Adapted from this recipe, with assistance from this recipe. This recipe is kind of time consuming, so I only make it for special occasions, but boy, is it worth it! I'm a fairly picky eater and even I scarf it down. If this is a dish you'd want on a regular basis, I'm fairly confident you could make a batch sans egg, and freeze it. That way all you have to do is thaw, mix in the egg, and throw it in the oven. The recipe calls for five eggs, which is difficult to split, but I bet you could split the recipe in half, and use three eggs per half. Haha, you could even split and freeze it five ways and just make yourself an individual serving if you're having a craving!
Ingredients:
10 oz. fresh spinach
Cream1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 dash cayenne
1 dash pepper
1 dash worcestershire sauce
5 eggs, separated and chilled
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Optional: 3 tablespoons finely shredded swiss or parmesan cheese
1) Grease a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2) Take a handful of spinach and role into a log. Slice finely. Do this handful by handful until all the spinach is sliced. Don't worry about discarding stems.
3) Fit as much of the spinach as you can into a blender. Add a couple dashes of cream to aid blending, and blend until spinach is very fine. As you blend, the spinach will pack down and make room to add more spinach. Add spinach until all 10 ounces are blended; if blending becomes difficult, add a couple more dashes of cream. You should end up with a sauce-like consistency.
4) Melt butter in a medium size frying pan.
5) Sprinkle flour into butter and blend with a spoon. Cook until bubbly.
6) Slowly blend in the milk, stirring constantly, until smooth. (I subbed some of the milk with cream, just for fun).
7) Add seasonings and cheese, and cook on low for about 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool. (Note: You've just basically made a super simple alfredo/white sauce)
8) Separate the eggs and store the whites in your fridge to keep chilled. Beat egg yolks in a large, sturdy bowl.
9) Add spinach mixture into the egg yolks and beat until well blended.
10) SLOWLY pour the the white sauce into the yolk and spinach mixture, while stirring/beating constantly. Warning!: Make sure the white sauce has cooled a bit and that you stir constantly, or your yolks will cook and become lumpy.
11) Take your egg whites out of the fridge and beat with the 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer on high until whites are "stiff but not dry"; basically until they start to peak.
12) VERY GENTLY fold egg whites into the spinach mixture. Don't mix, don't beat. Fold. You mixture also doesn't have to be streak-less; you can have a couple streaks, but what's most important is that you don't stir the souffle so much that it starts to fall.
13) Bake 45 mins to an hour.
