This spinach with caramelized onions recipe is great flavor filled side dish you can whip up with only 6 ingredients and 30 minutes of your time.
I can admit I wasn’t always a fan of spinach. Of course that was when I was a child. But now I cannot get enough of the stuff. Even when I make salads I mostly make them with spinach compared to any other lettuce. I just love it and it’s so good for you.
So I love serving it as a side dish for my meals, but plain spinach needs some extra added flavor. That’s where the caramelized onions come in and the two combined make one tasty dish.
What ingredients do I need?
- Fresh Spinach– I highly suggest using fresh spinach because frozen spinach will have to be defrosted and will have so much water in it that it will not taste the same as this recipe
- Onions– I prefer using a sweet onion and slicing it into strips, but if you rather have chunks of onions that works too
- Minced garlic– I usually just use the jar minced garlic, but fresh minced garlic works great as well
- Chicken broth– just an extra dose of flavor you could also use vegetable broth if going the vegetarian route
- Butter to help caramelize the onions and because everything is better with butter
- Olive oil to help cook the spinach and its my preferred oil of choice
How to make this recipe
Add butter to a pan over medium/high heat and melt ( Photo 1) Add the sliced onions to the pan ( Photo 2) Stir for 10 minutes ( Photo 3)
Add the chicken broth to the pan ( Photo 4) and stir for 5 minutes ( Photo 5) Add the minced garlic ( Photo 6) and then the olive oil ( Photo 6) and stir for 5 minutes ( Photo 7)
Add the spinach to the pan ( Photo 8) and stir until all the spinach is cooked ( Photo 9) Approximately 10 minutes Add salt and pepper right before serving
Different variations of this recipe:
- Add fresh sliced mushrooms when you add the onions. Spinach, onions, and mushrooms all go great together
- Add Bacon. Simply chop up some bacon and cook it in the pan. After crispy add onions, no need for the butter since you have the bacon grease and then follow all the steps
- Add some grilled fish on top of this recipe. Some pan seared salmon or pan seared sea bass goes great with this recipe.
Tips for this recipe
- This dish is more of a lightly caramelized onion, but if you want really caramelized do steps 1-3 but for much longer until the onions turn a golden color
- Do use fresh spinach. Frozen spinach will be so full of water when defrosted it will not taste the same
- I prefer baby spinach due to the size of the leaves, but if you use regular spinach just chop it up a bit
- I prefer sweet onions for this dish because it brings a little sweetness to that semi bitter spinach taste
- If needing to double the recipe for more servings I suggest cooking all the onions like steps 1-3 then remove half of the onions and follow the recipe as directed. After that is cooked follow the rest of the recipe with the other half of onions. Once all cooked add it all together to give even temperature. Unless you have a super huge pan to do it all at once.
Need more vegetable side dish recipes?
Easy Fried Cajun Cabbage
Green Beans with Bacon, Blue Cheese and Walnuts
Cabbage Steaks with Balsamic Dressing
Balsamic Brussels Sprouts
Or check out all the great side dish recipes I have to offer
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Spinach with Caramelized Onions
Ingredients
- 6 cups fresh spinach
- 1 cup thin sliced onions
- 2 TBSP butter
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 TSP olive oil
- 1 1/2 TSP minced garlic
- pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cut onion in thin slices
- In a big pan melt butter over medium/high heat and add sliced onions and stir and cook for 10 minutes
- Add chicken broth and cook for 5 minutes
- Add olive oil and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 minutes
- Add spinach to the pan and cook and stir for approximately 10 minutes
Notes
- This dish is more of a lightly caramelized onion, but if you want really caramelized do steps 1-3 but for much longer until the onions turn a golden color
- Do use fresh spinach. Frozen spinach will be so full of water when defrosted it will not taste the same
- I prefer baby spinach due to the size of the leaves, but if you use regular spinach just chop it up a bit
- I prefer sweet onions for this dish because it brings a little sweetness to that semi bitter spinach taste
- If needing to double the recipe for more servings I suggest cooking all the onions like steps 1-3 then remove half of the onions and follow the recipe as directed. After that is cooked follow the rest of the recipe with the other half of onions. Once all cooked add it all together to give even temperature. Unless you have a super huge pan to do it all at once.
Update Notes: This post was originally publish in September of 2016, but was updated with new pictures, step by step picture instructions, and expert tips in June 2019.
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