13 Secret Ingredients You Should Be Adding To Your Canned Spinach

Many people prefer to buy spinach raw or frozen because the canned stuff is mushy and has a slightly different taste. In fact, canned spinach can be quite polarizing. When we asked a chef, green vegetables are a canned ingredient they won't even buy. Even so, canned spinach can actually be quite delicious if you add the right seasonings and spices. The best canned spinach flavor boosters may not be super noticeable at first glance, but when used correctly, they make a world of difference. Then, you can add your spinach to a broad range of recipes or serve it as a simple side dish, and it's possible no one will even know it came from a can.

We combed through popular recipes online, Reddit forums, food blogs, and more to determine 13 flavor-enhancing secret ingredients you should be adding to your canned spinach. Keep reading to learn what we discovered so that the next time you're wondering how to turn a can of spinach into a delightful dish, you know exactly what ingredients to turn to for help.

Cream cheese is the quickest and easiest way to make creamed spinach. Some recipes call for heavy cream and grated cheese, but cream cheese streamlines the process and leads to surprisingly flavorful results with minimal effort. All you have to do is stir a few spoonfuls of cream cheese into canned spinach while it cooks, and it creates a delectable texture and flavor. You don't have to stick to plain cream cheese, either. Plenty of cream cheese flavors taste amazing when mixed into canned spinach, like garlic, onion, and herb cream cheese. Feel free to play around. Just consider what else you'll be serving it with so everything melds together nicely, and you should be all set.

Creamed spinach is delicious all by itself as a side dish and it easily complements a plethora of other dishes like meat, fish, and more. However, if you want to take creamed spinach to the next level, it can also be used in quite a few recipes. Some of our favorites include spinach-artichoke scalloped potatoes and eggplant Parmesan with creamed spinach. If you're looking to add some greens to your breakfast, creamed spinach also goes great with eggs and toast.

Admittedly, we believe garlic makes everything taste better, from pizza to vegetables to fermented garlic honey. Canned spinach is another perfect example of how garlic is the ultimate secret ingredient addition. It may not change the texture of canned spinach, but the potent bitter, buttery aroma and taste pack it with tons of umami flavor. Whether you're incorporating it into Mexican, Asian, Indian, or Italian cuisine, garlic gives canned spinach exactly what it needs to shine in any dish. It also makes a yummy, simple, sautéed spinach side dish.

To achieve a rich garlic taste in your canned spinach, sauté it with fresh diced or grated cloves. Fresh garlic has a much stronger flavor and aroma than dried garlic. Or, for a sweeter, caramelized flavor, try using roasted garlic. Roasting it will take a bit of extra time, but the scrumptious results are more than worth the wait. Dried powdered garlic from your spice rack also tastes amazing when sprinkled on canned spinach, but it doesn't pack nearly the same punch flavor-wise. Still, if it is all you have readily available, don't underestimate its ability to enhance your canned spinach.

As the saying goes, bacon makes everything better. True to its reputation, canned spinach has the potential to become mind-blowingly flavorful with help from a bit of bacon grease. You don't even need to add the bacon itself; all you need is the grease. Of course, bacon pieces wouldn't hurt, but if you want to secretly infuse canned spinach with bacon flavor, grease is the solution. It adds tons of smokey, fatty goodness but doesn't take over entirely.

When making a basic spinach side dish, bacon fat has just what you need to hide the canned flavor that some people find overbearing. You can also use this method to make a world of other recipes. Still, we wouldn't be surprised if the simple addition of bacon grease is more than enough to make you start devouring canned spinach like Popeye himself.

As you know, bacon grease isn't really considered healthy. Even so, if you want to indulge, there's really no other fat that infuses as much flavor into canned spinach. Butter comes close, but it lacks smokiness and doesn't have nearly as complex of a taste, so it blends in quite a bit more. Plus, cooking your canned spinach in bacon grease is a fantastic way to prevent simply tossing all the deep flavor into the garbage. Why waste it?

A few squeezes of lemon juice are a fantastic secret ingredient addition for canned spinach. Instead of leading to a sour taste, like if you drank pure lemon juice, the taste brightens the flavor of canned spinach and adds an acidic element. Lemon juice also has a pleasing aroma that further enhances canned spinach by making it shine and drawing you in before you even get a taste.

If you prefer a brighter flavor, and canned spinach seems a bit earthy for your preferences, lemon juice may be just the thing to change your mind. Reddit users also love adding a touch of lemon juice to canned spinach. A couple of commenters mentioned adding garlic and black pepper as well and cooking it all together in butter. Then, you can serve it alongside other vegetables, meat, or seafood. This same collection of ingredients can be found in more elaborate dishes like salmon and spinach crêpes, so you know they will taste incredible no matter how you serve them.

Paprika is dried red pepper ground into a convenient spice. It is much sweeter and milder than chili powder or cayenne pepper but has some of the same savory, peppery elements that taste delicious when paired with canned spinach. Depending on what type of paprika you use, it can also add a nice smoky flavor to canned spinach. It's not nearly as smoky as bacon, but it is approved for plant-based diets, making it a crowd-pleasing ingredient addition all around. Aside from garlic and lemon juice, paprika is one of my favorite ingredients to mix into canned spinach. It's subtle, but not so much that it goes unnoticed.

As always, you can use paprika in a simple canned spinach side dish, but it also goes great with a world of recipes. The duo tastes incredible paired with eggs, regardless of how you prepare them. You could add it to an eggs benedict or make an eggs florentine breakfast sandwich. Another yummy breakfast dish, Israeli shakshuka, includes cooked spinach, paprika, tomatoes, eggs, and more sautéed together in a single pan. Whether you want to go the easy route or try a more elaborate recipe, adding paprika to canned spinach is a fantastic choice.

Depending on which form you use, onion may not be a secret ingredient, but it is incredibly delicious all the same. From powder to minced to diced to caramelized, you can't go wrong with onion and canned spinach. Even crispy fried onions would taste amazing sprinkled on top of canned spinach. Regardless of which type of onion you add to canned spinach, expect an instant infusion of sweet, tangy, umami flavor.

For the most effortless onion addition, simply sprinkle a generous amount of onion powder into your canned spinach while it heats up and stir. Powdered onion won't contribute nearly as much flavor as diced or caramelized onion, but it is as easy as opening a spice jar and shaking, so it has some obvious benefits.

If you prefer a more potent onion taste, stir-frying canned spinach with diced or caramelized onions is the way to go. Cooking fresh onions also adds a nice crunchy texture to canned spinach. Caramelizing onions does take some time, about 45 minutes, but they have a rich, unique flavor that is undeniably drool-worthy. When you combine caramelized onions with canned spinach, they instantly elevate it by infusing an otherwise basic ingredient with a gourmet flavor. Yum!