We love spinach at my house. This wasn’t always so with yours truly. I went through a long, long, LONG phase where I abhorred anything vegetable. Mom and dad didn’t mean to do this to me, but those summer vegetable gardens! With veggies covering every inch of kitchen space! It just got to be too much. Yeah, I was one ungrateful sprout. Thankfully, that’s all over with and as an adult I just love to welcome those veggies into my home and right onto my plate.

Take spinach, for example. It’s so good for you! So vibrant and simple and hopeful. That’s why we here at Full Fork Ahead decided it needed to be stewed into some heavy cream and put on the “other” side of the veggie tracks. The wrong side. The side you dare not go! Wait, that’s not right. You should go there, to the wrong side, every once in a while, right? Sure! Both the sis and I had creamed spinach at separate dining experiences and loved it. Yes, it doesn’t exactly look like the tastiest thing in the world, but it is tasty and it’s darn good stuff. And like I say a lot around here, it’s easy. I swear, I so swear it is.

The dearth of photos in this post attests to the recipe’s simplicity. After you chop, chop and chop some more spinach and onions…

….saute them. Chopping and sauteing, sounds easy so far, right? If you’re pan isn’t big enough for all the spinach, add in the spinach a little at a time, allowing one batch to cook down before adding more.

The spinach begins to wilt and you’ll add in the cream. You’ll see why when you get to this step, you needed so much spinach in the first place. It cooks down a lot.

Pretty soon you’ve got a pan full of creamy, soft spinach that’s seasoned with salt and pepper and nutmeg, a simple combination that compliments the spinach well. Goes well with a lot of different main courses, like steak, or we had it with the Get Yo Man Chicken featured here a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Creamed Spinach

From Paula Deen

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Level: Easy Serves: 4

• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Vidalia onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 bunches spinach, stemmed and chopped
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

In a medium saute pan over medium-high heat, melt butter and then add the olive oil. Mix in the onions and garlic; cook for 2 minutes until soft. Add the chopped spinach and warm through. Add the salt, nutmeg and the heavy cream. Mix well. Cook until liquid reduces by half, roughly 3 to 4 minutes.

Notes:

I buy spinach in the bags, so I just bought and used two bags of fresh regular spinach. You can certainly use baby spinach if you prefer. As for “stemming” the stuff, we just made sure to look out for any longer stems that may have remained attached and removed those. We left the shorter stems that were about an inch to two inches long and didn’t look rough.

The liquid in this one doesn’t really get thick, not like an alfredo sauce or anything, so if you’re not a fan of thinner sauces, just use a slotted spoon to serve and that way you leave out the majority of it.

Print PDF