• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Start Here
  • Calendar
  • The Hands-On Home

Northwest Edible Life

urban homesteading in the pacific northwest

  • Gardening
  • Cooking
  • Food Preservation
  • Animals
  • Productive Home
  • Life & Family

2May 27, 2011Spring by Erica

Creamy Spinach Puree

The garden has had a spinach ka-boom moment. I was waiting patiently for my spinach to size up, and now, oh boy, has it. But that’s not something to complain about, really. Spinach is tasty, quick to wash up, and always on those magazine lists of “Foods You Must Eat To Be Healthy.”

When faced with a lot of spinach that needs eating, skip the salad route. Cooking will turn a ton of spinach into a reasonable vegetable side for dinner.

I filled the harvesting basket with spinach that was starting to bolt. I knew it’s days were very numbered and I didn’t want it to go to waste. Now you will often hear that once a plant starts to bolt you cannot eat it. There is this idea that the mild tender leaves of spinach or lettuce turn bitter and harsh and tough immediately, the moment a bit of seed-stalk lengthening takes place. I have not found this to be the case. There is a difference, yes, but it is a difference of degrees and a process that might take a week or so to run its course. Since my almost-bolting spinach was still tasty and tender, and since I intend to braise it anyway, I saw no need to consign it to the compost bin.

I filled my harvesting basket with spinach, and set the leaves and tender stems in cold water to wash.

I chopped up the very last of my winter leeks. Nothing fancy since I knew I’d be pureeing everything anyway. An onion or a few cloves of garlic would substitute quite nicely.

I sauteed the leaks in a bit of olive oil until they were softened and added a scant cup of heavy cream. That’s a lot of cream, but I ended up with two pounds of cooked spinach puree, so I was dealing with a serious quantity of spinach here. Adjust amounts based on what makes sense for how much you have harvested. I cooked the leeks in the cream for about 3 minutes, until they were tender.

Then, in went the spinach. Everything cooked down.

When the spinach was fully soft and the cream had reduced, I used my immersion blender to pulse the spinach into a chunky puree (think spinach artichoke dip texture). You could also transfer the mixture to a food processor, blender, or food mill and puree that way. Or, you could not puree at all. That would be a lovely side dish as well.

I seasoned the spinach puree with salt, pepper and nutmeg (I love nutmeg with spinach). Here’s my 8-month-old son reaching for the nutmeg. In truth, he’s the other reason I went with a puree on this side dish – I knew he’d love it too!

The finished goods.

I smeared a generous dollop of the puree onto a slice of homemade bread and topped it with a hunk of herb marinated chevre. My son stole my spoon and turned himself and everything within spoon-radius a nice spinach green color. We both enjoyed our spinach dinner.

2

Author: Erica Filed Under: Spring Tagged With: Cool Weather Crops, SpinachImportant Stuff: Affiliate disclosure

About Erica

Hi! I'm Erica, the founder of NWEdible and the author of The Hands-On Home. I garden, keep chickens and ducks, homeschool my two kids and generally run around making messes on my one-third of an acre in suburban Seattle. Thanks for reading!

Previous Post: « A Public Defense Of The Enthusiastic Beginner
Next Post: Of Watts and Watt-Hours »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kris Mo says

    May 27, 2011 at 7:44 am

    Ohh yum!! Thanks for the great recipe!

  2. Anisa/LazyHomesteader.com says

    May 27, 2011 at 9:00 am

    Mmmmmm! Sounds delish!

  3. Heidi says

    May 27, 2011 at 10:35 am

    i've got some chard that is bolting. this would be a wonderful use for it. thanks for the inspiration!

  4. Kane @ Seattle Homestead says

    May 27, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    That looks amazing, I'm going to have to share this one. I have a feeling we could be taking this to a few garden parties in June…

  5. Pamina says

    May 27, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    That looks amazing! I also recommend Tanis's spinach cake for using up lots of spinach or chard. Especially since you now have chickens because it uses a lot of eggs. I like it with half chard or all chard too. Yum. I'll have to try your recipe now!

  6. Pamina says

    May 27, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    Oops, forgot to add the link.

    http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_11437604?source=pkg

  7. Erica/Northwest Edible Life says

    May 27, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    Thanks Pamina, that looks great!

  8. Dreaming of Jeanie says

    May 29, 2011 at 6:53 am

    Wow. The spinach on the bread with the cheese on top…….it would be a ballet in my mouth and marquee would read "Delicious".

  9. Elizabeth says

    June 5, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    I'm a bit behind in reading this…you said you ended up with 2 POUNDS of puree, is that correct? Do you put excess in freezer? 1 C or 2 C containers?
    No spinach yet here, so want some idea for when it finally comes in.

  10. Erica/Northwest Edible Life says

    June 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    Elizabeth – yup, 2 pounds. It was two good-sized side dish portions (for 3 good eaters plus one small but very lossy eater). We ate one portion and froze one in a quart size ziplock freezer bag….the second portion filled the freezer bag pretty well.

  11. Tami says

    March 4, 2014 at 4:34 pm

    Made this with a mix of baby spinach/kale/chard today. Delicious! Didn’t have leeks, so I did onion and garlic instead. Still noms!

Trackbacks

  1. Puréed Creamed Spinach | home-made puréed says:
    June 19, 2015 at 1:33 pm

    […] site has a no-nonsense set of steps for making your own puréed Creamed Spinach: Northwest Edible Life, Creamy Spinach Purée.  She starts with two pounds of spinach. It may sound like a lot, but spinach wilts down in a big […]

Primary Sidebar



Hi! I'm Erica, the founder of NWEdible and the author of The Hands-On Home. I garden, keep chickens and ducks, homeschool my two kids and generally run around making messes on my one-third of an acre in suburban Seattle. Thanks for reading!

Copyright © 2025 Northwest Edible Life LLC ·