Creamed Spinach
There’s nothing quite like creamed spinach to recreate that steak house experience. Many people get intimidated by the thought of making their own creamed spinach, but really there’s only like 4 ingredients. So how hard could it be. In this recipe video, I show you how to make my version of a basic creamed spinach.
Recipe Overview and Keys to Success
As I said, there are not a lot of ingredients in creamed spinach, and not a whole lot of delicate technique either. It’s actually pretty simple to make. You only need to be aware of a couple things:
- If you’re using fresh spinach, make sure it’s clean. The baby spinach in the bag is generally pretty good, but the bunches of mature spinach, are notoriously dirty. Make sure to rinse them under plenty of water, or you’ll end up with grains of dirt in your creamed spinach.
- After you cook the spinach down, it will release a lot of water that you’re going to want to drain off, or your creamed spinach will be too runny and hard to reduce
- Finally, I like to coarsely chop the cooked spinach before adding the cream. To me, there is something about long strands in creamed spinach that just isn’t appealing, and mowing through the leaves with a knife only takes a minute.
- The quantities here are very flexible. You can use less cream and have a drier creamed spinach or use more and have it looser. You can also add or use a bit less cheese too.
Ingredients for Creamed Spinach (for two)
- Spinach (1.5 bags of baby spinach, or two bunches of mature)
- Cream – half a cup
- Parmesan cheese – quarter cup
- Red wine vinegar – a dash
- Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking the Spinach
- First off, let me say, you need a lot of spinach. As it cooks, the leaves wilt down to just about nothing. I generally use almost a whole bag of baby spinach for just myself
- Heat a pot over medium heat until it’s hot; add your cleaned spinach to the pot. If the spinach is completely dry add a few tablespoons of water, but if you’ve just washed the leaves you will not need to add any more water
- Cook the spinach down, tossing frequently until all the leaves are cooked out and have released their water
- There is likely a few tablespoons of water in the pan, which you should drain out, and then dump the cooked leaves onto some paper towels and pat them to remove more of the excess water
- Use your knife to roughly chop through the leaves, and return the cooked and chopped spinach leaves to the pot
Creaming the Spinach
- Add the cream to the spinach and simmer for 15 – 30 minutes or until the cream has reduced by half
- If at any time the pot looks too dry you can add a bit of cream or water to loosen it; you can also turn up the heat to make it reduce faster, but if you do so, you have to watch it more frequently to ensure it doesn’t burn.
- Once the cream is reduced, add in the parmesan cheese and stir to melt it into the sauce
- Add in a few drops of red or white wine vinegar – this is optional, but I like it as it give a bit of sharpness to the creamed spinach
I love this simple version and make it frequently when I’m cooking a steak. I’ve seen other versions that start with sautéed shallots and garlic, which I think would be great additions, but which are by no means obligatory.
Hope you enjoy!!
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