Love spinach? So do we! This easy side dish is made with BACON and a creamy béchamel sauce. This makes a great side with roast chicken, seared fish, or a holiday dinner.

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

If you’ve been reading this site for a while you’ll know that we are big spinach fans here. We get spinach fresh from the farmers market every Saturday morning, and it disappears quickly.

Here is a creamed spinach dish that my father made for dinner the other night inspired from a recipe he found in the Sacramento Bee.

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Creamy Sauce without the Cream

The spinach gets its creaminess from a béchamel sauce based on a flour and butter roux. There’s actually no cream in the spinach! It uses milk instead.

The bacon adds wonderful flavor, but you can easily skip it if you want.

How to Clean Fresh Spinach

If you are using fresh mature spinach (not cleaned baby spinach), you’ll need to clean it thoroughly.

Cut off the thick stems of the spinach and discard. Clean the spinach by filling up your sink with water and soaking the spinach to loosen any sand or dirt. Drain the spinach and then repeat soaking and draining.

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