Cheesy Spinach Puffs

Submitted by Beamer42 on October 15, 2012 - 1:23pm
Cheesy Spinach Puffs

Summary

Yield
SourceFoodie With Family
Prep Time45 minutes
CategoryAppetizers
CuisineAmerican
Tagsnew pdf

Description

Today’s recipe, however, is just about the best thing you can do with that wonderful combination, and that is saying something. It’s just plain crave-able. Moist, spinach-studded, cheese and egg puffs get toasty, crispy bits around the edges and taste great alone, but they really sing when dunked in warm marinara or pizza sauce. It’s enough to turn a Monday-feeling-Friday into a Friday-all-the-way.

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 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 2 clove garlic minced
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • 2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup Italian Style Breadcrumbs
  • 1 lb frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  • 1/2 tsp salt

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.

*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.

Notes

I emphasize generously greasing the muffin pans for a reason. Eggs like to stick. Melted cheese likes to stick. Put the two together and you’ll be weeping a thousand salty tears unless you have massive amounts of non-stick cooking spray and/or non-stick mini-muffin liners. Trust me. That’ll totally mess up the Friday-all-the-way vibe!
Make extras! These freeze well, reheat beautifully and are great to have on hand for last minute snacks.

0
Your rating: None