A Tasty Spinach Recipe! Delicious Spinach Roulade
Spinach Roulade with cream cheese
This spinach roulade recipe makes a lovely light lunch for vegetarians and for people trying to eat healthily. It's the tastiest spinach recipe I know!
Spinach roulade is very simple to make too, and this dish really is all about the filling inside. I have given you some suggestions for what to use as the filling, but you can use your imagination and go wild! I generally use a cream cheese, but add to this with herbs or mushrooms or tomatoes. You can make this for vegetarians or for meat eaters, just adapt the filling to suit.
I hope you give it a try and enjoy it!
What is a roulade, exactly?
Barron's Food Lover's Companion describes a roulade as: "a souffle-type mixture that's spread on a jelly roll pan, baked until firm but still moist, then spread with a savory or sweet filling and rolled up in jelly-roll fashion."
Ingredients for Spinach Roulade
It is a really simple and cheap recipe to make!
This spinach roulade recipe serves four and will take about 30 minutes in total to prepare and cook.
You need to buy the following:
4 medium eggs
12oz (350g) of fresh spinach (I buy it pre-washed, it saves loads of time)
A few pinches of cayenne pepper or chili pepper
Salt and pepper
The filling for Spinach Roulade
For the filling I suggest:
Boursin - this gorgeous French soft cheese is filled with garlic and herbs and you can buy a light version too. If you need more information and to find out if a store near you stocks it, check out the website at Boursin.com
Cream cheese - you could buy a tub of plain cream cheese and add fresh herbs, like chives or parsley. Or fry up some mushrooms with garlic and seasoning, mix with the cream cheese and spread over the roulade. For the roulade I have made here, I have cut up slow oven roasted tomatoes (available from supermarkets) and mixed with extra low fat cream cheese and the juice from half a fresh lemon.
Bacon - cut up bacon into little cubes and fry with onion, mushrooms or both. Mix it in with the cream cheese and spread over the roulade when both have cooled.
Smoked salmon - You could cut up smoked salmon, mix with cream cheese and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
One roulade will take about a half to one whole tub of cream cheese or boursin, it is to your taste so I am being vague about quantities here
Why is Spinach So Good for You?
Spinach is a superfood! It's packed with vitamins, such as vitamin K, which is essential for bone health and folic acid, which is great for pregnant women. But these are just two of the many health benefits that can come from eating spinach, for an in depth report on the goodness of this vegetable, visit whfoods.com
Let's Get this Spinach Roulade Cooked!
Ok, prepare yourself for my amateur photography!
Step 1: Getting ready
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) or 325°F (160°C) if it is a fan oven.
Grease lightly a shallow baking tin (jelly roll pan) that measures about 9 x 13 inches and line with baking paper. Don't worry if you haven't got a tin that measures this exactly, as near as you can get!
Step 2: Prepare the spinach
I always buy pre washed spinach, because it is such a pain washing it. If you have bought unwashed spinach, you need to wash it in about 20 changes of water. After you have done this, put the spinach into a large saucepan, cover and cook on a medium heat until just wilted - this takes 5 minutes or so. You do not need to add water to the saucepan because spinach produces a huge amount of it's own. Don't worry when you see the spinach reduce to a much smaller lump when it has wilted, this is normal!
Once wilted you need to squeeze out all the water from the spinach. I find that it is best to drain the water through a colander and then lay it out on a tea towel, pressing the rest of the water out. This turns your tea towels green by the way!
When you have squeezed out all the water, chop up the spinach and set to one side.
Step 3: The eggs
Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks and add to the chopped spinach with the cayenne pepper and seasoning. Next whip the egg whites up to resemble soft peaks.
Gently fold the egg whites into the spinach and egg yolk mixture. To fold you need a metal spoon, make cutting motion through the mix and fold over. This ensures that the air stays in the egg whites, so your roulade will come out light and fluffy.
Step 4: Get it in the oven!
Carefully spread the roulade mixture into the pan, making sure that it is evenly spread.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until set. Turn out onto a piece of clean baking paper and cover with a tea towel (to keep the roulade moist whilst it cools), leave to cool.
Step 5: Adding the filling and rolling up the roulade
Time to add your choice of filling to your spinach roulade. With a spatula or blunt knife, evenly spread the filling mixture all over the roulade. With the short side toward you, carefully roll up the roulade. It should then look like the photo below! Cut into slices and serve.
How My Spinach Roulade Turned Out...
I used sundried tomatoes and cream cheese as a filling - I haven't used that combination before. It was delicious, but as you can see the cream cheese turned pink from the tomatoes and clashed with the green of the spinach!
Important! Drain the Excess Water from the Spinach!
When I was making this roulade for the photos in this page, I made a BIG mistake! I drained and patted the spinach with a tea towel....but not enough. The result, a soggy roulade. I still ate it though, but it was a bit wet! I had to make another one for the purposes of this article!