At first I was a little hesitant to use coconut cream with the spinach, as I’m fairly new cooking with coconut cream. I’m in fact not at all that fond of coconut as a fruit, cause I find it quite sweet.  Having tried coconut curry before, and after some extra research for inspiration online, I knew it would be a delicious side to go with my chicken.

The coconut cream turns these leafy green delicious fresh spinach leaves into a tender, luxurious dish, beautifully cooked in to thicken the milk into the cream and seasoned with a little nutmeg aside from pepper and salt…  Are you hungry yet? (I feel like I want more now…)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 3 large handfuls of fresh spinach leaves
• nutmeg, pepper & salt, to season
• 1/4 medium onion, diced finely
• 1 small clove of garlic, diced finely
• little butter
• a little ‘beurre manié’ to thicken the sauce (optional)

Method:

There are (apparently) two ways of making this: either you start with the spinach and add on the other ingredients, or you start with the ingredients and add on the spinach at the end. I tried method two.  (I quite like chucking things together in a pot :))

First take a saucepan and melt a little butter. Then add your diced garlic and onion and let cook till translucent.

Now add the coconut milk, mix well and stir to let the milk start to cook.  Then put in the spinach handful by handful, and leave to wilt a bit.  Then mix under the coconut milk.  Repeat with the other two handful of leaves.

Keep the mix to boiling so it can boil in and naturally thicken.  Should this not be the case; in a separate bowl make a 50-50 mix of butter and flour, to form a beurre manié.  A little bit of the thickening agent in and stir well.  Please make sure you get the mixture boiling properly, so you cook the flour thoroughly.  Add as much as needed, till you have the consistency in the creamy spinach you desire.  Taste for your base flavour, and add on pepper, salt and nutmeg to taste.

In mean time heat up a grill pan on a medium high heat.  Once hot, add on your chicken and season with pepper and salt.  Cook on both sides till well done and plate.  Gently add on the creamy spinach on top and serve hot.

Enjoy!