When my friend Christi heard about my 2007 collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipes, she offered her grandmother's recipe for a traditional spinach casserole. Sure! But reading the ingredient list of cottage cheese, cheese and eggs -- and only ten ounces of spinach -- I was fully prepared to not like it.Even Christi, who has what might be called a 'theoretical' attachment to vegetables, says, "Our family spinach casserole recipe should come with its own paramedic." Or a heart defribrillator.
But friends trust friends and she made made me promise to try it 'just once' without modification. Thank you, Christi, for saving me from myself - this is a winner!
TO PREP AHEAD
- ONE or TWO DAYS BEFORE Mix the casserole but do not bake.
- DAY OF Return to room temperature. Bake at 350F for an hour.
- Christi says the uncooked casserole can be frozen but should be fully thawed before baking.
OTHER TIPS
- Double the recipe for a 9x13 pan
- Do salt the spinach while cooking
- I wasn't sure what 'brick' cheese was and the grocery store didn't have any; so I used a Kraft mix of crumbled cheeses, cheddar, mozzarella and one other
MORE IDEAS for THANKSGIVING VEGETABLE RECIPES using GREENS
~ Gratin of Greens was the featured "spinach" recipe in 2006 ~
~ Noodles with Sour Cream ~
~ Orzo with Spinach ~
~ Spinach Puffs from my food column, Kitchen Parade ~
~ more spinach recipes ~
~ more Thanksgiving recipes ~
~ Gratin of Greens was the featured "spinach" recipe in 2006 ~
~ Noodles with Sour Cream ~
~ Orzo with Spinach ~
~ Spinach Puffs from my food column, Kitchen Parade ~
~ more spinach recipes ~
~ more Thanksgiving recipes ~
SPINACH CASSEROLE
Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 60 minutes
Makes 3 1/2 cups
Time to table: 60 minutes
Makes 3 1/2 cups
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon table salt (or salt to taste)
1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach
3 eggs, whisked
3 tablespoons flour
16 ounces cottage cheese (I used a 1% cottage cheese from Pevely that is so creamy, you don't know it's just 1%)
4 ounces 'brick' cheese (Christi's grandmother cuts the cheese in 1" cubes)
4 ounces American cheese (same)
1/2 stick melted butter (Christi's family leaves this out and so do I)
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and let dissolve. Add the spinach and cook til done. Transfer to a colander and drain well. (Christi's mother uses a new potato ricer to drain the water from the spinach. I used the back of a spoon to press the spinach against the colander until it stopped expressing liquid.)
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. Stir in cooked and drained spinach. Grease a shallow quiche pan or an 8x8 baking dish. Bake uncovered for 60 minutes or until top begins to brown.
PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.
NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.
Move aside, turkeys. (No, not you, dear readers! Thanksgiving turkeys!) Here at A Veggie Venture, vegetables are the real stars of the Thanksgiving table. So it's new Thanksgiving recipes all November long for a fabulous collection of Thanksgiving vegetable recipe ideas. Whether it's last year's famous World's Best Green Bean Casserole or a brand-new recipe which catches your fancy this year, move over turkeys, it's vegetables' time. © Copyright 2007
Thank you for supporting advertisers from BlogHer.
Thank you for supporting advertisers from SixApart!
Thank you for supporting advertisers from Google
Your Comments:
Salting the spinach while its cooking? Is the salt used for flavor, or just to get the water boiling faster? Between the three cheeses, I'd think the flavor requirement of the salt would be covered.
Maybe it's like the story about cutting the end off the ham...
Wow, this sounds a lot like criticism - I certainly only mean to share ideas!!
T ~ No worries! Your comments are spot on with what I might have done had I not promised Christi to make no changes.
re cooking the spinach - at least to my taste, the cooking adds moisture, even if much of it as expressed
re the salt - it's for flavor and again, at least to my taste, the cheeses didn't provide enough salt and so cooking the spinach both adds the moisture and distributes the salt throughout
re the end of the ham, perhaps! let me know what you choose and how it turn out.
Re: this spinach casserole - it certainly contains lots of cheese, but it sounds delicious. Any chance of explaining what's a 'brick' cheese and what's 'American' cheese?
It is a very mild white cheese.
Christi's Dad
And Pille, 'American' cheese is another processed cheese, sort of a mild yellow cheddar. If I were you, I'd pick some of your gorgeous Estonian cheeses, not try to replicate the American pasteurized cheeses.
I *hate* frozen spinach and would replace it with fresh. But this sounds really good. Thanks Christi!
Links to this post:
Create a Link