Kitchen Experiment #12 – Three Cheese Spinach (Updated)

We’re in a situation in our household where we go to the grocery store, come back with a carload of stuff, and two days later someone says: “There’s nothing to eat.”

I made a vow over the weekend that I would not go grocery shopping and eat only what was in the house. So, rummaging through the freezer I found frozen spinach. I did a search on the internet on what kind of low carb dishes you can make with spinach, got some ideas, and came up with this:

• 1 16 oz. bag of frozen spinach
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parm cheese
• 1/2 cup cheese of unknown pedigree (we got it at an Italian fair – it was in the parm family)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup ground almonds (I grind almonds in a food processor and keep in the fridge)
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

NOTE: all measurements here are guesses – I just tossed in the stuff – feel free to adjust.

My general approach was to make the spinach ‘creamy’, coat the top with cheese, and put in my Hummer of a toaster oven, so first I took the ricotta cheese and mixed it with the olive oil and garlic. It made a nice goo which I poured over the spinach.

The spinach I prepared by placing in a square oven-safe baking dish, nuking for 5 minutes, then draining. I hate the act of squeezing out the water in spinach, and found that if I use my big rectangular butcher knife, and sandwiched the spinach against one side of the dish and compressed, it worked very well to squeeze the excess water out of the stuff. No muss, no fuss – and no extra dish.

I mixed the spinach with the ricotta / oil / garlic goo and evened out in my pan. I turned on my toaster oven (actually a convection oven – it makes horrible toast) and set it to broil. Then I sprinkled the almonds evenly on the top of the spinach. I then grated the remaining two cheeses and spread evenly on the top. I then put it in the oven for 15 minutes.

THE VERDICT: 15 minutes was a bit too long – the cheese became crusty instead of gooey, and the spinach could have used a bit of salt in the ricotta, but it was actually quite good, and relatively easy to make. Two members of the Low Carb Confidential Taste Panel enjoyed the crust and was eating it off the top of the dish until I shooed them away.

This one is safe for induction and another way to get your veggies.

UPDATE: I had this for breakfast and the flavors had melded nicely. I will most definitely make this again.