Creamed spinach is a dish consisting of a spinach coated in a creamy sauce, which can be used as side dish or topping. It is a common side dish at
steakhouse
A steakhouse, steak house, or chophouse is a restaurant that specializes in steaks and chops. Modern steakhouses may also carry other cuts of meat including poultry, roast prime rib, and veal, as well as fish and other seafood.
History
Choph ...
s but can be found at found in everything from frozen TV dinners, fast casual, to gourmet restaurants and North American and European home dishes.
Preparation
Celebrity cook
Rachael Ray
Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosted the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program '' Rachael Ray''. Other programs to her credit include ''30 Minut ...
's recipe for creamed spinach in one dish uses chopped spinach, garlic, salt, pepper, cream, cheese, and a little oil prepared in a pan. French style creamed spinach or ''épinards a la crème'' has some variation but still considered creamed spinach; chef
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...
's recipe includes spinach, butter, flour, salt, pepper, and beef stock or heavy cream, and made in a saucepan.
Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...
's creamed spinach recipe includes spinach, butter, onion, garlic,
cream cheese
Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Cream cheese is not naturally matured and is meant to be consumed fresh, so it differs from other soft cheeses such as Brie and Neuf ...
, milk, ground nutmeg, salt, and pepper. The spinach is usually trimmed of the stem, cleaned, and chopped.
It can also be part of another more complicated recipe, for example in
Oreilles d'âne layers of crepes or in a more modern version lasagna pasta or (see
crozets de Savoie
Crozets de Savoie are small, square-shaped, flat pasta originally made in the Savoie region in southeast France. Crozets were made traditionally at home by housewives using buckwheat or wheat, or sometimes both. This pasta is used mainly to prepa ...
) are placed in alternating layers with creamed spinach and grated cheese.
[Two ''oreilles d'ânes'' recipes](_blank)
/ref> It is also used in eggs Sardou for example, the New Orleans classic. Creamed spinach has been suggested a component of Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington is a baked steak dish of English origin, made out of fillet steak and duxelles wrapped in shortcrust pastry. Some recipes include wrapping the contents in prosciutto, or dry-cured ham, which helps retain moisture while preve ...
.
There are other creamed greens dishes, such as creamed kale
Kale (), also called leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage (''Brassica oleracea'') cultivars primarily grown for their Leaf vegetable, edible leaves; it has also been used as an ornamental plant. Its multiple different cultivars vary quite ...
, but the dish ''potage creme d’epinards'' (cream of spinach soup) is a different dish.
Suggestions as to the popularity of the dish note that the cream balances the bitterness of the spinach, it adds color to a plate, and is relatively healthy containing vitamins A, C, and K, iron, calcium, and fiber although some recipes can have considerable fat content.
Steakhouses that serve creamed spinach, usually with their own special recipe, include Ruth's Chris
Ruth's Chris Steak House is a chain of over 100 steakhouses across the United States, Canada and Mexico. On May 22, 2008, the company underwent rebranding and became part of Ruth's Hospitality Group after its acquisition of Mitchell's Fish Marke ...
, Strip House, and Benjamin's Steakhouse. Recipes vary and some do not contain actual dairy cream. A famous restaurant in Chicago known to serve creamed spinach is The Berghoff founded in 1898. Creamed spinach is served at the oldest steakhouse in the US, Old Homestead Steakhouse
The Old Homestead Steakhouse is a steakhouse established in 1868 whose flagship location is in Manhattan, New York City. The restaurant is the oldest continuously operating steakhouse in the United States. Staff at the Old Homestead Steakhouse ar ...
in New York City founded in 1868.
Creamed spinach is also served by NASA on spaceflights.
Gallery
Radio WWOZ Studio New Orleans Oct 2018 Spinach Dish.jpg, Tray of creamed spinach
ISSSpaceFoodOnATray.jpg, Creamed spinach as space food
Space food is a type of food product created and processed for consumption by astronauts during missions to outer space. Such food has specific requirements to provide a balanced diet and adequate nutrition for individuals working in space w ...
for NASA spaceflights
See also
*Spinach soup
Spinach soup is a soup prepared using spinach as a primary ingredient. A common dish around the world, the soup can be prepared as a broth-based or cream-based soup, and the latter can be referred to as "cream of spinach soup." In China, a spinac ...
*Spinach dip
Spinach dip (sometimes casually spin dip) is a Dip (food), dip that uses the vegetable spinach as a primary ingredient.[Creaming (cooking)
Creaming is used to refer to several different culinary processes. In baking, it is the blending of ingredients with a softened form of a solid fat. When a dish is described as being "creamed", it may mean that it has been Poaching (cooking), po ...]
*Creamed corn
Creamed corn (which is also known by other names, such as cream-style sweet corn) is a type of Creaming (food), creamed vegetable dish made by combining pieces of whole sweet corn, sweetcorn with a Soup, soupy liquid of wikt:milky, milky residue f ...
*Green bean casserole
Green bean casserole is an American baked dish consisting primarily of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions. It was popularized in the USA from a recipe printed on a soup can starting in the 1950s.
It is a popular side ...
*Cream of mushroom soup
Cream of mushroom soup is a simple type of soup where a basic roux is thinned with cream or milk and then mushrooms or mushroom broth are added.
In North America, it is a common canned condensed soup. Cream of mushroom soup is often used as a ...
*Palak paneer
Palak paneer () or palak chhena is an Indian dish consisting of chhena or paneer in a thick paste made from puréed spinach, called palak in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, and other Indian languages.
The terms palak chhena and saag chhena are s ...
(Indian dish with pureed spinach, cheese, spices)
*Thanksgiving dinner
The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is Thanksgiving dinner, a large meal generally centered on a large roasted turkey. Thanksgiving is the largest eating event in the United States as measured by retail ...
References
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Spinach dishes
Creamed vegetables