What can I make with a bag of spinach about to go off?

That bag of spinach sitting in the bottom of the fridge, leaves starting to soften around the edges, is the sort of ingredient that appears when you're using up the odds and ends left near the end of the week's shop. The good news is that wilting spinach is still perfectly fine to cook with, and it happens to be one of the most obliging vegetables in the kitchen when you need to pull together a proper meal from whatever else is knocking about.

The challenge with a bag of spinach and a random collection of other bits is that most recipe sites assume you have every ingredient on their list. They can't see what else is in your cupboard, what needs using up tonight, or whether you've got three eggs or none. That's where a smarter approach helps.

Quick spinach dinner ideas

A simple spinach and egg situation works brilliantly if you have any kind of cheese or even just butter and something starchy. Wilt the spinach down in a pan (it shrinks to almost nothing), crack eggs over the top and let them cook through, then serve it all on toast or with whatever carbs you have around. It's the sort of meal that feels more generous than the ingredients suggest, and it uses up that whole bag in one go.

If you've got any kind of pasta and something to make a sauce, even just garlic or a tin of tomatoes, you can stir wilted spinach through at the end and turn a basic plate of pasta into something that feels balanced and satisfying. Spinach works with cream, with oil and chilli, with lemon, or simply with butter and pasta water. The leaves add bulk and a bit of virtue without demanding much else from your cupboard.

A bag of spinach also rescues a plain baked potato or transforms leftover rice into something closer to a meal. Fry an onion if you have one, throw in the spinach until it collapses, season it well and pile it onto the potato with cheese, or stir it through rice with an egg and whatever spices are in the cupboard. It's fast, filling and stops that bag going straight in the bin.

For something more substantial, spinach works in practically any curry, stew or soup you can improvise. It goes in right at the end and bulks out whatever base you've built from tins, stock cubes or leftover veg. The flavour is mild enough not to fight with anything else, and the texture disappears into the dish.

Let your kitchen do the thinking

The trouble with searching for spinach recipes online is that you'll find hundreds of them, but none will know that you've also got half a lemon, some feta and a tin of chickpeas that need using, or that your spinach is competing with a pepper that's seen better days and some cream that goes off tomorrow. A recipe list can't see the whole picture.

Ask the Kitchen looks at everything you actually have and suggests dinners that use up what's about to turn, including that bag of spinach. It's built for exactly this situation: the end of the week, a fridge full of bits, and no idea what fits together. You get ideas tailored to your kitchen, not someone else's shopping list, so nothing gets wasted and dinner still makes sense.

More dinners from what you've got

• What To Do With Ingredients About To Expire
• How To Use Food Up Before It Goes Off
• What Can I Make With Chickpeas And Spinach?