Top 3 Spinach Recipes: Healthy, Easy and Irresistible

Spinach is a typical late winter and spring vegetable. They are very versatile in the kitchen and you can prepare many tasty recipes with this seasonal vegetable.

It is, in fact, a delicious and nutritious vegetable that is an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and can help to improve heart health, vision and the immune system.

Yes, the classic pairing is spinach and ricotta, but there are many other healthy and tasty recipes. Want some examples? There are potato and spinach muffins, omelettes with tuna and spinach, spinach flan, spinach risotto, spinach salad, spinach cream, spinach, spinach pie, savoury pancakes...

In this post, however, we won't shy away from spinach and ricotta recipes because both ingredients have a mild and delicate flavour, which makes them easy to combine. Are you ready?

The best spinach recipes

As mentioned, spinach is a great tasting vegetable, but it is often undervalued, even though it is an incredible source of nutrients and health benefits.

The fact is that this vegetable has a slightly bitter taste, which contrasts with the creamy, sweet taste of the ricotta. This combination of flavours creates a balanced and delicious dish. Here are the three best spinach recipes:

Spinach and ricotta meatballs

Leave aside the great classics because today we have in mind tasty vegetarian ricotta and spinach meatballs, a richer and tastier variation on the classic spinach meatballs.  

It consists of one of the most successful combinations in the kitchen, spinach and ricotta, renews its promises and invites us to try these exquisite fried morsels that bring together young and old.

            Ingredients:

Recipe for approximately 24 meatballs

  • 250 g spinach, already cleaned
  • 250 g ricotta
  • 50 g grana padano (for grating)
  • 40 g breadcrumbs
  • 20 g extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Salt
  • Black pepper.

TO THE BREAD

  • 1 egg
  • Breadcrumbs.
  • Salt.
  • Black pepper.

Preparation:

  • Start by heating the oil together with a whole clove of garlic, immerse the previously washed spinach and let it fray over a high heat for 5-6 minutes. Then stir frequently until the spinach is completely wilted.
  • Remove the garlic and then drain the spinach in a colander, mashing it lightly with a spatula to remove excess water. Leave to cool and once cool, chop with a knife.
  • At this point, pour the ricotta into a bowl (if it has a lot of water in it, drain it first) and stir it with a spoon. Then add the spinach and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper and mix.
  • To give the meatballs more consistency, add the breadcrumbs and continue mixing. As soon as the dough is ready, take care of forming the meatballs.
  • Then take some dough, about 20 grams, moulded with your hands, then you will get about 24-26 small meatballs. Little by little, pass them gently into a small bowl in which you must have beaten the egg together with salt and pepper. Then into another small bowl with breadcrumbs 15.
  • Continue until you finish all of them and gradually place them in a drip pan lined with parchment paper. Finally, cook the spinach and ricotta meatballs in a preheated oven, in static mode, at 200 ° for about 20 minutes. Serve hot!

Ricotta and spinach cannelloni

What really makes ricotta and spinach cannelloni so irresistible - their genuine simplicity, the balance between fresh pasta, homemade filling and softness, the golden crust of the delicious béchamel? We thought long and hard about it, but we couldn't find a single answer: this combination of ingredients creates a delicious dish.

For this reason, ricotta and spinach cannelloni is a timeless classic of Italian cuisine, loved by young and old alike - perfect even for vegetarian menus or for the most important occasions!

Ingredients

For the egg pasta (8 cannelloni)

  • 100 g flour
  • 55 g eggs (approximately 1.5)

For the stuffing

  • 250 g spinach
  • 150 g ricotta
  • 1 and a half eggs
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Extra virgin olive oil.
  • 50 g grana padano (grated)
  • 1 nutmeg powder
  • Black pepper
  • Salt

For the béchamel sauce

  • 500 g whole milk
  • 37 g flour
  • 50 g butter
  • A spoonful of salt
  • Nutmeg.
  • A sprinkling of black pepper

Preparation:

  • Start making the egg batter. Pour the flour into a bowl, keeping some to one side; add the lightly beaten egg and work the dough with your hands until the ingredients are mixed.
  • You should obtain a smooth, homogeneous, firm and elastic compound, which will be given a spherical shape. At this point wrap it with food film and leave it to rest for about an hour in a cool, dry place to acquire the right elasticity.
  • In the meantime, let the pasta rest, take care of the spinach. Pour the oil into a frying pan, add the garlic, let it brown and remove it. Then add the spinach, well washed and drained.
  • Add salt and cook the spinach, covered, for about 5 minutes until wilted. Once cooked, leave to cool and prepare the béchamel sauce in the meantime. First you will need to heat the milk.
  • Now pour the butter into another pan and let it melt completely. Then add the sifted flour and mix quickly. After a couple of minutes, you will get a hazelnut coloured roux, remove it from the heat for a moment and slowly pour in the now hot milk.
  • Stir continuously and season your béchamel by adding a pinch of salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg 10. Continue cooking over moderate heat for 5-6 minutes, until the desired density is reached.
  • Transfer the béchamel sauce to a glass bowl and cover with cling film. At this point, the spinach will be cold, transfer it to a cutting board and cut it with a knife.
  • Pour them into a large bowl, add the ricotta and mix with a fork. Also add the eggs, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, mix everything together. Finally add the grated cheese.
  • Mix the ingredients well. Then transfer the mixture into a piping bag and put it in the refrigerator until use. Retrieve your egg dough dough that will have rested and reached the right elasticity and divide it in two.
  • Roll out the dough by hand, using a lightly floured rolling pin. Try to obtain rectangles 9×14 cm 19, or in any case taking into account the width of your pan.
  • Once you have your pasta rectangles, burn them one at a time for about 1 minute in boiling water, lightly salted 20.
  • Drain them and place them on a tray with a tea towel. It is important to spread the various rectangles perfectly without overlapping them, or if you prefer, you can soak them in cold water to block their cooking.
  • Place approximately 100 g of filling with a few sacks in the centre of the pasta sheet. Then roll the sheet up on itself to form cylinders. Now spread 2 generous spoonfuls of béchamel sauce in an ovenproof dish.
  • Place your cannelloni in the pan and cover them with the remaining béchamel sauce, spreading it well. Sprinkle with the grated cheese and bake them in a preheated static oven at 200 ° for 15 minutes.
  • Then operate the grill mode at 230 ° and cook for approximately 5 minutes until a golden crust is obtained.

Spinach puddings

Spinach puddings are delicate and delicious appetizers, served with a flavour-enhancing parmesan cream. To prepare them, simply mix spinach, eggs, parmesan, a pinch of pine nuts and cook quickly in a water bath.

The final touch is the parmesan cream and, ready, you have an original way to bring spinach to the table.

Ingredients:

  • 500 g spinach
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 g nutmeg
  • Salt.
  • 20 g pine nuts.
  • Breadcrumbs.
  • Seed oil.
  • 100 g grated Parmesan cheese
  • Black pepper.
  • Extra virgin olive oil.
  • 1 tablespoon of whole milk

For the Parmesan cream

  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 15 g butter
  • 25 g Parmesan cheese
  • 25 g flour  

Preparation:

  • To make spinach puddings, wash the spinach and dry it in a pan over a low heat with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil for about 10 minutes. Then lightly salt them.
  • Cut them with a knife and place the eggs, chopped spinach, grated cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and nutmeg in a bowl and mix everything together.
  • Finely chop the pine nuts and add them to the mixture, along with a tablespoon of milk to smooth everything. Continue mixing until the mixture is homogeneous.
  • Prepare 4 aluminium moulds with a diameter of 7 cm and a height of 6 cm: brush the inside with seed oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. This operation will facilitate the final extraction of the puddings.
  • Fill the moulds to the brim with the mixture, place them in an ovenproof pan and pour water into the pan for a third of their height, to bake in a bain-marie in the oven.
  • Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for approximately 25/30 minutes. After this time, test the toothpick which should be dry and remove them with the help of a knife once cooled.
  • Finally, prepare the Parmesan cream in the doses indicated in the recipe. Heat the cream in a saucepan or for a few seconds in the microwave, cover the puddings with a spoonful of cream and serve.

Conclusions

As you can see, spinach is a very versatile vegetable that can be prepared in many different ways. These three recipes are just a small sample of the endless possibilities.

Our advice is not to give up when you want to prepare delicious spinach recipes. With a little imagination, you can turn them into a delicious and healthy dish.

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