This easy recipe for lightened up creamed spinach uses Greek yogurt instead of cream for less calories and higher protein! It’s gluten free and tastes delicious.
When I was a kid, I used to beg my mom all the time to make creamed spinach with dinner. I’m, of course, talking about the frozen kind that you just had to heat up in the microwave. Mom made some things from scratch, but a fancy steakhouse side like this was not one of them. I was happy to eat what I considered a super tasty treat, and mom was just as happy to see me eat a vegetable, even if it was covered in cream.
To this day, creamed spinach remains one of my all time favorite sides. The cream really mellows out the more acrid elements of spinach and is overall just a lovely pairing. In the wintertime, I go full traditional with plenty of reduced heavy cream and freshly grated nutmeg, but now that the weather is warming up, I’m craving something a bit lighter. For this version, I added in a few extra veggies and swapped out the heavy cream for some light Greek yogurt instead. It’s still rich and creamy, with a little extra tang thanks to some Dijon mustard.
I have some spinach in my garden that overwintered from the fall, and I was tempted to use it for this recipe, but it just wasn’t quite ready yet. If you’re thinking about starting your first vegetable garden this year (and you SHOULD!), spinach and other leafy greens are great starter crops. They grow really quickly and easily, as long as the weather isn’t too hot where you are.
Growing your own food is one of the most soul satisfying practices on the planet. Not to mention, leafy greens like spinach, kale and swiss chard are the gifts that keep on giving. Once you snip off a few leaves, they’ll grow new ones until the weather becomes too hot to handle (these crops prefer cooler weather). You get to have a regenerating supply of food without having to do a whole lot to maintain it. Magic is real you guys. It just more commonly goes by the name of “nature.”
One Year Ago: Olive Oil and Honey Face Mask
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1-2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced into 1 inch strips
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 3/4 cup 2% Greek yogurt
- 8 ounces baby spinach
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the shallots, red pepper and garlic and saute until softened and lightly golden, about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the mustard and yogurt until the yogurt melts into a saucy consistency. Add the spinach and toss until it just wilts and is fully coated in the sauce, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Transfer to a bowl and serve immediately.
Nicole Gaffney, aka Coley, is a professionally trained chef, recipe developer, tv host and food writer.
Perfect timing, Coley. This was the first thing I asked for when you opened your blog many months ago and here it is! But the timing is perfect since with this rain I am planning on doing cast iron skillet roasted tenderloin steaks (about 2″ thick from Ernest’s) rather than doing them on the grill. And I was planning on serving it with… wait for it – creamed spinach and a salad. Thanks! (BTW: many months ago I purchased that $99.00 special induction cook-top that you saw on TV every ten minutes. I set it up in the garage and now can cook the living hell out of steaks in the winter since all I have to do is open the roll up door to clear the smoke. You can get a great sear and NO smoke detectors freaking out the dog and no smells to worry about. Great for fish as well since the pans that come with it are non-stick and cast iron is naturally induction compatible. Love it. My next project is to buy an 2000 watt inverter for the Jeep and we’ll take that bad boy to the Cove to cook bacon and eggs in the morning and steaks for lunch with no worries about the incessant wind blowing out the flame on my grill. Stay tuned.)
Bruno, please tell me more about this induction cooktop. What’s the brand? I don’t watch much tv. We’ve been using a Dark Star propane burner but it’s starting to rust and warp, so it’s about time to upgrade. Plus the wind blowing out the flame is always an issue around here.
Coley, I’m going to try some creamed collard greens. They’ve been a little on the bitter side since it was a warm winter, but this recipe could work some magic I think.
Danielle – this is seriously like the best 99 bucks I’ve spent in some time. See the attached link for the offer. http://www.nuwavepic.com/
I am a serious home cook that worked for a time as a sous chef in a white table cloth restaurant so I know my way around a kitchen. And I love cooking on this sucker. I really hope that I can use it on the beach because here on the island the wind never stops. Good luck.
Danielle – did this link come through? http://www.nuwavepic.com/
Thank you, Bruno! The link worked. They should hire you because that infomercial website never would have sold me, but you did.
I love this whole exchange! It’s cracking me up, because I may or may not be endorsing a product that does something similar, and it may or may not be the reason I was down in Tampa last month! It definitely costs more money, but it’s a really great product that can sear the heck out of a steak: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/philips-smokeless-grill/
I’m so glad, Bruno! I’d love to hear what you thought of the recipe. Can’t go wrong with Ernest’s steaks.
Coley – I’m sorry, that was rude of me not to respond that I made it that very night and it was delish! It is my new Creamed Spinach recipe – thanks. I had been making a traditional style with Bechamel (and added Boursin cheese!) for years but every time we ate it I could feel my arteries closing up! This one is great and just about guilt free. Oh, I clicked the link for the indoor grill – wowser. That is a serious piece of cookware. My induction plate is just a toy but it will turn a cast iron pan into a serious place to sear a steak. And it was so cheap I don’t mind leaving it in the garage! Or take to the beach.
Oh snap! That grill looks intense. No smoke? About time someone figured out how to do that. I’ll stay tuned to see if you may or may not have more to tell me about this thing.