Creamy Spinach

As a child, I adored creamed spinach and as a child, my hubby deplored creamed spinach.  Over the years, I rarely make the dish for obvious reasons.  When I was planning one of my meals, I had a few particular vegetables to use up.  One was two containers of fresh baby spinach.  I was determined to make use of it and I reverted to the once beloved Creamed Spinach.  I have been checking Joy Bauer for almost all of my recipes.  I keep getting winners so why not take advantage of this good situation. 

 I am posting the recipes that I find online as well as in the book.  I think, it is unfair to print many recipes from a chef's book.  I would guess it is against the copyright law but I have not looked it up.  Once the recipe goes online, then unless it says differently, I would hope that using it online with credit given to the website would be appropriate.

This recipe calls for garlic and normally, I eliminate garlic from all recipes, so hubby can eat it but this time, knowing his aversion to the dish, I put tons of garlic in (OK, I am exaggerating.) 

Even with the Tofutti cream cheese, this turned out creamy and tasty....yummy garlic.

Creamy Spinach (adapted from Joy Bauer)

Ingredients:

1 medium shallot, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 ten-ounce boxes frozen chopped spinach

3 ounces low-fat cream cheese (I subbed in Tofutti cream cheese since I was serving this with chicken.  I bet that it would be even creamier with dairy cream cheese.)

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

Method:

Coat a large sauté pan with oil spray. 

Sauté shallot over medium heat for 5 minutes. 

Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. 

Sauté for 1 minute. 

Then add the spinach, a few handfuls at a time, and sauté until wilted, about 3 to 5 minutes. 

Add cream cheese and stir until melted through.

 Season the spinach with salt, and cook 3-4 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated

Eat and enjoy.

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