Creamed Spinach

Storing and Planning Ahead

Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat gently with a splash of cream, stirring; it thickens hard when cold.

How to Make Creamed Spinach

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1. If using fresh spinach, wilt it in a large dry pan in batches over high heat, about 90 seconds a batch, until just collapsed. Tip into a colander.

   Mark done Start 90 sec timer

2. When cool enough to handle, gather the spinach into a tea towel and wring it out hard over the sink. Keep going until it stops dripping, then chop it roughly.

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3. Melt the butter in the same pan over medium heat and cook the onion 8 minutes until soft and translucent, then the garlic for 1 minute.

   Mark done Start 1 min timer

4. Whisk the cornflour into the milk until smooth, then pour it into the pan with the cream.

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5. Simmer 4 minutes, stirring, until it thickens enough to coat a spoon.

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6. Fold in the chopped spinach and cook 3 minutes more, stirring, until it is heated through and the sauce clings to it rather than running off.

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7. Take off the heat and stir in the Parmigiano, salt, pepper, nutmeg and lemon juice.

   Mark done

8. Taste — it should be assertively seasoned and unmistakably nutmegged — and serve hot.

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Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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Worth Knowing

• Wring it dry. A kilo of spinach reduces to about 250 g, and the difference is water you do not want.
• Nutmeg is not optional in this dish; it is what makes it taste like a steakhouse side.
• Frozen leaf spinach works well and saves the wilting step — just thaw and wring.

Why the Method Is What It Is

A kilo of spinach carries close to 900 ml of water, and all of it will come out in the pan. Wilting it first and then wringing it in a towel removes the water on your terms rather than in the finished dish, which is why this version is thick and the usual one is soup. Cornflour thickens at a lower temperature than a flour roux and stays clearer and glossier, and it needs no cooking-out time — useful in a side dish that goes together while something else rests.

What to Put Next to It

A steak · Prime rib · Roast potatoes

Common Substitutions & Variations

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Creamed Spinach Nutrition

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

Vegetarian when made with a hard cheese made without animal rennet in place of the parmigiano-reggiano.

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