Healthy Vegan Creamed Spinach! This creamy delight is the perfect addition to your everyday meals or a stunning centerpiece for your holiday dinner table.
Creamy and flavorful, this Healthy Vegan Creamed Spinach is a delicious dish that’s not only rich and velvety but also packed with nourishing goodness. Elevate your culinary repertoire with this irresistible vegan side dish that combines health and flavor in every bite. Perfect for gatherings or a cozy family dinner, this dish is bound to become a beloved staple in your kitchen!
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
We’re thrilled to finally share this long-awaited recipe that’s been dancing around our virtual whiteboard for ages! Trust us, it’s been a labor of love, and we couldn’t be more excited to present it to you.
We also enjoyed this creamy dish ladled over pasta, baked potatoes, and rice – YUM! You gotta give this one a try!
Tips for Success:
- Flavor Profile: This Healthy Vegan Creamed Spinach is rich, velvety, creamy, and full of delicious spinach flavor.
- Frozen Spinach or Fresh Spinach: We used 2 – 10 oz. packages of frozen spinach, in other words 20 oz. of frozen spinach. You can also use 20 oz. of fresh spinach.
- Ume Plum Vinegar: Ume Plum Vinegar adds amazing flavor. We use it often in our recipes. It is fairly inexpensive, and definitely worth the effort to find. If you type ume plum vinegar in our search bar you will find a number of recipes that have this ingredient in it so if you are concerned about buying it, but not using it often, we can assure you it is worth buying.
- Sauce: The sauce will initially appear thin; however, as the creamed spinach cooks, the sauce thickens up.
- Cashew Substitutions: You can try the typical substitutions like silken tofu, white beans, or other nuts or seeds with the understanding that the flavor and texture will be impacted accordingly. We have not tested any substitutions.
- Optional Dijon Mustard: We left Dijon Mustard off the ingredients list because we had members who weren’t fans of the Dijon mustard in this recipe. However, we had one family member who disagreed with this assessment and insisted that we at least mention it. We used ½ teaspoon of Dijon mustard in one kitchen test.
- Table Salt: If using table salt, you should use less table salt than the amount listed in the ingredients as sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals. Since table salt crystals are very fine, less table salt is required to season a dish. We would suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of sea salt listed. You can always add more salt but cannot take it away. We recommend using sea salt as it is less refined than table salt.
Leftovers and Freezing:
Leftovers will generally keep 4 days in the refrigerator. Store in a covered container.
This dish can be frozen.
Pantry Products:
- Frozen Spinach: We used two 10 oz. packages of Birds Eye Frozen Chopped Spinach (20 oz. total). Feel free to use your favorite frozen or fresh spinach.
- Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients. Feel free to use your favorite vegetable broth.
- Ume Plum Vinegar: We used Eden Ume Plum Vinegar. We get a lot of questions on ume plum vinegar. It is fairly inexpensive and adds amazing flavor. You can find it in most health food grocery stores. You can leave it out if you can’t find it, adjust your flavors accordingly.
- Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Kitchen Equipment:
- High-Speed blender
- Large skillet
If you try this comforting side, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
Print
Healthy Vegan Creamed Spinach
- Prep Time: 15 Minutes
- Cook Time: 20 Minutes
- Total Time: 35 Minutes
- Yield: 4 Cups 1x
- Category: Side
- Method: Stovetop
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Creamy and flavorful, this Healthy Vegan Creamed Spinach is a delicious dish that’s not only rich and velvety but also packed with nourishing goodness.
Ingredients
Base Ingredients:
- 20 oz. frozen spinach [2 – 10 oz. packages] or fresh spinach
- ½ cup water
Blender Ingredients:
- ½ cup [raw] cashews
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth *
- 2 ½ teaspoons ume plum vinegar *
- 3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- ¼ to ¾ teaspoon sea salt (+/-)
- Pinch to ¼ teaspoon black pepper (+/-)
Serving Ideas:
- Side dish or main dish
- Cooked pasta
- Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes or boiled potatoes
- Steamed rice
Instructions
- Place the cashews into a small bowl, cover with boiling water, then allow to sit for 10 minutes, then drain and discard the water, set aside the cashews until Step 3.
- In the meantime, in a large skillet, add the frozen spinach (or fresh) with ½ cup water, thaw and water sauté the spinach over medium heat for 7 to 9 minutes until all the spinach has thawed. Cook over medium heat until the spinach is cooked through.
- Place the soaked cashews and all the remaining Blender Ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend on high for one minute or until smooth and emulsified, then pour into the skillet with the sauteed spinach.
- Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
*Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes 4 cups (4 to 6)
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