Croquetas de Espinacas

Croquetas de Espinacas

 Thank you to Albert from Spain on a Fork for the inspiration.

Living with a vegetarian always keeps you on your toes, none more so than when we’re out of the UK. Whilst it’s definitely become easier over the years as global tastes change and restaurants and brands rise to meet the change, navigating ‘no meat’ in traditional meat-eating countries is always a fun game we play.

Spanish tapas is particularly risky and that’s where these spinach croquettes come in. Spinach croquettes or croquetas de espinacas as they’re known in Spain are the vegetarians dream tapas. Crunchy, packed with flavour and most importantly make the veggie feel included in the choices.

They’re also a dream to make and whilst it may look like a bit of a hooha they are actually really simple and the added toasted pinenuts really give them some fabulous texture.

We’ve also recently discovered that they taste rather wonderful spread onto toast cold the next day… which is always a win in my book!

For the croquetas:

• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 300g fresh spinach (you can use frozen – cook from frozen and then treat the same as below)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 small onion – finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic – minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary – chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 40g plain flour
• 40mil milk
• 100g Spanish hard cheese – finely grated

To fry:

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 100g plain breadcrumbs
• 2 large free-range eggs – beaten
• Salt and pepper

Instructions:

Place a frying pan on a medium heat and add the pinenuts.  Dry roast them for 3 minutes, stirring continuously as you don’t want them to burn.  Once they are darkly golden remove from the pan and roughly chop – set aside.

Set the pan back on the heat and add a splash of water, then place all the spinach into the pan, place the lid on and allow the spinach to wilt until soft.  Remove from the pan and allow to cool before squeezing out as much liquid as you can.  Finely chop the spinach and set aside.

Place the pan back onto the heat again and add a little olive oil and stir in the onins and garlic.  Fry gently until the onions are soft, then stir in the chopped spinach and pinenuts.  Stir in the flour and stir well, then add the milk and stir until it all begins to thicken.  Stir in the cheese.  At this point it should start to come together in a more solid form and you will be folding the spinach over and over.  Allow it to cook a little longer and then remove from the pan.  Place it into a bowl and pop it into the fridge for a couple of hours or the freezer for 30 minutes.

Now you need to create a ‘breadcrumb factory’ with 3 bowls.  The spinach in bowl 1, beaten egg in bowl 2 and seasoned breadcrumbs in bowl 3.

Start forming the croquettes, using a spoon grab some of the mixture and shape it into the form of an egg, then dip it in the egg wash and then cover completely with breadcrumbs, you should get about 10 croquettes from this recipe

Fill the base of a frying pan with olive oil (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and heat gently.  Place 3 or 4 oof the croquetas into the oil and cook gently on all sides, rotating often until they are darkly golden.  Remove from pan and set aside.

They can be eaten straight away or reheated, or eaten cold.  They will last in the fridge for 2 days or can be frozen for up to a month.

For more Spanish-inspired recipes, check these out on Dom in the Kitchen.

Eat and of course, enjoy!