The Best Creamed Spinach

How to Make Creamed Spinach

Here is a brief overview of how this creamed spinach recipe comes together. For the full recipe including all measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

• Sauté the onion. In some melted butter, cook the onion with salt and pepper until it is translucent.
• Make the roux. Add some flour to the butter you sautéd the onion in to make a roux. Read more on this below.
• Finish the sauce. Slowly add the heavy cream, adding just a few tablespoons at a time, making sure it is fully absorbed before adding more. Then stir in the cheese.
• Add the spinach. Stir in the spinach, a few handfuls at a time. Allow it to wilt before adding more. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Making a Roux For Creamed Spinach

The base of any cream-based recipe is a roux, a thickening agent made with fat and flour. To make this the best creamed spinach recipe, we are using butter to sauté the onions and create a roux to make the best cream sauce. By suspending the flour molecules in fat, the consistency of the sauce stays creamy and smooth. While making a roux is simple, there are a few important steps to follow to make sure it is done correctly.

• Make sure the flour is fully coated. If you still see streaks of white, continue whisking. It is important that all of the flour is coated with the butter or your dish will taste like flour.
• Add the liquid slowly. Start with a splash of heavy cream while you continue to stir. Once that is fully absorbed, add more. This whole process only takes a minute or two, but you do want to go slow.

Fresh or Frozen Spinach

This cream spinach recipe can be made with fresh or frozen spinach, depending on what you have available. Fresh baby spinach will give the dish the best texture and flavor and has smaller leaves than regular spinach. This will mean that you won’t need to chop it.

If you decide to go with frozen spinach, look for just picked frozen cut spinach. It provides the best flavor and texture and the way it is frozen and sold, in an air tight bag, helps preserve those flavors best. If all you can find is chopped spinach, that will work but know the texture will be different.

If you use frozen spinach, which can be easier to keep on hand, thaw your spinach in the microwave according to the package directions and remove excess moisture before adding it to the dish. You want to spend a decent amount of time squeezing out the excess water so you don’t add it to your dish. Because frozen spinach is already cooked, it will just need to incorporate into the sauce and heat through, you will not notice it wilting like you would with fresh spinach. You will need 20 ounces of frozen spinach to replace the fresh spinach here.