Keto Creamed Spinach
With just 6 ingredients and 5 minutes of prep, you can have cheesy Keto Creamed Spinach at the dinner table in no time. This is the best creamed spinach recipe ever.
Anything with bacon and cheese falls into the comfort food category in my family. I take those two rich and indulgent foods and add them to casseroles, green salads, and easy side dish recipes. If it has cheese and it has bacon, my kids will eat it.
I can imagine the reactions if I just bought the casserole dish full of raw spinach (pictured below) to the dinner table. But mix in some bacon and cheese and make it into an easy keto creamed spinach, and it’s a hit.
I promise you’ve never had classic creamed spinach like this before! It is creamy, delicious, and the perfect side dish to roast chicken, pork chops, and more!
Of all the easy creamed spinach recipes I’ve tried over the years, this is my fave.
Ingredients
- Fresh Spinach: I almost always prefer to use fresh baby spinach; however, you could use frozen if you’d rather.
- Cream Cheese: The reason this creamed spinach is so rich, velvety, and creamy is because of the cream cheese.
- Dried Minced Onions: I especially enjoy the flavor that the dried minced onions bring to this recipe. It just adds a little bit of extra flavor and finishes the dish.
- Roasted Garlic Powder: If you don’t have roasted garlic powder, that’s not a problem. You could always swap it for regular garlic powder.
- Salt & Black Pepper: The salt and pepper can be added to taste.
- Gouda Cheese: One of the real stars of this dish is the Gouda cheese. If you don’t eat a lot of Gouda cheese, you might be surprised to know that it has a very strong flavor. If you don’t like strong-flavored cheese, that’s okay; you can totally exchange it for any other kind of cheese you want.
- Bacon: Cook the bacon so it’s extra crispy, then you will crumble it to add to the keto creamed spinach. You don’t need a lot of bacon to get that amazing flavor. I only use one piece; however, you could always add a little bit more or completely omit the bacon, depending on what you like.
See quantities in the recipe card.
I never cease to be amazed at how much spinach cooks down. From the photo above to the one below, you can see how much my spinach shrank. Even adding some other ingredients didn’t bulk up the bottom.
When I was cooking this spinach for a birthday dinner, I kept looking at my overflowing saucepan of fresh spinach and wondering if I needed to add more. I really could have.
How to Make Keto Creamed Spinach
1️⃣ Mix Ingredients
Sauté the spinach with the seasonings in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add cream cheese and let it melt into the spinach. Stir in the shredded cheese and bacon.
2️⃣ Serve or Bake
You can serve it immediately right from the skillet or transfer the creamed spinach to a casserole dish greased with butter and bake it until the cheese topping is golden brown.
Storage
Store leftover creamed spinach in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Leftovers keep well as the flavors continue to develop with storage.
Variations
- Mozzarella Cheese – If you aren’t a fan of Gouda cheese, that’s not a problem! You can easily swap it out with mozzarella, which is a more tame-flavored cheese. Some other great choices are freshly grated Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, or even pepper jack cheese for a little kick!
- Artichoke Hearts – Feel free to add in a few artichoke hearts if you want to. It will make it taste similar to an artichoke spinach dip recipe.
- Parmesan – Sprinkle on some shredded parmesan cheese for an extra bit of pizzazz to this recipe. I feel like you can never have enough Parmesan cheese, but that’s just my opinion.
- Minced Garlic – Another fun thing to do would be to saute a little bit of minced garlic. You can use anywhere between two and four cloves, depending on your preference. Sauté them in a little bit of oil or unsalted butter, then add them to the mixture of the other ingredients. Shallots are another great choice.
- Thinner Sauce – If you prefer a thinner cream sauce, you can mix in half a cup of heavy cream.
- Seasoning – You can change up the seasoning and use Italian seasoning or your favorite herb blend.
- Lighter – If you’d like to lighten up this recipe, you can either cut the amount of cream cheese and shredded cheese in half or just double the amount of spinach. The texture will be a bit less creamy but still delicious.
Common Questions
Is Creamed Spinach Keto?
Most creamed spinach is keto. You just need to watch out for added ingredients. Store bought creamy spinach might have thickeners like cornstarch or even added sugar. With homemade varieties you are probably ok unless they contain a lot of onions or garlic (both have quite a few net carbs).
Can I Use Frozen Spinach?
Absolutely! Just cook it according to the package instructions and drain well by pressing it in a colander. Then continue with the recipe, adding in the cheeses and spices.
More Keto Spinach Recipes
- Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms with Sundried Tomatoes
- Spinach Feta Savory Pancakes
- Keto Spinach Balls
- Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken
- Mediterranean Chicken Casserole
- Spinach and Feta Quiche
- Keto Gnocchi with Spinach
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Keto Creamed Spinach
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh spinach
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1 tbsp dried minced onion
- 1 tsp roasted garlic powder or regular garlic powder
- salt & pepper to taste
- 6 oz gouda cheese shredded
- 2 pieces crisp bacon crumbled
Instructions
- Spray a large skillet with cooking spray. Add the spinach, cover, and cook over medium until the spinach has wilted. Add the cream cheese, onion, and garlic, and stir until the cream cheese has melted.
- Remove from the heat. Add half the gouda cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with the remaining cheese and crumbled bacon and serve right from the skillet.
- OPTIONAL: Preheat oven to 400. Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray. Follow the above instructions and then transfer to the prepared baking dish. Top with the remaining cheese and crumbled bacon. Bake for 20 min.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally Published May 28, 2018. Revised and Republished December 17, 2025.
This is so good and so easy to make. It only takes maybe 10 minutes total! I served it with cheese crisps.
great
I love spinach and this sounds great. I plan to make it tonight.
Just a note. I have a really nice large All Clad skillet that has lost its’ non-stick and need to get it refurbished. I have read where cooking spray will deteriorate non-stick surfaces quickly (no idea if true).
I eat lots of spinach recipes and will make this one as it looks great, but just use 1-2 Tbsp butter in place of the spray. I gave 5 stars just because I know it will be delish!
This looks really good. I have a bag of spinach that I don’t want to go bad. So I think I’ll make it for my side dish.
Easy to follow instructions
Sooo Yummm!
Sooo Easy!
Sooo WOW factor!
I know this is an old thread, but we just tried this with our abundance of mustard greens. REALLY GOOD!
Made this for my wife. She said it’s the best spinach dish she’s ever good. “That was super good!” Hopefully she’ll leave some for at least one more meal.
I subbed in Fry’s crispy onions sprinkled sparsely on top instead of bacon. I also cooked it on the stovetop and then let the liquid cook out of it by baking it in the oven afterward. Letting it cool a little and solidify further, I then served it to my husband with an ice cream scooper on top of his favorite burger patty. I made a little dent in the top a la mashed potatoes, and squirted some 2x/s tomato paste into it cold like you would a dollop of sour cream.
My husband hates vegetables. This was a huge victory watching him stubbornly try to act like he wasn’t liking it, and after the first few bites he dropped all pretense and began savoring every bite like it was the high point of his day. That’s a big win in our house!!