Wasabi-Lemon Spinach and Room for Growth

The need for vegetables and a late snack tonight led to yet another strange creation of mine via the sauteepan, but one that I think is worth writing and repeating and—yes—even sharing.

It may seem a little crazy, but trust me on this.

Ingredients:
Baby Spinach
Green Pears
Lemon
Yellow Onion
Yellow Squash
Pesto Seasoning (or equivalent, something like oregano or thyme)
Wasabi sauce (this is the trick—I found a pure wasabi sauce you can squirt out of a bottle like ketchup. Good luck finding the equivalent, but if you can find this or something that will give the same effect, it's awesome).

Directions:
Dice onions and pears. Put a 1/3 of the yellow squash in the pan in thin slices. Put onions and pears into sautee pan with olive oil and with a good helping of spinach. Sautee it all until the spinach cooks where it's got that sautee-d spinach feel. Take 1/4 of a lemon and squeeze it into the pan in the last minute or two, with one slice (or two, depending on the serving size, mine was pretty small, snackish size) in the pan itself. Finally, squirt a good stream of the wasabi sauce over it all, depending on taste, and mix it in. Normal wasabi would probably work fine too.

If all goes well, the pears should have begun to caramelize a little, the onions and squash should be lightly cooked, and the wasabi is all mixed in. The taste is fruity, yet also spicy with a wasabi kick. I added some black pepper at the last minute.

Recommended drink: I had a Guinness with this, and it was great. It almost brings out a fruity side to the Guinness—who knew there was one—and the deep taste of the stout contrasts well.

The great thing about this recipe is that it can be expanded. For a full meal, get either brown or Jasmine rice (I use brown for the health reasons, but Jasmine would be excellent for taste), maybe add some garlic, and it's still vegetarian. For meat, I think a light fish would be good. Chicken is a little too hearty and it starts to loose that wasabi-and-pear-dancing-on-your-face feeling.

So yeah. Try it out and mix it up. You might be surprised what comes out.