Spinach is one of those cool weather crops that love to grow right now, before the heat of summer hits. I wanted to make a dish using spinach to have with dinner recently. I found a recipe that sounded good so we got all the things we needed to make it and put it on the menu. (Yes, we make menus for the week’s dinner meals. Since I hate to grocery shop and do so infrequently, planning avoids repeated trips into town which are time consuming) but as we started preparing to actually make the dish, we realized it was more of a spinach pasta, not a spinach side dish, so we scrapped it for that night.
Eric went to our extensive cookbook collection & pulled out a tapas cookbook to find a spinach recipe. Turns out, the book he pulled out was not the book he was going for, but he found a spinach recipe in it that looked like a good fit with the rest of the meal. The dish was the star of the meal. Kelly & Gilbert were with us for dinner that night and while Gilbert likes most foods, Kelly is a bit pickier and doesn’t usually like vegetable dishes. Amazingly, Kelly really liked it, too. Baby spinach will be a recurring item on my shopping lists this Spring!
Baked Spinach & Goat Cheese with Onion-Date Compote (adapted from España by James Campbell Caruso) Serves 4
Ingredients:
Compote
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup of chopped dates, about 5 ounces
- 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Baked Spinach
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 12 ounces baby spinach
- 4 cloves of garlic, slivered
- 4 ounces goat cheese
Start by making the compote. Sauté the onion in the oil in a medium sauté pan until it is soft, about 3-5 minutes on medium heat.
Soften the onions before adding the rest of the compote ingredients to the pan.
Add in the dates, honey, sherry & salt and simmer it all together for 5 minutes. Remove the compote from the heat and set it aside.
The compote adds sweetness to the dish.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add half the spinach and garlic into the pan and cook them for about 5 minutes, until the spinach has cooked down. Transfer the spinach to a 2-cup ramekin or a 4-cup casserole dish.
The spinach cooks down quickly, but it is best to cook it in 2 batches.
Cook the other half of the spinach and garlic and transfer it to a second 2-cup ramekin or into the 4-cup casserole dish with the first half of the spinach.
The spinach becomes the bottom layer of the dish.
Top the spinach with the goat cheese, then with the compote. Bake the spinach for 5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.
A quick stint in the oven melts the goat cheese on this great spinach side dish.
I can’t wait to make this again! ~Linda
Baked Spinach & Goat Cheese with Onion-Date Compote (adapted from España by James Campbell Caruso) Serves 4
Ingredients:
Compote
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup of chopped dates, about 5 ounces
- 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Baked Spinach
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 12 ounces baby spinach
- 4 cloves of garlic, slivered
- 4 ounces goat cheese
Start by making the compote. Sauté the onion in the oil in a medium sauté pan until it is soft, about 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Add in the dates, honey, sherry & salt and simmer it all together for 5 minutes. Remove the compote from the heat and set it aside.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan. Add half the spinach and garlic into the pan and cook them for about 5 minutes, until the spinach has cooked down. Transfer the spinach to a 2-cup ramekins or 1 4-cup casserole dish. Cook the other half of the spinach and garlic and transfer it to a second 2-cup ramekin or into the 4-cup casserole dish with the first half of the spinach. Top the spinach with the goat cheese, then with the compote. Bake the spinach for 5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.