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Creamed spinach is one of those love-it-or-hate-it foods. I always thought I fell into the latter category, but when I figured out how to make creamed spinach at home, I discovered it’s absolutely delicious. Although it tastes similar to the creamy stuffing and sauce in spinach stuffed chicken breast or chicken florentine, this easy side also makes a perfect addition to steak dinners, Thanksgiving menus, or Christmas meals. If you or your family are on the fence about it, I hope this easy creamed spinach recipe with cream cheese will convert you, too!
What Is Creamed Spinach?
Creamed spinach is a classic steakhouse side dish that’s also popular for the holidays. The basic ingredients to make easy creamed spinach are spinach and either milk or cream. Other popular additions for creamy spinach include garlic, Parmesan, cream cheese, nutmeg, and various herbs.
What Does Creamed Spinach Taste Like?
The best creamed spinach recipe should taste rich, creamy, and cheesy! Even if you are not a huge fan of spinach, these aspects make it totally delicious.
Why This Is My Best Creamed Spinach Recipe
- Rich, savory flavor
- Creamy texture with tender leaves
- 6 simple ingredients (plus salt & pepper)
- 15 minutes from stove to table
- Low carb, keto, and gluten free
- Healthy side dish for holiday dinners or weeknight meals
Easy Creamed Spinach Ingredients
This section explains how to choose the best ingredients for the best creamed spinach recipe, what each one does, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.
- Butter – I prefer grass-fed butter, but any unsalted one works.
- Garlic – Mince it fresh for best flavor, or use jarred minced garlic.
- Baby Spinach – Any fresh spinach will work, but baby spinach leaves will have a more mild flavor and is less bitter than full grown spinach.
- Heavy Cream – Makes up the bulk of the sauce, while keeping it creamy and easy to whisk. Coconut cream can work as a substitute.
- Cream Cheese – Helps thicken the cream sauce. Cut into small pieces and let it come to room temperature for easier blending with the vegetables.
- Italian Seasoning – I prefer to make my own Italian seasoning (takes just a few minutes!), but you can also get a store-bought mix.
- Sea Salt & Black Pepper
- Parmesan Cheese – It’s optional, but adds another savory element for topping. Grate it fresh for the best taste.
VARIATIONS: Add cayenne pepper or onions!
You can saute diced onion before adding the spinach, or add a pinch of cayenne at the end if you like some heat.
How To Make Creamed Spinach With Cream Cheese
This section shows how to make cream spinach, with step-by-step photos and details about the technique, to help you visualize it. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.
- Saute. Melt butter in a large skillet with tall sides (I used this one). Add garlic and saute until fragrant.
- Wilt. Add spinach and saute until just barely wilted. If you have more spinach than the pan can fit, cover to wilt before stirring and adding more.
- Mix. Add cream, cream cheese, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.
- Cook. Continue cooking until the sauce thickens. Garnish with parmesan cheese (if using) before serving.
How To Make Creamed Spinach From Frozen?
Substitute 10 oz of fresh spinach with 10 oz frozen spinach instead. Thaw and drain well first, and squeeze to get rid of as much water as possible. After that, the saute time after adding the spinach will be shorter, but the time after adding cream will be the same.
Is Creamed Spinach Keto? Healthy?
Yes, the natural ingredients and low carbs in this creamed spinach recipe make it a healthy and keto dish in my book, though it’s definitely not low fat if that’s what you are looking for. Unlike versions that rely on high-carb thickeners like flour or cornstarch, creamed spinach with cream cheese gets thick simply from simmering heavy cream. The cream cheese also acts as a thickener and natural cornstarch substitute.
Storage Instructions
- Store: Keep creamed spinach in a covered container up to 5 days. It will lose some of its bright color over time, so try to enjoy it sooner than that.
- Meal prep: Make it 1-2 days ahead and keep covered in the refrigerator.
- Reheat: Warm in a pan over low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Freeze: I wouldn’t recommend freezing, as the sauce may separate and become watery, but you can still safely freeze this dish for up to 4 months. Cover tightly and store in a freezer-safe container. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
What To Serve With Creamed Spinach Recipes
Just about anything goes with this easy creamed spinach recipe! Here are some everyday and holiday-inspired recipes to try:
- Holiday Mains – Serve with Thanksgiving turkey, filet mignon, roasted turkey legs, sirloin tip roast, or prime rib roast for a festive meal.
- Easy Chicken Dinners – Try spinach with bacon wrapped chicken breasts, spatchcock chicken, baked chicken thighs, or slow cooker chicken wings.
- Steak – Make sirloin steak in the oven, one-pan steak and potatoes, reverse sear steak, or chuck eye steak to serve with this recipe.
- Homestyle meals – This spinach pairs perfectly with slow cooker pot roast, smothered pork chops from your Dutch oven, or eggplant lasagna.
More Easy Healthy Spinach Recipes
So many ways to enjoy this healthy veggie! Here are some of my favorites:
Recommended Tools
- Large Cast Iron Skillet – I love making my creamed spinach recipes in cast iron because it heats quickly and evenly, and goes from stovetop to table beautifully. This one ensures lots of room for sauteing the leaves.
- White Serving Platter – Clean and simple for serving creamed spinach and other holiday dishes.
The Best Creamed Spinach Recipe
Creamed Spinach Recipe (Easy In 15 Minutes!)
Learn how to make creamed spinach with cream cheese in minutes! This easy creamed spinach recipe is rich and creamy, with simple ingredients.
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Ingredients
Tap underlined ingredients to see where to get them. Please turn Safari reader mode OFF to view ingredients.
Instructions
Tap on the times in the instructions below to start a kitchen timer while you cook.
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Heat butter in a large skillet with tall sides over medium heat. Add minced garlic and saute until fragrant.
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Add spinach. Saute for 2 to 4 minutes, until wilted. If the pan is too full to stir or you can't fit all the spinach, add what you can and cover for 1-2 minutes, which will let the spinach at the bottom wilt. Then you can start to stir in a folding motion and add more as needed.
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Add heavy cream, cream cheese, sea salt, black pepper, and Italian seasoning. Stir constantly until the cream cheese melts, then cook a few minutes until thickened. (Sauce will thicken more as it cools from hot to warm.)
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If desired, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese for serving.
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Recipe Notes
Serving size: 1/2 cup
Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see our nutrition policy.
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205 Comments
Sara
0So delicious! Even better than my regular recipe!
Brenda LaPrade
0Loved this & I don’t usually like spinach.
Tim Metivier
0Will this work well if made a head of time and then needs reheating? If so reheat on the stove or oven? It’s for part of a Christmas dinner that everyone brings parts of the whole meal so it will need to wait up to two hours before dinner. That would require re heating.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Tim, Yes, you can make this in advance. There is a section in the post called ‘Can I Make Creamed Spinach in Advance’ that goes over the details of doing this. Enjoy!
Brian
0Any way to lower the calories a little bit? Suggestions? I’ve tried reduced fat cream cheese but that doesn’t lower a whole lot
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Brian, You could omit the parmesan cheese and substitute the heavy cream with half and half.
Brian
0How about almond milk instead of either of the creams?
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Brian, You could use almond milk in place of the heavy whipping cream.
Yara
0What about canned coconut milk?
Wholesome Yum A
0Hi Yara, you can certainly use canned coconut milk in place of the heavy cream if you wouldn’t mind a coconut flavor in the final dish.
Karen
0This was fantastic!
Anne Rodkin
0Do you think this would work with brie? I’ve got some that needs using up
Thanks
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Anne, I have not tested this recipe with brie, so I’m not sure it would work as well. It would likely be a lot thicker in texture. If you decide to try it I would consider using a combination of cream cheese and brie. Best wishes!
April Durbin
0I made this to go along with the steak bites with chimichurri sauce. It was sooooo good! My favorite part of the meal actually. Ive never been a fan of creamed spinach growing up, but I loved it! Must try
Sam
0This was delicious. I ate the entire thing myself lol!
Laura
0This is so delicious AND easy to prepare!
Misty
0SO delicious
Lynne Olsen
0This is truly the best creamed spinach recipe I’ve tried. I’ve tried several and we both loved it. It’s easy to make and I followed the recipe to a tee. The only thing I did different was to remove the stems. I’m not a fan but love the baby spinach. I highly recommend this recipe.
Pat
0Incredible! I used frozen spinach and nutmeg instead of Italian Seasoning. Rich, creamy and delicious! A double portion made a very filling dinner.
Anna
0I’d like to try this recipe, is there anything I can substitute the heavy cream with?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Anna, You can use half and half, unsweetened alternative milk like almond milk, or water. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Wally
0What am I doing wrong? I’m using 10 oz baby spinach and following the recipe. It ends up like spinach soup.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Wally, It sounds like you need to turn up the heat (this can vary based on the pan you use, I used cast iron which gets very hot). If the heat is too low, the liquid will stay in the pan instead of sizzling away.
Cathy Robinson
0I showed my 11 year old grandson the picture of this creamed spinach, we both said, that looks awful. But I made it because my husband wanted it and he is diabetic. It is soooo good, I will have to make it forever! My grandson loved it too. thank you so much for a great low carb creamed spinach.
Charity Atchison
0I’ve made this I think 4 times now. I love it! So simple and great flavor.
Jordan
0This was a huge hit! I substitute a 10 oz package of Frozen Spinach and it still tastes great!
Joyce Mourounas
0This creamed spinach is amazingly delicious. It’s better then the creamed spinach I’ve had at top notch steak houses. This is a staple in my kitchen now. Thank you for all your wonderfully delicious recipes.
Sam
0This was delicious. I ate the whole thing in one sitting. Lol
Julie Lane
0Absolutely a terrific tasting and easy go to make recipe. Followed the recipe exactly with fresh spinach and let it rest and it thickened up no problem. It turned out exactly like what are accustomed at our fav steak house.
This recipe is a keeper !
Lydia Barber
0Very good recipe. I agree with others. Tastes like an expensive steakhouse creamed spinach dish. I did use fresh spinach. I will say to use much more spinach than 10 oz. or better yet, use less heavy whipping cream and cream cheese. I did add grated cheese to thicken it up some. Phenomenal taste.
Audrey Harrington
0Easy and good. I only had frozen spinach but I squeezed the water out and it was very good. Want to try with fresh next time.
Melissa
0Can you use frozen spinach?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Melissa, Yes. Just let the spinach defrost and squeeze out the excess water first.
Dianna
0Delicious!! One of the best recipes I have tried!
Ericka
0This is absolutely delicious and easy to make. We’ll definitely be making this again. I had no problem with the sauce thickening, although I did use a little less than the indicated amount of cream. (I don’t know that it wouldn’t otherwise have thickened, though, as I’ve only made it once.)
Maureen Voll
0Just made this for dinner. I should have made a double batch! I was counting on hubby not wanting it…so more for me, but he loved it as well! Looks like this is part of our menu going forward. Seriously, so good and so easy!
Melissa
0I did it two times with and without the heavy cream. Taste 10 times better without it.
Wholesome Yum A
0Hi
Can you make this ahead and refrigerate overnight then reheat? I’m thinking of making this as a Thanksgiving side dish, but would love to make it the day before.
Thanks
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Amanda, Yes, you can make this in advance. There is a section in the post called ‘Can I Make Creamed Spinach in Advance’ that goes over the details of doing this. Enjoy!
Wholesome Yum A
0Oh my goodness, I don’t know how I missed that clearly labeled section! Thanks for pointing me to it!
Eileen
0This creamed spinach was better than any I’ve had at expensive steakhouses!! It was so easy and it was excellent! Everybody loved it It I used fresh baby spinach and don’t think it would have been as good if I used frozen.
Terina R.
0The taste of this dish was fabulous! I did use chive and onion cream cheese instead of regular. We all really liked it! The only unfortunate thing is I couldn’t get the sauce to thicken. We had to serve it in little bowls because it was so runny. Not sure if anyone else experienced this. Aside from the flavor of the cream cheese, I followed the recipe exactly.
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Terina, Did you make this recipe with fresh or frozen spinach? If it was frozen it may have needed additional time to cook the excess water out and thicken the sauce.
Echo
0This is a great recipe! I used a 12 oz. bag of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed well), and left the remaining ingredient measurements as they were written. The result was quite literally the best creamed spinach I’ve ever had. This recipe is perfect, and I have eaten this version of creamed spinach 3 times since I discovered it, each time it was awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Cindy
0I thawed a bag of chopped spinach thinking I’d use it in smooties but couldn’t get in the mood for a smoothie. Decided I needed a vegetable with dinner tonight and found this recipe. It was really easy and really good. My son had his with tortilla chips, he loves spinach dip that’s heavy on the spinach with no artichokes so he used it for a dip. When it was done cooking I topped it with quite a bit of shredded parmesan cheese, then after it melted went ahead and stirred it in.
Alexis
0I made this tonight since I had some spinach in the freezer and all the ingredients. It came up amazing!!! I didn’t change a thing, it is perfect to me!
Thank you so much for posting it!!
Carolyn Ekkert
0Absolutely loved this recipe, a new go-to. It tastes like weekend but comes together like weeknight. I had mine last night with a greek marinated pork chop. Kids loved it, too. Only change I made was I stirred a little extra shredded Parmesan in during cooking and also sprinkled some on top at the end. Creamy and delicious.
Eric
0Hi, I couldn’t see any video link to view, as there isn’t any image to tap to view it, can you check?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Eric, The video for this recipe is located in the recipe card. If you cannot see it, please make sure you aren’t viewing the page in ‘Reader Mode.’ You can verify this in your browser settings.
Robin
0DELICIOUS! I squeezed the juice from one fresh lemon into it at the end and, in my opinion (and my daughter’s), that put this recipe over the top!
Mel
0I made this tonight and followed the recipe exactly only subbing 10oz of frozen spinach for fresh. I measured 1/2 a cup and there’s no way I’m going to be able to get 4 servings out of this. Maybe 2.5. Is that correct?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Mel, Frozen spinach should give you the same yield (4 1/2 cup servings).
Candi
0Very delicious!
Suzanne Musso
0Just made this for dinner, truly delicious. I had to stop myself going back for more. I like mine with a little added nutmeg also I will cut back on the salt next time. But I will definitely make many more times again. Thank you.
Dawn
0Amazing!!
Elizabeth Lampman
0This was sooooo delicious. Definitely will be part of our regular rotation.
Danielle W.
0Maya, this is an A+ recipe! I have loved creamed spinach for years but had no idea how easy it was to make on my own! I wanted to eat the whole recipe. Your blueberry muffins have been my favorite recipe of yours since I began the keto lifestyle in 2018, but this one may be my new favorite — or at least my new favorite savory recipe. Thank you!!
Julie
0Can this be frozen? If so, at what point in the prep or cooking process? I have some fresh spinach that needs to be used but too much for me to eat in a couple of days. Thanks!!!
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Julie, I would freeze the spinach after the sauteeing/wilting process. When you want to prepare creamed spinach, you can take out the amount you need and add the dairy to it.
Pam
0I don’t much care for spinach as just a vegetable, but I do like it in a smoothie or in a dip. That has changed! I made this recipe last night and we both loved it! And it is so quick and easy! My husband said to keep this recipe handy! Thanks so much for sharing it! I’ve tried several of your recipes and have liked every one of them so far.
Betsy
0I found this recipe to be too watery unfortunately.
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Betsy, It sounds like it needed to cook longer to reduce the liquid.
Wholesome Yum A
0Hi, I’m looking to make tonight. If I used this 8 ounce bag of spinach what would the measurements be for the rest of the ingredients? Thank You.
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Amanda, Change the servings for the recipe from 4 to 3 and it will give you more accurate measurements for the amount of spinach you have on hand.
Stephanie
0So delicious!! Everyone loved it 🙂 I added some onion powder and a little cayenne for an extra punch. Will definitely make this again, thank you!
Kurt
0This was great! I have since tried this by substituting some (or all!) of the creme cheese with goat cheese, making it a bit more hearty.
Kristi
0I ABSOLUTELY LLLOOOVVVEEE THIS RECIPE!! It was SO good! My mom had never had creamed spinach before, other than when she was a child and she loved it! So easy to make! Thanks for the recipes!!
Kristi
0The only thing that I would change is the serving size. I ate an entire recipes worth of this and I still wanted more!!
Judy
0We enjoyed this tonight with salmon. I used sour cream in place of the cream and cream cheese. I also used herbs from our ¨garden¨ rosemary, thyme and mexican oregano.
Debora
0Outta HWC, ok to make without?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Debora, It would be too thick without it so you’d need something else to thin it out. Maybe almond milk or coconut milk? You’d need less of these than the HWC, since they are thinner.
Leah
0This was delicious! I did put about 1/4 Cup of parm in the spinach and sprinkled some more on top. Made ahead and stuck in the oven to warm before serving. Thank you for sharing this!
Jeanne Wise
0Trying to understand how 10 oz of baby spinach is 16 cups? Looking to try your recipe….
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Jeanne, This is a chopped, loose measurement. If you start with 10 ounces, it will be fine no matter what final measurement you get from chopping.