Catholic Recipe: Holy Thursday Spinach
A custom was prevalent in certain European countries that greens should be eaten on Holy Thursday, coming no doubt from the Charoseth or Jewish meal of bitter herbs, and the day is sometimes called Green Thursday. Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, spinach and dandelion greens are still eaten on Holy Thursday to prevent spring illness, an idea no doubt brought from Germany where it is an ancient belief. Perhaps this was considered a tonic after the Lenten foods, vitamins for a system which for some weeks had been underfed and might be open to attack by some germ or virus. Since the idea seems a good one, we offer a spinach dish for this day.
DIRECTIONS
Prepare your spinach in the usual manner. Chop it finely — do not put it through a grinder. Mince an onion, fry it lightly in 2 tablespoons of butter, dust with a little flour, and stir into your chopped spinach. Then add 1 cup of sour cream, stirring thoroughly. Boil 2 eggs until hard, slice, and place over your spinach in the shape of a cross.
Recipe Source: Feast Day Cookbook by Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger, David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1951
