Healthy Creamed Spinach

Healthy Creamed Spinach! This vegan creamed spinach is so delicious, you’d never believe it was dairy-free! 

Can you even believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner? Even though it’s much later this year, I feel like the entire holiday season has snuck up on me. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m currently 6 months pregnant and trying to cram in as much as I can while Van is still an only child or because this season tends to also be my busiest for work– leaving me feeling like I’m burning the candle at every end imaginable.

Or all of the above? Don’t we all feel like this every single holiday season? And then January and February seem to drag on forever and ever. I’m all for moving Thanksgiving to February 1st. I need more time to slow down and savor.

Have you created your Thanksgiving menu yet? We are still without a kitchen (but getting very, very close) so I’m out of Thanksgiving duty this year. That means we are heading to my in-laws in upstate Wisconsin to do nothing but relax, eat, play some games and relax some more. I love heading up there to get away from it all. My cell phone doesn’t get reception at their house, which always feels like the most beautiful forced break that I need.

Vegan Creamed Spinach

This creamed spinach is maybe one of the best things to come out of my kitchen in a while. And by kitchen, I mean my sweet friend’s kitchens who have been so gracious in letting me cook there for the past few months.

It’s creamy, it’s rich and it’s secretly not packed with heavy cream. Ha! I love my mom’s spinach souffle so much that I can eat almost an entire pan myself. However, it’s also loaded with cheese, cream and eggs. Meh. Not exactly something that I want to be enjoying over and over again this holiday season.

So, I took my love for creamed spinach and veganized it! Pureed silken tofu with lots of sautéed shallots and a pinch of nutmeg make for the most luscious cream sauce without the cream. It’s so fantastic, I ate almost the entire pan while I was testing this one. Since tofu is fairly bland in taste, building lots of flavor with caramelized shallots and garlic is the key.

And isn’t that true of almost everything? Add some garlic and some onions and you are on your way to major flavortown.

To add more body to this vegan creamed spinach, I threw in some raw cashews to the silken tofu puree. Cashews provide a really nice fatty mouthfeel and a slight nuttiness that’s perfect in this creamed spinach.

I also want you to use a dash of nutmeg, to bring in some warmth to the overall dish. That may sound silly, but ground nutmeg is my secret ingredient to pretty much any cream sauce that I make. You don’t need much. Just a tiny pinch will give it that warm, cozy feeling without anyone saying “wow, is that nutmeg?” If you can actually taste the nutmeg, you’ve put in too much.

Lastly, don’t be scared to salt this dish. You are using almost 2 pounds of spinach and zero dairy, so you will need to add salt. Keep tasting the spinach and the sauce together, adding more salt/freshly ground pepper as needed.

While I think this is the most fantastic Thanksgiving side dish out there, it’s also super yummy piled onto warm cooked grains. I used the leftovers in a type of spinach bowl with farro pilaf, roasted cauliflower and lots of this creamed spinach on top.

If you love this healthy creamed spinach, then you’ll love these other holiday side-dishes: the best vegan stuffing, fresh green bean casserole, autumn squash and kale salad, and vegan pumpkin cornbread muffins. 

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