Cheesy Spinach Puffs
Moist, spinach-studded, cheese and egg puffs get toasty, crispy bits around the edges and taste great alone, but really sing when dunked in warm marinara or pizza sauce. This is a favourite movie-night snack at our house and has won over even the most ardent anti-green vegetable protesters in our family. The smaller you chop the spinach after squeezing it dry, the easier it is to get it past picky eaters.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large onion peeled and finely chopped or grated on a cheese grater
- 2 garlic cloves peeled and minced or pressed
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan Romano or Asiago cheese
- ½ cup Italian style breadcrumbs
- 1 pound frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed hard repeatedly to remove as much liquid as possible (*See Note Below Instructions)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Optional: warm marinara or pizza sauce or Ranch dressing for dipping
Instructions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously -and I DO MEAN GENEROUSLY- spray 48 mini-muffin wells with non-stick cooking spray. Eggs are culinary glue. If you don't grease the tar out of those mini-muffin wells, they will stick!
- Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan or frying pan. Stir in the grated or finely chopped onion and cook on low, stirring frequently, until the onions are very tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Remove the pan from the burner and set aside.
- Put the squeezed-dry spinach on a cutting board and chop a few times with a knife to separate the spinach and make the pieces smaller.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Whisk in the ricotta cheese until smooth. Switch to a wooden spoon, add the remaining ingredients –including the cooked onion mixture and the chopped spinach- and mix until evenly combined.
- Divide the mixture between the mini-muffin cups. Bake the puffs until set in the center and lightly browned around the outside edge (begin checking at 20 minutes.)
- Let them rest in the pans for about 3 minutes before trying to remove. If any of them stick, run a butterknife around the edge to loosen them.
- Serve warm or room temperature with marinara or pizza sauce.
Notes
*Note: To get the most liquid squeezed from the spinach, put the spinach in a colander over the sink. Grab only as much as you can comfortably fit between your hands, cup your hands around the spinach and squeeze flat repeatedly until almost no more liquid can be squeezed out. Put that handful of spinach on the cutting board and repeat until you've finished squeezing all of it.
Nutrition
Calories: 314kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 19gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 125mgSodium: 654mgPotassium: 321mgFiber: 2gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 7345IUVitamin C: 4.4mgCalcium: 445mgIron: 2.1mg
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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