Artichoke, Spinach and Cannellini Bake

I make this delicious side dish to serve with roasted pork loin, roasted salmon or roasted cauliflower. Artichoke, Spinach and Cannellini Bake has a great dose of iron, protein and calcium so it’s full of nutritional ingredients smothered in a cheese sauce which makes it my kind of dish. As I’ve confessed before I simply don’t have the patience to core artichokes so I use tinned artichoke hearts to save time. You need to squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the artichokes so that it doesn’t thin out the cheese sauce. Same goes for the spinach, give it a good squeeze before adding to the bake. Any leftovers will keep in the fridge and can be reheated gently in the microwave.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 Adults and 2 Kids
240g washed baby spinach
240g drained tinned artichokes
235g drained, tinned cannellini beans
juice of 1 lemon
125g cream cheese
100g grated mozzarella
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp roasted garlic (or finely chopped raw garlic)
1/2 tsp salt
ground pepper

• Wilt the spinach in a saucepan with a lid over a medium heat. Once the spinach has shrunk take it out of the pan, run it under a cold tap then squeeze out as much moisture as possible.
• Mix together the cream cheese, mustard, garlic, salt and lemon juice in a medium sized bowl then add the spinach and drained cannellini beans. Stir the spinach and beans into the cheese mixture then add the drained, squeezed artichoke hearts and fold into the mixture. Add the grated mozzarella and stir again.
• Spread the mixture in a medium-sized baking dish (the mixture needs to be at least 3cm deep) then grind over with pepper and bake for 20 minutes in a 190°C (170°C Fan) oven.