Ultimate Creamed Spinach

By Birgitta

I adore creamed spinach. Of course, it's just chopped spinach stirred into some loose béchamel. But there are ways of bringing out the very best in a béchamel... When prepared like this, it's not just a side order but a dish on its own.

Ingredients

• 500 g fresh spinach
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 carrot
• 300 ml whole milk1 bay leaf
• black pepper
• a few gratings of nutmeg
• 50 g butter

Details

Servings 2

Preparation

Step 1

Wash and trim 500g fresh spinach, stripping out the coarse central stalks. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Blanch the spinach in 3 or 4 batches, putting a good handful of leaves into the rapidly boiling water and stirring them in. Bring back to the boil and boil for just 1 minute. Remove the leaves from the water with a small sieve or slotted spoon and refresh in cold water. Then squeeze with your hands to extract as much water as you can before roughly chopping the spinach.

Grate a small onion and ½ carrot and put in a pan with 300ml whole milk, a bay leaf, a couple of twists of black pepper and a few gratings of nutmeg. Bring almost to boiling point, then leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain the hot milk into a warmed jug, discarding the herbs and vegetables.

Melt 50g butter in the pan (you don't need to wash it) and stir in 25g plain flour to get a loose roux. Cook this gently for a couple of minutes, then add half the warmed, seasoned milk and stir in. When the sauce is thick and smooth, stir in the rest of the milk. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for just a minute. Then stir in the chopped spinach. Heat through, but don't let it bubble for more than a minute. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Ladle into large, warm bowls.

You can, if you like, serve with grated Parmesan, Gruyère or even Cheddar, but I think it's a purer, more spinachy dish on its own.