10 Unexpected Ways To Use Frozen Chopped Spinach

We probably don't need to tell you the benefits of frozen chopped spinach. This freezer staple is not only one of the best vegetables you should keep in constant supply, but one of the best frozen items you can buy overall. Frozen chopped spinach is affordable, and it gives any dish a boost of nutrition and flavor. It thaws in minutes, it blends into recipes pretty seamlessly, and you don't even have to slice it up. All the hard work's been done for you.

Plus, frozen chopped spinach is versatile, guys — way more versatile than you probably think. Sure, you can throw a couple of cubes into a curry or use them to bulk up soup, but there's so much more you can do with these little pellets of goodness than you probably thought. Frozen chopped spinach can be thrown into everything from pizza dough to potato salad, where it'll provide a gorgeous green hue and a nutty flavor that elevates everything more than you could imagine. Your burgers, oats, and muffins can also all benefit from this wonder ingredient — and it can even be snuck into recipes that you can feed to your kids.

We've all ended up with a leftover bag of frozen chopped spinach at one point or another, with a few cubes left that you have no idea what to do with. Well, next time you're making bread, throw it into your dough and watch it transform. Frozen chopped spinach can be added to bread dough with very little fuss or alteration to your original recipe. The only things you have to do are to thaw it thoroughly and squeeze out as much liquid as possible so that it doesn't affect your bread's ability to bake.

Frozen chopped spinach can be a simple mix-in to your standard bread recipe, or you can combine it with other ingredients to make something more extravagant. Try combining frozen shopped spinach with some crumbled feta and dill to make a spanakopita-inspired bread that needs little more than a lick of butter to really pop. You can use a cheese like cheddar or Colby Jack, for a touch more umami. Alternatively, you can make spinach one of the primary ingredients by using frozen chopped spinach and flour to make a two-ingredient flatbread that's both nutritious and pliable.

It's hard to resist the appeal of a good burger, but whether you're opting for a meat-based or plant-based version, they can sometimes disappoint. Burgers of both kinds, particularly premade ones, can feel both lacking in zingy flavor and real nutrition. The way to rectify both of these things is simple: You just need a little frozen chopped spinach. A handful or two of spinach in your burger mix can give any patty a touch of nuttiness, a lovely green note, and a satisfying bite.

If you're making meat burgers, simply use a quarter of the amount of spinach as you would protein. You can opt for pure ground beef, or you can cut it with a lighter meat like turkey; doing the latter will give your burgers a slightly milder flavor, which can help the spinach shine through. If you're making plant-based burgers, chopped spinach can act as the primary ingredient, and its chopped nature makes it very easy to form. You'll just need a good amount of binders to ensure that the patty doesn't fall apart — and whether you're making plant-based or meaty burgers, make sure that your spinach is as dry as possible.

If you're looking for a way to use up frozen chopped spinach while simultaneously making your pasta dishes feel just that bit fresher, then incorporating it into a sauce is your best bet. Chopped spinach is a natural choice for a pasta sauce: It's got serious visual appeal, thanks to its deep green coloring, but its flavor is light enough to blend well with other ingredients like parmesan, garlic, and chili flakes. Plus, its looseness means that there's a lot of prep work that needs to be done. For a basic pasta sauce, you can just sauté some thawed spinach with your chosen ingredients before throwing in your noodles, and you're good to go.

If you want a pasta sauce that's a bit smoother, then chopped spinach blends incredibly well. If you want a tighter, more intense sauce, it can also serve as the base of a pesto. Just combine spinach, crushed garlic, parmesan, oil, and any nuts of your choosing before blending them together or pounding them up in a pestle and mortar. Mix in your noodles, and there you have it — pasta with spinach pesto.

Frozen chopped spinach in potato salad might not feel like a natural choice, but bear with us here. Adding some thawed spinach into your salad can be a great way to give it both a renewed visual flair and an earthy, vegetal note that helps to cut through the creamier elements. Potato salad is usually unrelentingly pale, but the flecks of spinach add pops of color just like herbs would. Plus, the spinach is subtle enough to pair with any other ingredients you're throwing in, and whether your potato salad is spicy, briny, sharp, or sour, it'll fit in perfectly.

On a basic level, you can just throw chopped spinach into your standard recipe and call it a day. If you want something fancier, though, whip up a dip-inspired potato salad with spinach as one of the main ingredients. Combine spinach with mayo, Greek yogurt, and herbs for a spinach dip salad dressing, or add in some marinated artichokes for a take on a spinach artichoke dip. No matter what you opt for, the spinach will still bring things to life.

Spinach pasta is one of those things that feels like way too much effort most of the time. Look, we get it. It's not the kind of thing that you probably want to whip up on a weekday after work, and it's usually the thought of all of that chopping that puts people off, with piles of spinach leaves having to be broken down before they can be mixed into the dough. Well, with frozen chopped spinach, you won't have that problem. You just thaw the spinach, squeeze it dry, and blend it in a food processor before adding it to the rest of your dough ingredients. Roll out your pasta dough, and you'll have a nutty, bright pasta that pairs well with lighter sauces.

Incredibly, you can also use frozen chopped spinach to make a vegan-friendly eggless pasta. By simply blending it until it's broken down and then combining it with flour, you can achieve a robust, snappy dough. Naturally, you'll need a little bit of moisture here, but the frozen chopped spinach generally has a good amount. Sometimes, though, it's better to squeeze the thawed spinach completely dry, and then add water afterward; otherwise, it may be too wet.

Yep. That's right, guys. Frozen chopped spinach might be the last thing you think to put into pancake batter, but trust us when we say that it's an addition you won't regret. Adding spinach to pancakes not only gives you a real sense of virtuousness, but it can also make them so much more visually appealing. In addition, the flavor of chopped spinach is subtle enough that it won't stand out unpleasantly in the pancakes themselves. Instead, you'll get an ever-so-subtle undertone of earthiness that actually works well to give the pancakes a little bit more life and a slightly more layered flavor.

Whether you're making oat pancakes or banana pancakes, chopped spinach will incorporate incredibly well. You just need to blend it up enough that you don't end up picking bits of spinach out of your teeth. Once it's incorporated, you can pile them up on your plate and add any of the toppings you normally would. Adding spinach to pancakes is also a great way to sneak some veggies into your kids' meals, or to frame it as a fun way for them to get some greens.

Spinach and oats aren't typically considered to be ingredients that go together, but trust us when we say that you won't regret pairing them. Whether you're opting for sweet or savory oats, frozen chopped spinach can give them an undercurrent of additional nutrition, a lovely green color, and a slightly earthy flavor that complements sugary notes and reinforces umami ones. To combine it with oatmeal, all you need to do is thaw the spinach and stir it into your oats while they're cooking. You can then add sugar or honey, or opt for a savory route by dashing in your favorite spices and a pinch of salt.

You can also use frozen chopped spinach to make a next-level bowl of overnight oats, which takes a green smoothie as inspiration. You start by blending spinach, banana, milk, and whatever sweeteners you like, before mixing in some oats. Then, leave the whole mixture overnight, and serve the next morning. The spinach here will be neutral enough to mingle with the sweeter flavors, and the color will give you a feeling of wholesomeness first thing in the morning.

We absolutely love taking everyday ingredients and turning them into something that a Michelin-star chef would whip up. So, you'd best believe that turning frozen chopped spinach into a gourmet oil is one of our favorite moves for this ingredient. By thawing frozen chopped spinach and blending it with some extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil, you can create a basil-spinach oil that can give soups, appetizers, or even desserts a pop of intense freshness. Because chopped spinach is blanched before it's frozen, it retains its ultra-green color, which gives this oil a luminous appearance that matches its electric flavor.

If you want to take things to the next step, you can turn this oil into an emulsion by combining it with egg yolks. Doing this will make a smooth, thick sauce that can be piped into plates before being topped with your favorite morsels of food. It's a great contrast for fried foods, but it's just as good served with lighter items like white fish. Trust us, it's not as hard as you think to pull it all together.

Now, we know that the thought of trying to make pizza feel like a healthy food might not be that appealing to some people. After all, pizza's not exactly meant for that destiny, and nor should it be. However, adding frozen chopped spinach to pizza crust is a great way to make the dish feel just that little bit more fancy, and to use up an ingredient that might have been sitting in your deep freezer for a while. Plus, the earthy flavor of spinach can complement the toppings on your pizza, and it can make the dish look rather impressive.

It's also worth pointing out that spinach is a great ingredient in pizza crusts for folks who are gluten intolerant or who are following a keto diet. Somewhat incredibly, you can combine it with eggs and cheese, and it'll come together to make a robust, slightly chewy crust. If you just want to jazz up your regular pizza dough, though, just mix your thawed, drained spinach into the flour mixture. It'll still bake just as well, and you don't even have to break it up even further.

We think that lunchbox muffins are kinda underrated, y'all. With virtually no effort whatsoever, you can make a sandwich substitute that's arguably way more fun and way less messy to eat, and one that you can put almost anything into. Plus, if you use frozen chopped spinach, you can make your lunchbox muffins a tad healthier and give them a nutty flavor that can underpin your other additions. Chopped spinach naturally works well with other veggies in muffins, but it's also great when paired with cheese. You could also mix in deli meat or chorizo to give the muffins a touch more spice and a smack of saltiness.

Don't forget, too, that your muffins don't have to be savory. Chopped spinach can be just as good in sweet muffins, thanks to its relatively neutral flavor. We personally think they're awesome when paired with bananas, a dash of vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. Just make sure you blend your spinach with the other wet ingredients before mixing it with the flour, as you want it to be smoothly incorporated and for the whole muffin to have a jade-green color. If you don't, it'll be flecked with green, which somewhat ruins the effect.