have a ball: part 2

While sausage balls are grand, they aren’t exactly veggie-friendly. And since I’d hate to leave the vegetarians out of the ball-shaped hors d’oeuvre fun, I bring you: spinach balls.

Spinach balls, in fact, were in my life long before sausage balls. They’re basically a spinach gratin in hors d’oeuvre form and a wonderful way to trick children into liking spinach. My brother and I couldn’t understand why other kids thought spinach was gross — to us, spinach tasted a lot like butter, cheese and breadcrumbs. In other words: delicious.

Once, my brother declared his great love of spinach while at a friend’s house for dinner. To which the friend’s mother responded, "Fantastic! I’ll make more just for you!" So she boiled more frozen spinach and heaped an extra-large serving on my brother’s plate. This was the day my brother discovered that spinach is not necessarily synonymous with butter and cheese. As it turns out, boiled spinach seasoned only with salt is nothing at all like wonderfully buttery spinach balls.

Here is that spinach ball recipe to do with as you please: Feed your friends, trick your children; it’s totally up to you.

Spinach Balls

• 2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach
• 2 cups Pepperidge Farm herbed stuffing mix
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 6 eggs, beaten
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted and cooled

Cook spinach; drain well. Let cool. Mix all ingredients together, shape into balls, and freeze on a cookie sheet until firm. Then store in plastic bags in freezer. Cook at 350° for 15-20 minutes.

Makes 45 balls

Cooking tips: While easy, this recipe has a few prime opportunities for screw-ups. Make sure both the cooked spinach and the melted butter are cool before mixing the ingredients with the eggs — otherwise, you’ll end up scrambling the eggs when they hit the heat. Also, the mixture is easier to shape into balls if you let it sit in the refrigerator for a bit. And just a heads-up that this is a fantastic potluck dish because you can make it well in advance, and carting a big Ziploc bag full of spinach balls is basically the easiest potluck totable ever.

Comments

Sounds good, but I'm not so sure about the name. It sounds like an ailment you get when you eat too much spinach.

In fact that may be the perfect thing to write when selecting "not attending" on an Evite RSVP form. (i.e. - Sorry, can't make it ... I've got a bad case of Spinach Balls).

Personally, I think sausage balls have a far more ridiculous name.

Actually, I think "sausage balls" is how one would described the after effects of being kicked in the nards really, really hard.

do you dip them in anything or eat as-is?