Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) austrian composer c. 1895 (Source Getty)


Gustav Mahler, in his younger days, was a vegetarian. There's a story, recounted by one of his biographers, about how the composer was teased by fellow musicians in a restaurant when he refused meat, instead of asking for spinach and apples.

Mahler might have caught on to this way of eating from reading an essay by none other than classical music’s most notorious vegetarian, Richard Wagner (1813-1883).

In 1880 (the same year Wagner published an essay endorsing vegetarianism) Mahler wrote to a friend:

"For the last month, I have been a total vegetarian. The moral effect of this way of life, with its voluntary castigation of the body, is enormous. I expect nothing less than the regeneration of mankind. I advise you to eat suitable food (compost-grown, stone-ground, wholemeal bread) and you will soon see the fruit of your endeavors."

Recipe Creamed Spinach

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter

1 large shallot, finely minced

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp sugar

1-2 tsp lemon juice, to taste

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

1 pound spinach

Instructions

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat and sweat the shallot in the butter for 2-3 minutes until translucent. Add the flour and sweat the butter-onion-flour-mixture ('roux’) for 3-4 minutes until the flour starts smelling nutty but is still pale in colour. Add the milk bit by bit stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent your sauce from turning lumpy. Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, add one bay leaf, and let the sauce simmer gently for 10-15 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.

In the meantime, blanch the spinach in plenty of salted boiling water for 20-30 seconds, just until wilted. Work in smaller batches and immediately after blanching the spinach put it inside an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Once all your spinach is blanched, drain the water and squeeze out as much excess water as possible. You want your spinach to be dry and not watery. Roughly chop the spinach on a large cutting board.

Season your sauce to taste with sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Take out the bay leaf and add the spinach into your sauce. Let the spinach heat through for 1-2 minutes, then adjust the seasoning if required.