More Cheese More Chocolate

I originally did a post on spinach balls over a year ago, but the photos have since vanished so I thought I would just update the entire post.

Spinach balls have been a constant at Thanksgiving dinner in my family for as long as I can remember.  Sometimes they’re smaller and served as an appetizer, and sometimes they’re larger and served as a side dish, but either way, they’re there.  I won’t be spending Thanksgiving with my family this year, and I knew that I wouldn’t make it through November without eating a few, so I went ahead and made a batch a little early.  I might end up making these where I will be spending Thanksgiving, but in case that doesn’t happened I will have avoided missing out on one of my favorite parts of the holiday.  Because of the flavors involved these could be a nice addition to an Italian meal, but to me they just taste like Thanksgiving.

Spinach Balls

Makes 15-20 balls

• 2 10-ounce boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess liquid
• 2 cups (unprepared) Pepperidge Farm dressing mix
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tbsp garlic salt*
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• Salt to taste

*You can substitute 1-2 cloves of minced garlic plus a little salt.

• Combine the spinach, dressing mix, onion, cheese, herbs and spices in a large bowl.

• Add the eggs and melted butter.  Mix well.

• Form the mixture into balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

• These were a little larger than golf balls, and I made about 16 of them.

• Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are starting to brown.

Recipe Notes:

• This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you’re feeding a crowd.  (According to my mom, the expert, the recipe tripled yields about 3 dozen larger balls and the recipe quadrupled yields about 75 walnut-sized balls)
• Cooked spinach balls freeze well.
• Yes, these are green.  Yes, they contain a lot of spinach.  No, they are not healthy.  However, if you are interested in making them slightly healthier I think you could eliminate up to 1/4 cup of the butter and still have good results.
• These take well to substitutions, so play around with them and make them your own.  I think my mom usually goes light on the onion, and I’ve made changes when I was missing certain ingredients.  Examples: feta instead of parmesan, breadcrumbs instead of stuffing mix, fresh garlic instead of garlic salt