Czech Green Spinach Sauce (Špenátová Omáčka)

Fancy a taste of Czech Easter food? Then don't hesitate and dig into this incredibly delicious green sauce made from spinach leaves! An easy recipe with a few simple ingredients that goes perfectly with cooked potatoes and a hard-boiled egg.

➜ What is this spinach sauce

It is an old Bohemian dish made with spinach leaves, which give the sauce its beautiful green color. Czechs prepare the sauce just before Easter, during Lent, when people used to fast. A typical day for preparing spinach sauce was Maundy Thursday (Zelený čtvrtek) when green food was supposed to appear on the table.

Since meat was not eaten during Lent, this spinach sauce is also vegetarian. Caraway-flavored potatoes and hard-boiled eggs are typical accompaniments.

I even made the sauce three times before Easter this year because I decided to make videos with detailed instructions for my recipes. This spinach sauce is my first video recipe, which you can find on YouTube here!

MY TIP: Also try this creamed spinach made from frozen (the taste will surprise you!)

➜ Pronunciation

The Czech name for spinach sauce is "špenátová omáčka." If you are curious about how to pronounce this Czech word, I have recorded a short audio clip for you. I'm a native Czech speaker, so you'll hear the Czech language firsthand! Please click the button to play.

➜ Sauce ingredients

To make green spinach sauce, you will need the following:

• Fresh baby spinach; green leaves
• Yellow onion
• Garlic clove; fresh garlic
• Unsalted butter; alternatively, sunflower oil or canola oil, which are flavor-neutral cooking oils
• Whole milk; for a creamier taste, use half-and-half (half and half is a mixture of equal parts whole milk and heavy cream)
• All-purpose flour; to thicken the sauce. 
• Apple cider vinegar; with around 5 % acidity percentage, for a great taste contrast. Instead of vinegar, use freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• Seasoning: salt, ground black pepper, ground nutmeg

✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.

➜ How to make Czech green sauce

STEP 1: Place the spinach leaves in a colander, rinse them under running water and drain. Chop the leafy greens roughly using a knife.

STEP 2: Peel and finely chop the onion. Remove the skin from the garlic clove and mash it either with a press or with a chef's knife.

STEP 3: Heat a frying pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onion and fry until golden brown. Don't forget to stir so it doesn't burn! Stir in the crushed garlic and fry for another minute or so, but no longer, or the garlic will burn and become bitter.

STEP 4: Pour the milk into a glass or bowl and add the flour, whisking well so there are no lumps of flour in the milk.

MY TIP: If you use lukewarm milk, the flour will whisk better.

STEP 5: Immediately add to the pan with the base of frying onions and garlic. Stir well. Reduce heat to one-third. Season with salt, ground pepper, and nutmeg.

STEP 6: Stir in your spinach leaves, cover the pan with a lid, and let simmer for ten minutes.

STEP 7: Transfer the cooked sauce to a blender, and add vinegar. Mix for about a minute until smooth and creamy.

Take care, because the sauce is quite hot. If you do not have a chance to use a stand mixer, you can achieve the same results with an immersion blender.

Season the sauce with salt, pepper, or a little more vinegar if necessary, and hurray for the table!

➜ Serving

Arrange the boiled potatoes on a plate and drizzle with melted butter. Pour the spinach sauce beside them. Place a halved hard-boiled egg in the sauce and garnish with green herbs for a nice color contrast. I picked thyme, but you could also use parsley sprigs or chopped chives.

Variations: Instead of boiled potatoes, use sliced Czech potato dumplings. Instead of a hard-boiled egg, cook a sunny-side-up style egg in a frying pan.

Spinach sauce, together with a side dish, makes a tasty and light lunch or dinner!

➜ Storage and reheating

Do you have leftover spinach sauce? Pour it into a container, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for up to four days.

The sauce is thickened with a little flour, which causes it to thicken slightly during storage. To reheat, pour it into a small saucepan, stir in a tablespoon of water and heat over medium heat. Stir from time to time to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

➜ Is this spinach sauce good for pasta?

I'm not saying you can't use this spinach sauce on pasta, but it's not the primary use. Classic green spinach sauce for pasta is usually served as a topping and contains garlic, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese in addition to spinach.

Czech spinach sauce is intended to be a separate part of the meal, not poured over the side dish, but served next to it. Also, its formula and preparation procedure differ from that of pasta sauce. Anyway, if you do try the Czech spinach sauce with cooked pasta, report back to me how it turned out!

➜ Useful tips

• Czechs like to use frozen spinach, which is sold already pureed. The procedure for making the sauce is the same, just let the spinach defrost in advance and drain off the liquid that is released from the spinach when it thaws.
• You can whip up this dish in less than 30 minutes. Just peel the potatoes and let them cook along with the eggs. Before the side dish is ready, make the spinach sauce, and a quick family dinner is about to be served!
• This recipe for spinach sauce is one of the many tasty meatless dishes that Czech cuisine offers.

More tasty recipes:

• Braised kohlrabi
• French potato gratin (Francouzské brambory)
• Savory potato cake