2-1/2 cups spinach, finely chopped
1/2 cup parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
3 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1 egg, beaten

1. Combine spinach, parsley and scallions, chopped as finely as possible. Season with a pinch of salt and toss with about a teaspoon of the olive oil.
2. Stir the beaten egg into the greens, making sure to coat completely.
3. Heat remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour the greens into the pan, spreading evenly throughout the pan.
4. Cook until mixture starts to set, separate into 4 wedges with the edge of a spatula and continue cooking until browned.
5. Flip wedges over and cook until the other side is lightly browned, then transfer to a plate. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

2 medium white onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons salt
6 ounces canned chunk tuna, drained
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
1 cup hot, cooked white rice

1. Combine salt and sliced onions in a bowl and place outside in direct summer sunlight for at least an hour.
2. Wash the onions several times under cold water and drain thoroughly.
3. Combine butter, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne and oregano. Stir in tuna and onions.
4. Put tuna and onions on a bed of white rice to serve.

Makes 4 servings

One of the great things about summer is that the sun itself can actually be used as a method of food preparation. I don't mean just in the way that all of the delicious and affordable fruits and vegetables can be found everywhere (though that's certainly a bonus) but leaving jarred and salted lemons with some herbs in the sun, for example, can become the basis of great food. I was looking around for countries I've barely heard of and know little to nothing about and ended up in Azerbaijan and Oman.

To try and make use of the whole sun as preparation thing, I found a recipe for Mezroota, where you leave heavily salted onions out in the sun for several hours to sort of pickle them. The onions themselves were actually quite mild afterwards and surprisingly unsalty, but the dish itself, comprised of the flavors of cumin, oregano and lemon juice mixed with tuna, didn't really seem all that complimentary. It was too sour and pungent to really appeal to my palette, but I'm going to try and remember to use the sun as my ally for the next 6 weeks of Canadian summer. I used cooked barley instead of rice for a change.

The Azeri dish Kükü, on the other hand, was so delicious I ate all 4 servings. Certainly it helps to have a fondness for cooked spinach, but this light frittata is a cinch to make and a very tasty way to get a bunch of greens into your belly. The original recipe called for cilantro, which I of course substituted for parsley. I have a feeling I would not have liked it nearly as much had I not made the substitution. I'm not sure I've ever eaten so much spinach in one sitting before, which lead to the discovery that spinach, much like asparagus, very distinctively changes the aroma of your urine. Which leads me to wonder why healthy food has to make you so stinky?