An onion is an onion, is an onion.... Creamed Spinach Sauce with Ground Beef

March 5, 2015

Brian loves me so much! He's always noticed that I like onions, and one day he peeked into our refrigerator and counted all the different kinds of onions I had... that day I had red onion, brown onion, white onion, leeks and scallions. He thought that was soooo funny, that I had 5 different kinds of onions in the refrigerator. I often have even more than those standard five, including shallots, which are onions that look like garlic. Even garlic is a type of onion.

Well, I love onions so much that I always have them and take it for granted that I'm stocked, but sometimes I'm not. The reason I have so many different varieties is because I use them for different purposes, but in the end, an onion is an onion right? At least, it's what I learned tonight. Tonight I was supposed to use the standard brown onion in this dish, but I didn't have any so I ended up having to use the red onion. I tend to not like to cook with red onion since it discolors in the cooking in a way that I don't find appealing, but they still taste wonderful.  Try this dish, you're guaranteed to enjoy it.

Creamed Spinach Sauce with Ground Beef
GTLF: Pasta Sauces 67

Serves 4, working time 30 min., total time 30 minutes.

10 oz. medium tube pasta

1/2 pound well trimmed top round of beef, cut into chunks

1 tablespoon reduced fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 C low fat (1%) milk

10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1/4 C grated Parmesan Cheese

1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta until just tender. Drain well.

2. Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the beef, cream cheese, paprika, slat, and allspice and process until finely chopped. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil until hot but not smoking over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the beef mixture to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until the beef is no longer pink, about 4 minutes.

3. Sprinkle the flour over the beef mixture, stirring, until well combined. Gradually add the milk and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Add the spinach and cook, stirring frequently , until the spinach is heated through and the sauce is well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the Parmesan and stir to combine. Divide the pasta among 4 plates, spoon the sauce over, and serve.

Nutritional Information: 10 g fat, 506 calories, 3.3 g sat. fat, 73 g carbohydrate, 31 g protein, 42 mg cholesterol, 522 mg sodium.

Tips:

1. The recipe calls for an all purpose onion, I used red because that's what I had and the dish was delicious. Perhaps the kind of onion doesn't matter with this dish.

2. I also did step 2 out of sequence. It worked out okay this time, but I do try to be careful when following recipes since sometimes it does make a difference. Read the recipe carefully always.