There’s a reason fancy steak houses always offer a side of creamed spinach on their menu. It’s because everyone loves it! This recipe takes your creamed spinach and turns it into a casserole that you can assemble ahead of time and just pop in the oven to accompany any holiday meal or dinner party.
It’s always a relief when you read a recipe and it only has four ingredients. That doesn’t happen very often and many often treat that with suspicion, but I guarantee you that these four ingredients come together so simply and easily and really deliver on flavor – just remember to season properly with salt and pepper and you can’t be disappointed.
There is one thing you can do to make this recipe even easier – ensure that your spinach has defrosted and that your cream cheese is at room temperature. Defrosted spinach will allow you to squeeze out all the water most effectively and room temperature cream cheese is WAY easier to blend. So, just try to plan ahead and give both these ingredients time ahead of making the dish.
As with any recipe that only has four ingredients, it’s important that all those ingredients be of the highest quality. That extends to your breadcrumbs too. I like to make my own breadcrumbs using leftover white bread and buzzing it around in a food processor. If you purchase breadcrumbs, try to find fresh breadcrumbs rather than dried breadcrumbs. Fresh breadcrumbs will toast while the casserole is in the oven.
If you do assemble this ahead of time, remember that it needs to come to room temperature before you pop it into the oven to bake. If you forget to let it come to room temperature, plan on adding more time and watch that the breadcrumbs on top don’t get too brown (just cover with foil if they do).
If you’re here reading this, you’ve just stumbled upon the easiest way to make a delicious side dish for your next event dinner. Good for you!
What if I wanted to use fresh spinach? Would it still be 10 oz. after cooking and squeezing out the water? I think fresh is so much more tender. Thanks
Hi Myrna. If you wanted to use fresh spinach, yes – you would cook it and it would need to weigh 10 ounces AFTER you’ve cooked and squeezed it. That’s a lot of fresh spinach!
How do you make your own breadcrumbs?
Hi Liezl. Take some day old or slightly stale bread and buzz it around in your food processor or blender to make your own bread crumbs.
Can Dairy Free cream cheese be substituted ?
Thanks, I have loved you starting from QVC.
Hi Ellen. I haven’t tried that, but I expect you could use it. Give it a try!
ML
Made this for Christmas dinner. Wonderful outcome and am having more the next night! Very creamy and delicious, thanks Meredith
Just made this recipe and it was super delicious!
While I am not a spinach fan, my husband loves it. With that in mind I plan to make this casserole as I know he will enjoy it and who knows, I may learn to love spinach myself. You always provide such enticing recipes.
Can this be made the day before and baked on Easter Sunday?
Hi Janice. Sure you can make this a day ahead of time. Just be sure to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can from the spinach.
Absolutely love this dish.
How would you recommend cooking fresh spinach. I agree with Myrna on using fresh.
Hi Lynn. I would gently wilt the spinach in a skillet with a little oil or butter. Just pop a lid on top and it will wilt down in no time.
I’m with Myrna and Lynn. I always find that frozen spinach is much tougher and loaded with stems and brown bits with very few leaves. If a recipe calls for it, I just buy a ton of fresh baby spinach instead from Costco. It’s disappointing that no matter which brand I buy or how much I spend, the quality of all the frozen spinach brands seems to be universally terrible. I’d like to use frozen for convenience, but the spinach is just so much better when I start with fresh.
This recipe has been tested with fresh chopped spinach and it actually does come out better with frozen spinach. It calls for chopped frozen spinach so you may not find as much of a problem with the stems. If you do chose to use the fresh spinach you will want to give it a quick sauté before adding the rest of the ingredients.
can you use the air fryer?
You could use the air fryer, but you’ll need to keep an eye on the top and cover it with foil if it starts to get too brown.
ML