We eat a lot of spinach – frozen in winter; from the garden or markets in summer.
The frozen spinach most often goes into a soup, gratin or stir-fry.
The fresh spinach most often goes into a salad.
But, sometimes, a fresh, summer gratin is just the thing to compliment dinner from the grill.
In this dish, the spinach is moistened with a bit of stock, then topped with a seasoned mix of bread crumbs and shredded cheese for a quick, healthy side dish.
Simple Fresh Spinach Gratin
Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8oz (250gr) fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup (4oz, 120ml) chicken stock
- 1/3 cup (1.5oz, 45gr) shredded cheese
- 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
- 1 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp olive oil
Hot stock helps get this to fit in the dish.... It all comes together in the oven
Instructions:
- Remove thick stems from spinach and roughly chop: pile the leaves up and cut through 2 or 3 times.
- Put spinach in oiled baking dish just large enough to hold it. I used my 8 X 11 inch (20 X 27.5cm) oval ceramic dish.
- Heat stock and pour stock over spinach.
- Mix bread crumbs, thyme and cheese and sprinkle over spinach.
- Cover with foil and bake at 375F (190C) for 30 minutes.
- Uncover for last few minutes to brown top. Serve from baking dish.
Note: I could barely get all the spinach in my dish; I had to press it down. Heating the stock helped wilt it so that it wasn’t higher than the sides of the baking dish. As it bakes, it collapses, and the gratin topping comes together.
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Umm I need this in my life ASAP. Amazing!
Kelly, one can never get enough spinach LOL