Baked Spinach Balls

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Baked Spinach Balls – An Appetizing Starter and a Scrumptious Healthy Snack

22 March 2011 41 Comments

“The other bunch is free with the one you bought” said the vendor after watching the amused looks on my face. “No one buys these greens here, and I want to empty my cart madam” he continued. Yes Spinach is not a very common sight in many kitchens of South India…good for me, I got my bounty 😉 But then after coming home I was perplexed about how should I make use of these huge piles of lovely greens strewed all over my dinning table! Palak paneer was surely not in my list, neither was the spinach chapattis which my family is now bored of eating.

The whole of last week went on a spinach bonanza…baking, curries and smoothies..have tried more and enough with these greens in my kitchen. These starters is one such experiment, and if you are a spinach lover then this is a must try for you too. These no-oil Spinach ball starters, soft from inside and crisp on the outside is so simple to make, never new Spinach could give me a winner recipe 🙂

High iron, antioxidant, Vitamin C and calcium this humble green comes as one of the World’s Healthiest vegetables! You can read more about Spinach from the link at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients to go in..

Ingredients;

(makes about 12 medium balls)

1 cup of Spinach (blanched and squeezed)
1/2 cup of fresh bread crumbs
1 tbsp grated cheese
2 tbsp Potato flakes/mashed potato
1 tsp. of Black pepper
Salt as desired
1 tsp of oil

Potato flakes

I had potato flakes which I often keep in case of emergency cooking 🙂 These come handy for a quick chutney, spread, potato curry and milk shakes too! Use boiled potato if you don’t have the flakes.

Ready for a makeover..

Method; Pick the spinach leaves and remove the thick stalk (use the stalk for making vegetable stocks for gravies) Wash the spinach and steam it for a few seconds. Take out from the steamer and squeeze the excess water. (I did not remove the water, but do it if you are making it for the first time). The water released from the spinach helps in binding the dough. But sometimes makes the dough too soft to make them into balls.

Take 3-4 bread pieces (brown bread if possible) and crumble it into fine powder using your hands. Grate the cheese. Boil a potato if you don’t have potato flakes.

Take a large vessel and add the spinach, bread crumbs, potato flakes, cheese, pepper and salt. Mix all the ingredients using hand and roll it into a large ball. Pinch small marble size balls from it and roll it into small balls.

Hot from the oven!

The scrumptious spinach balls, hot from the oven ..are ready to go with hot tea.

Grease a baking cookie sheet and place all the balls on it. Sprinkle a little of oil over the balls. Bake them at 200°C for a0-25 minutes or till they turn golden brown in color.

Spinach beauties!

My kids enjoyed making balls for me, while my son relished these and gave high ranking to these starters my daughter didn’t even bother to taste them 🙁 May be my next Spinach adventure will win her over 🙂

Have a bite with the tomato sauce smeared delights!

Note;

You can even deep fry the balls for a heavenly treat if you are not concerned with using oil in your diet.
Avoid potato and try these starter for a different taste.
These Spinach balls make a healthy lunch box treat for the kids.
A perfect picnic and travel food, as these stay good for 2 days.
Rock your party with these scrumptious Spinach ball starters. Serve these with any tangy spread or sauces with a toothpick attached to each ball.

More info about Spinach below;

whfoods

Come back for more of my Spinach treats that I made last week in the coming posts, have a great week ahead!

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41 Comments »

divya said:

hey gr8 spinach balls going to try out right now….all required ing..available…:)

# 22 March 2011 at 2:12 pm

Simone said:

O I love the look of your spinach balls! Funny to think that spinach is not so common in India. We can buy it almost everywhere.. 🙂 Up to the point where you get bored of a certain vegetable. Well I love spinach, but mainly use it in pasta’s and ovendishes and such…

# 22 March 2011 at 2:19 pm

sangeeta said:

Must have been great Sanjeeta…i make a steamed version without cheese .
This one looks so yummy n crisp.

# 22 March 2011 at 2:52 pm

Jayasree said:

Healthy, guilt free starters….

# 22 March 2011 at 3:49 pm

sharmi said:

very healthy snack! pics rock!

# 22 March 2011 at 4:50 pm

Pachecopatty said:

Hi Sanjeeta,
How are you? I will have to try these baked spinach balls, they look good dipped in your tomato sauce and I think my grand children would love them. Nice problem to have too much spinach on hand, very creative recipe!
Thanks for sharing and hope you’re having a great week;-)

# 22 March 2011 at 7:14 pm

sanjeeta kk said:

Hi Patty, am fine and hope the same for you too! And am sure your grandchildren will love these bakes spinach goodies. Take care.

# 23 March 2011 at 9:28 am

sanjeeta kk said:

Hi Patty, am fine and hope the same for you too! And am sure your grandchildren will love these bakes spinach goodies. Take care.

# 23 March 2011 at 9:28 am

Maria @ Scandifoodie said:

Yum, they look too good! I love spinach!

# 22 March 2011 at 11:01 pm

Tanvi@Sinfully Spicy said:

These spinach balls look so crunchy.Cant believe these are baked and so healthy.Thanks for sharing.I m going to try this out soon.

# 23 March 2011 at 10:40 am

Priscilla - She's Cookin' said:

Never too much spinach 🙂 My family jokes that I could eat spinach every day – and I would, except they are not as crazy about it as I am! Healthy and delicious, and I love that they are baked, not fried.

# 23 March 2011 at 10:45 am

Heavenly Housewife said:

These look like crispy morsels of deliciousness. I love the ingredients, I can tell this is probably so tasty!
*kisses* HH

# 23 March 2011 at 1:09 pm

Sweet Artichoke said:

What a perfect snack! Spinach are so good and healthy! I really like that the balls are baked and not fried! Would love to have some in my lunch box 🙂

# 23 March 2011 at 2:08 pm

prathibha said:

They look super appetizing dear!!would love to gobble a couple of dem..:
even I do store potato flakes..but tell me wat abt this potato flakes in milk shake funda???
never knew that!!!

# 23 March 2011 at 2:14 pm

Heather @girlichef said:

These are great. A healthy, delicious, appetizing snack. Bookmarking with hopes that I will get around to making some 😀

# 23 March 2011 at 6:43 pm

sonia said:

The spinach balls are looking absolutely delightful, so healthy and nutritious for the kids. I will surely try this great recipe of urs soon.

# 23 March 2011 at 11:54 pm

Barbarab said:

Those look like marvelous appetizers! I do love spinach and aside from the hot spinach dip everyone loves, this will make a nice change. Easily made too!

# 24 March 2011 at 12:42 am

Meena said:

Yummy and healthy

# 24 March 2011 at 12:59 pm

Deepa praveen said:

First time in your space..what a healthy looking dish…happy to follow u.

# 24 March 2011 at 4:37 pm

Soma said:

Really spinach is not popular in the South?! I need to eat that green at least once a week. This is cool.. and the paneer adds to the taste too I guess.

Thanks for the tip on using raw beet. I have never used raw beet, but saw Anjum’s recipe which had used raw beet. Still scared to taste the raw taste 🙂

# 24 March 2011 at 6:11 pm

Priya Srinivasan said:

Roll me some here!!! They look so yummy!!!! that too baked, i m loving it!!!!

# 24 March 2011 at 6:54 pm

Priya Srinivasan said:

Roll me some here!!! They look so yummy!!!! that too baked, i m loving it!!!!

# 24 March 2011 at 6:54 pm

Sarah said:

So healthy and yummy!!!

# 24 March 2011 at 8:51 pm

Cookin' Canuck said:

I would love to snack on these healthy spinach balls. Thank you for baking, not frying, them!

# 24 March 2011 at 11:51 pm

Joyti said:

Spinach isn’t popular in South India? But its so tasty and healthy! S, who’s family is from Kerala loves it. 🙂
The spinach balls sound really delicious.

# 24 March 2011 at 11:52 pm

Panchpakwan said:

Wow these spinach balls looks so inviting and delicious..

# 25 March 2011 at 12:50 am

FoodieAnn said:

I remember eating weeks and weeks of eating spinach at home… we had a little vegetable garden and my parents used to grow it….so every other day my parents used to cut some of those and make curries with these…These spinach balls sounds like a great idea…

# 25 March 2011 at 1:07 pm

Belinda @zomppa said:

Spinach balls are one of my favorites! Hungry now.

# 25 March 2011 at 8:10 pm

Dimah said:

That looks healthy and delicious!

# 25 March 2011 at 9:26 pm

Reeni said:

Spinach is one of my favorite vegetables! These are mouth-watering delicious! I love that they are baked.

# 26 March 2011 at 5:59 am

Latha said:

Looks abosolutely beautiful and yummy!

# 26 March 2011 at 9:13 pm

chitra said:

Baked balls is really a healthy option 🙂 Love this…

# 27 March 2011 at 4:42 pm

bunkycooks said:

I love the flavors in your Spinach Balls. What a great healthy treat!

# 29 March 2011 at 1:02 am

Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal said:

Absolutely scrumptious, love them 🙂

# 18 April 2011 at 11:10 pm

Spice said:

Looks very tempting…..not sure about kids but I caneat all of them……will def. try these & never knew Spinach is not very popular in south…..we love spinach…..btw love your blog, don’t know why I didn’t found it earlier….following U…..

# 19 April 2011 at 7:00 am

Ananda Rajashekar said:

potato flakes is new to me and those green balls just pretty and very healthy for the fact it is baked! kudos lady wonderful recipe!

# 3 May 2011 at 1:01 am

Baked Spinach Balls – High Protein Delight « Sin-A-Mon said:

[…] rich stuff and veggies) was looking out for recipes which would comply with it. That is when I saw Sanjeeta’s baked spinach balls though the recipe as it is not something I could have as it contained potatoes and bread crumbs but […]

# 28 July 2011 at 11:06 am