Copycat Ruth’s Chris Creamed Spinach Recipe

Copycat Ruth’s Chris creamed spinach is the side dish people order without even looking at the menu. It’s silky rather than leafy, rich without being heavy, and there’s a warm spice running underneath it that most people can’t quite name.

That spice is nutmeg. And the texture comes from a step almost every home version skips.

This recipe makes it the way the steakhouse does — and once you understand why the spinach gets puréed, you’ll never go back to stirring chopped leaves into cream.

What Makes the Ruth’s Chris Version Different

Most creamed spinach recipes online wilt chopped spinach into heavy cream and cream cheese. That’s a fine dish. It is not this dish.

The steakhouse version is built on three things:

1. The spinach is puréed, not chopped. It’s blanched, shocked in ice water, squeezed bone-dry, then run through a food processor. That’s where the signature silkiness comes from — there are no leaves to catch on your fork.
2. The sauce is a roux, not cream. Butter and flour are cooked together, then whole milk is whisked in. A roux gives you body and cling that heavy cream can’t, and it keeps the dish from going watery on the plate.
3. There’s no cheese. This surprises people. Parmesan is standard in most creamed spinach, but the steakhouse version leaves it out entirely — the flavor comes from butter, onion, bay leaf, and nutmeg. Adding Parmesan makes it taste like a different restaurant’s side dish.

If you’d rather skip the food processor, my easier creamed spinach made with cream cheese and Parmesan is a faster weeknight route — it’s a different texture, but it comes together in one skillet.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It actually tastes like the restaurant. The purée-and-roux method is the whole difference.
• Everyday ingredients. Spinach, butter, flour, milk, onion, nutmeg. Nothing unusual.
• Make it ahead. It reheats better than almost any other steakhouse side.
• Feeds a crowd. Eight generous servings from one pot, which makes it a holiday workhorse.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House Creamed Spinach Ingredients

• Fresh spinach — 2 pounds sounds like an enormous amount, and it is. It cooks down to roughly 2 cups of purée. Flat-leaf or mature spinach works better here than baby spinach; it has more flavor and holds up to blanching.
• Butter — used twice: once for the roux, once stirred in at the end. The finishing butter is what gives the dish its gloss.
• All-purpose flour — the thickener. Cook it with the butter for a full minute so the sauce doesn’t taste pasty.
• Whole milk — not cream. Cream plus a roux is too heavy and can break.
• Yellow onion — grated or very finely minced so it disappears into the sauce.
• Bay leaf — steeps in the milk and adds a savory background note.
• Fresh nutmeg — see below. This is the ingredient that makes people ask what’s in it.
• Kosher salt and black pepper

Why Nutmeg Matters in This Recipe

Nutmeg is the answer to “what is that?” — and it’s the detail most copycat versions get wrong in one of two directions.

Skip it and the dish tastes flat, like spinach in white sauce. Overdo it and it turns sweet and vaguely like eggnog, which is a hard thing to un-taste.

The target is ¼ teaspoon, freshly grated, for this batch size. Freshly grated matters more than usual here: pre-ground nutmeg loses its volatile oils within a few months of opening, so a jar that’s been in your cabinet a year will taste dusty rather than warm. A whole nutmeg and a microplane costs a few dollars and lasts for years.

Add it at the end, off the heat, and taste before you add more. You want to notice the warmth without being able to identify the spice.

How to Make Copycat Ruth’s Chris Creamed Spinach

Step One — Blanch the spinach. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and set a big bowl of ice water beside it. Drop the spinach in and cook just 45 seconds to 1 minute, until it collapses and turns bright green. Immediately transfer it to the ice water. This locks in the color — skip it and the finished dish turns army green.

Step Two — Squeeze it dry, then dry again. Drain the cooled spinach and squeeze it in handfuls, hard. Then wrap it in a clean kitchen towel and wring it out. You want a dense green ball. Every tablespoon of water you leave behind thins your sauce.

Step Three — Purée. Pulse the squeezed spinach in a food processor until it’s finely chopped and almost paste-like. Set aside.

Step Four — Make the roux. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, for a full minute — it should bubble and smell nutty but stay pale. Don’t let it brown.

Step Five — Build the sauce. Stir in the grated onion, bay leaf, salt, and pepper, and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the milk in a thin stream while whisking constantly. Keep whisking 5 to 7 minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Step Six — Combine and finish. Fish out the bay leaf. Stir the spinach purée into the sauce and cook over low heat about 5 minutes, until everything is hot and glossy. Off the heat, grate in the nutmeg and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of softened butter. Taste, adjust salt, and serve hot.

Recipe Tips

• Salt the blanching water. It seasons the spinach from the inside and it’s the only chance you get.
• Don’t skip the ice bath. Thirty seconds of carryover heat is the difference between bright green and drab.
• Grate the onion instead of chopping it. Minced onion leaves little bites; grated onion melts in.
• Whisk the milk in slowly. Dumping it in at once is the number one cause of lumps.
• Warm the milk first if you’re nervous. Cold milk into a hot roux works fine with steady whisking, but warm milk is more forgiving.
• Season at the end. The sauce reduces and concentrates — salting early can overshoot.

Troubleshooting

It’s watery. The spinach wasn’t squeezed hard enough. There’s no fixing it after the fact, so be aggressive at Step Two — a potato ricer works well if you have one.

It’s lumpy. The milk went in too fast. An immersion blender rescues it in seconds.

It tastes like flour paste. The roux was undercooked. Give it the full minute next time.

It’s too thick after sitting. Normal. Loosen it with a splash of warm milk over low heat.

Storing, Reheating, and Making It Ahead

Refrigerator: Keeps in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days.

Reheating: Warm gently on the stovetop over low heat, stirring, with a splash of milk to loosen. The microwave works but reheat in short bursts and stir between them — roux-based sauces can break with aggressive heat.

Make ahead: This is one of the rare sides that’s genuinely better made a day early. Prepare it completely, refrigerate, and reheat with milk before serving. That’s a real advantage on a holiday table.

Freezing: Not recommended. The roux separates on thaw.

What to Serve With Creamed Spinach

It’s built for steak, but it earns its place next to almost anything rich and savory. It’s excellent with a country fried steak for a full comfort-food plate, or alongside a mushroom and onion chopped steak when you want something faster on a weeknight.

For a second vegetable, roasted Brussels sprouts give you crisp edges against all that silkiness — the contrast is the point.

And if you’re putting together a full steakhouse dinner at home, Ruth’s Chris style creamed corn cooks hands-off in the slow cooker while you handle the stovetop, and a wedge salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing is the classic way to start the meal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Ruth’s Chris creamed spinach have cheese in it? No. This is the most common mistake in copycat versions. The steakhouse dish gets its richness from butter, whole milk, and a roux — no Parmesan, no cream cheese. If you want a cheesy version, add ½ cup grated Parmesan at the end, but know that you’re making something different.

Can I use frozen spinach? Yes, and it’s a reasonable shortcut since you’re puréeing anyway. Use 20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed completely, and squeeze it much harder than feels necessary — frozen spinach holds far more water than blanched fresh. Skip the blanching step entirely.

Why is my creamed spinach watery? Almost always under-squeezed spinach. Wring it in a towel until no more liquid comes out, then wring it once more.

How much nutmeg should I use? A quarter teaspoon, freshly grated, for eight servings. Add it off the heat and taste before adding more — it’s easy to overshoot and impossible to walk back.

Can I make this dairy-free? You can build the roux with a plant butter and use unsweetened oat milk, which has enough body to work. The result is good but noticeably less rich than the original.

Can I double it? Yes. Use a wide pot so the sauce reduces evenly, and add about 5 minutes to the thickening time.