Crossword Genius

Small measure of salt coating a vegetable (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

spinach

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a vegetable' is the definition.
(I know that spinach is a type of Leaf vegetable)

'small measure of salt coating' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is located in the answer.
'measure' could be 'pi' (pi is a kind of measure) and 'pi' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'nach' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for spinach that I've seen before include "Vegetable, source of iron" , "Popeye the Sailor's vegetable of choice" , "Leafy vegetable" , "Popeye the Sailor's favourite vegetable" , "Some greens" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times.
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