Spinach has been regularly making an appearance in my Turriefield Veg Box. Baby leaf spinach gets eaten raw in salads and sandwiches or occasionally juiced, while the tougher older leaves get cooked. One of my favourite recipes is gently sautéing the spinach and serving with spiced puy lentils and a poached egg (pictured below right with asparagus kale), or adding it as a layer with mozzarella cheese into a meatloaf (below right).
Another of my favourite ways to use up older spinach, or spinach that perhaps has been sitting in the fridge a little longer than it should have, is by smothering it in a wholegrain mustard flavoured cheese sauce and baking it until it’s golden and bubbly. Total comfort food! My father showed me how to make this several years ago and it’s nigh time I blogged it!
I think this side dish goes really well with the meatloaf pictured above (giving you a double dose of spinach in one meal!) or even with bangers and mash. It makes a great vegetarian side dish too for nut roasts and the like, acting like a spinach-infused sauce.
I’m linking this recipe up with a new food blogging challenge by Shaheen over at Allotment 2 Kitchen: Eat Your Greens and Citrus Spice UK’s In My Veg Box challenge hosted by Mireille at East-West Realm which is all about spinach this month.
Cheesy Spinach Bake
Ingredients
- 225 grams spinach washed and tough stalks removed
- 50 grams butter
- 50 grams plain flour or gram flour
- 450 ml full fat milk
- 130 grams mature cheddar cheese divided
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- smoked paprika to sprinkle on top
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 C.
- Wash spinach thoroughly and place in a large, dry pan.
- Heat, with the lid on, for a few minutes, until the spinach starts to wilt. Do not overcook, the spinach should still have some bite in it and be a vibrant green colour.
- Transfer spinach to a colander to drain while you make the cheese sauce.
- To make the sauce, heat the butter in a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat until it starts bubbling.
- Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for one minute.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the milk. Return to heat and stir until thickened; this will only take a few minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in 85 grams of grated cheese and the mustard.
- Divide your spinach into six portions and arrange in a large casserole dish.
- Pour the cheese sauce evenly over the top.
- Sprinkle with the remaining 35 grams grated mature cheddar, and sprinkle with paprika.
- Bake for 20 minutes until golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.
You may also like these other spinach recipes:
Thai-style squash noodle and spinach soup by How To Cook Good Food
Greener Colada: Pineapple, Coconut & Spinach Smoothie by Fuss Free Flavours
Spinach & Feta Chickpea Burgers by Amuse Your Bouche
Gluten Free Chocolate Mug Cake
Looks delicious!
It looks very tasty, i love spinach and i love cheese so think i’ll need to give this a try
Gosh, that’s real comfort food – yum!
This looks so good! Will have to try this one out. I am known as a veggie who hates green food but this may start me off nicely.
Mmmm I made this for tea and the me and the kids loved it thank you! Lovely recipe for the Autumn 🙂
Looks super tasty. I’d like to be eating more things like spinach in my diet.
Thanks Paul – same here re: greens. We’re eating quite a bit just now since they’re arriving in the veg box, but sometimes it’s hard to get more green stuff in the diet. Smothering it in cheese often helps 😀
looks delicious
yum.. what an awesome idea for a weeknight meal. definitely one i will be making – thanks for sharing, i can never go past a good home style dish!
Oh this is making me feel so hungry. It looks just like the sort of food I love to eat but really shouldn’t make a habit of it. I made a spinach and lentil dal recently which has kept us going for a few days – I feel very virtuous 😉
I have fresh spinach in the garden right now – I love spinach any which way, but I bet it’s even better with cheese & mustard! 🙂
This looks so so delicious!
Cheesy spinach sounds incredible!
My kids loved this and they had never tried spinach before! (tell them it is what Popeye eats to build his muscles as it worked with my four!)
Lovely tasty healthy dish. I do like spinach.
That looks divine! Spinach is something my son will eat quite happily (as opposed to peas) so I will have to try some spinach in macaroni cheese soon.
I love spinach and this dish looks tasty! I like the use of smoked paprika.
Popeye food! My kids would enjoy this!
Fabulous family-friendly veggie recipe you’ve got going on there… I’m definitely going to rustle this up for my boys as an after-swimming supper… thanks for the idea!
Anything served with a cheese sauce gets my vote. I don’t know why I don’t eat more spinach because whenever I do I love it. Will have to give this a try.
Let me know what you think if you do try it. 🙂
Ooh, this looks yummy, thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
More tasty spinach recipes is definitely a good thing.
I agree! Waves little flag of support for spinach 🙂
this looks fantastic and I love the step by step pics. I love spinach and do not use it enough.
Thanks Nazima 🙂 I thought it would be easier to take photos instead of trying to explain it in words 🙂
I absolutely adore spinach (and cheese of course) – this would go down very well on my dinner table.
I do think it makes a rather nice side dish, especially if you are eating something dry which would benefit from the addition of a sauce.
We eat a huge amount of spinach and cheese is my downfall so this looks perfect for me!
We’ve started eating a lot more spinach these days too as it makes a regular appearance in our veg box. Such a delicious veg!
Oh yum, my belly is actually grumbling! This is proper comfort food, and even though the sun is shining, I would be so happy to dig in. Thank you so much for sharing with my Eat Your Greens Challenge, please come back at the weekend for the round up. The response has been fab.
Yay! My work here is done 🙂 Thanks for letting me link up to your challenge so late in the day!
OMG this looks incredible! I’m a bit of a cheese fiend, so anything smothered in cheese sauce is a winner in my book! Love spinach too, I know I’d love this dish 🙂 thanks for the shout out too!
Thanks Becca 🙂 It’s not a particularly posh dish but it certainly is comfort food! 🙂