Razi, a 9th century physician, pronounced spinach “temperate, good for the throat, the lungs, the stomach and the liver. It sweetens the belly and is a good, beneficial food.”
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To learn more about spinach, see The Carrot Purple and Other Curious Stories of the Food We Eat, coming in October from Rowman & Littlefield: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442248861/The-Carrot-Purple-and-Other-Curious-Stories-of-the-Food-We-Eat.
