Sunday, January 13, 2013

Recipe: Spinach Cream Cheese Spread

A delightful way to get more spinach into your diet or someone else's!

Ingredients:
1 8-oz. package of cream cheese
fresh spinach (about a medium mixing bowl full)
a few leaves of fresh sweet basil
5 or more cloves of roasted garlic
a dash of pepper
optional: a spoonful of milk to thin the mixture out

Old-school Method:
Fill a medium mixing bowl half-full of fresh spinach. Add garlic, cream cheese, basil, and pepper. Add some leaves of spinach on top. Mash entire mixture with wooden spoon until well-blended, adding the rest of the spinach gradually.

Modern Method:
Put everything in the food processor (you may need to add some spinach leaves in halfway through if the food processor can't hold everything at once). Blend until cream cheese is evenly distributed throughout (don't over-process or you'll end up with green goo). 

Serving Suggestions:
- Spread onto your favorite crackers. Large crackers work best.
- Use instead of mayonnaise in a sandwich or burger. 
- Spread on toasted bagels.
- Spread onto flour tortillas. Roll the tortillas up and slice them into manageable pieces. Great for parties or children's snacks (or adult snacks for that matter)!
- Eat it straight.