Spinach Recipes for Kids That Grown-Ups Steal Too

Ask what’s for dinner and nobody answers “spinach.” Say mac and cheese, pizza or that hot dip, though, and everyone’s in. Every one of those can carry a big handful of spinach, so the real question is which recipe fits which person at your table.

Quick answer: The best spinach recipes for kids put it inside food your family already loves. That means cheesy orzo and mini meatballs for toddlers, mac and cheese, pizza and pesto pasta for school-age kids, and dip, Tuscan chicken and stuffed shells for everyone. Cooked with cheese, garlic or tomato, spinach turns soft and mild, so it doesn’t need hiding, and frozen works in every cooked dish.

Jump to the recipes: for toddlers · for school-age kids · for the whole table

Why spinach doesn’t need hiding

If you’ve ever tossed a handful of spinach into the blender and hoped nobody noticed, you’re in good company, and it does help. When preschoolers were served main dishes with extra vegetables puréed in, they ate more vegetables and liked the food as much as before.¹ The catch is that a smoothie can’t help anyone learn to like spinach if they don’t know it’s in there.

Liking comes from tasting, a little at a time, and knowing what you’re tasting. When parents of kids ages 2 to 6 offered a small taste of a vegetable their child wasn’t keen on every day for two weeks, those kids came around to it: they liked it more and ate more of it.² Picture spinach turning up at your table the same way: green flecks in Tuesday’s mac and cheese, wilted into Thursday’s soup, bubbling in Saturday’s dip. By the weekend it’s a familiar part of dinner, not a surprise.

So blend it some nights and leave it in plain sight on others. Cooked with cheese, garlic, cream or tomato, spinach turns soft and mild and takes on the flavor of the dish around it. Then say it out loud at the table: “There’s spinach in this one.”

Start with whoever’s newest to spinach at your table: the littlest eaters.

Spinach recipes for toddlers and little hands

For the littlest eaters, spinach goes best into a soft food they can pick up with their fingers or scoop with a spoon. Think about what already works on the high-chair tray, the pasta that gets eaten by the fistful or the meatball held in both hands, and add spinach to that. Chop it fine, cook it soft, and cut everything to the size your toddler handles right now; that’s CDC’s advice for little eaters, along with keeping tough chunks of meat and big pieces of cheese off the tray.³

Cheesy spinach orzo

Rice-shaped pasta, melted cheese and spinach chopped so fine it turns into green confetti. A toddler can eat it with a spoon, and the rest of the family gets a quick side.

Good for: lunch, or a side next to chicken · Time: 20 minutes · Makes: about 4 cups

You need

• 1 cup dry orzo
• 2 packed cups baby spinach, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ cup shredded mild cheddar or mozzarella
• ¼ cup grated parmesan
• 2 to 4 tablespoons milk

Steps

1. Cook the orzo in a pot of lightly salted boiling water for 8 to 9 minutes, until tender.
2. Stir the chopped spinach into the pot for the last minute, until it wilts.
3. Drain, return everything to the pot, and stir in the butter, both cheeses and enough milk to make it creamy.
4. For grown-up plates, finish with lemon zest and black pepper.

Who does what: a toddler tears the spinach leaves into a bowl, a school-age kid stirs in the cheese, and an adult handles the boiling water.

Turkey and spinach mini meatballs

Small, soft meatballs with a whole box of spinach mixed through. Little hands can hold them, and they dip well in marinara.

Good for: dinner with pasta, or lunchbox leftovers · Time: 35 minutes · Makes: about 30 small meatballs

You need

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• ⅓ cup grated parmesan
• 1 egg
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Marinara sauce, for dipping

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Mix everything except the marinara in a bowl until combined. Roll into 1-inch balls.
3. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until the centers reach 165°F, the safe temperature for ground turkey.⁴
4. Serve warm with marinara for dipping, cutting toddler portions into quarters. Cooked meatballs keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge, or 2 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.⁵

Who does what: a preschooler stirs the bowl, a school-age kid rolls the meatballs, and a teen runs the oven and the thermometer.

Green mango smoothie pops

A mango smoothie frozen on a stick, with a handful of spinach blended in. The color gives it away, so call them green pops and let everyone guess what’s inside.

Good for: an afternoon snack · Time: 10 minutes, plus at least 4 hours to freeze · Makes: 6 to 8 pops

You need

• 1 cup packed baby spinach
• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• 1 ripe banana
• ¾ cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• ½ cup milk

Steps

1. Blend the milk and spinach first until there are no leafy bits, then add the rest and blend until smooth.
2. Pour into ice pop molds (or small paper cups with a spoon for a handle).
3. Freeze at least 4 hours.

Who does what: a toddler presses the blender button with help, a school-age kid pours the molds, and everyone votes on the flavor for next time.

As kids get older, those same cheesy, saucy flavors turn into the dinners they ask for by name.

Spinach recipes for kids: the school-night favorites

School-age kids want the food they’d point to on a menu: mac and cheese, pizza, a quesadilla cut into triangles. Keep those exactly the way they like them and let the spinach show up as a few green flecks in a sauce they already trust. Every recipe here hands a kid a real job, too, and a kid who whisked the cheese sauce has a stake in how it tastes.

Spinach mac and cheese

A real cheese sauce made on the stove, with spinach wilted right into it. The green shows, and the cheese does the convincing.

Good for: a school night · Time: 25 minutes · Makes: 4 to 6 servings

You need

• 8 ounces elbow macaroni
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups shredded cheddar
• 3 packed cups baby spinach, chopped (or 1 cup frozen, thawed and squeezed dry)
• ½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of garlic powder

Steps

1. Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water until tender, then drain.
2. In the same pot, melt the butter, whisk in the flour for 1 minute, then slowly whisk in the milk. Cook, stirring, until it thickens, about 4 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese until smooth, then the spinach, salt and garlic powder. The heat of the sauce wilts the spinach.
4. Stir the macaroni back in. For the grown-ups’ version, top a dish with breadcrumbs and broil until golden.

Who does what: a younger kid measures the cheese, a 10-year-old whisks the sauce with an adult beside the stove, and a teen makes the broiled version.

Spinach and mozzarella pizza

The spinach goes on before the cheese, where it softens instead of burning. Make one big pizza or let everyone build their own on naan.

Good for: Friday pizza night · Time: 30 minutes · Makes: one large pizza or 4 naan pizzas

You need

• 1 pound pizza dough, or 4 naan breads
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 2 packed cups baby spinach
• 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• Toppings everyone likes (pepperoni, mushrooms, olives)

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 450°F (425°F for naan).
2. Warm the oil and garlic in a pan, add the spinach and stir for about a minute, until it wilts.
3. Spread the sauce, scatter the spinach, then cover it with the cheese and toppings.
4. Bake 12 to 15 minutes for dough or 8 to 10 for naan, until the cheese bubbles and browns at the edges.

Who does what: a preschooler spreads the sauce, a school-age kid scatters the spinach before the cheese goes on, and a teen slides the pizzas in and out of the oven.

Chicken and spinach quesadillas

Rotisserie chicken, melted cheese and spinach in a crisp tortilla, on the table in about 20 minutes with salsa and sour cream for dipping.

Good for: a busy weeknight · Time: 20 minutes · Makes: 4 large quesadillas

You need

• 4 large flour tortillas
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken (a store rotisserie chicken works)
• 2 packed cups baby spinach, chopped
• 1½ cups shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar
• ½ teaspoon cumin (optional)
• Salsa and sour cream, for dipping

Steps

1. Scatter cheese over half of each tortilla, then the chicken, spinach and cumin, then a little more cheese. Fold.
2. Cook in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes a side, until golden and the cheese has melted.
3. Rest a minute, then cut into triangles.

Who does what: a school-age kid layers the fillings, a teen runs the skillet, and the youngest picks the dips.

Spinach basil pesto pasta

Pesto made with spinach and basil, blended bright green in about a minute. This is the one where the color is the whole point.

Good for: a 20-minute dinner, and a nut-free lunchbox the next day if you use sunflower seeds · Time: 20 minutes · Makes: 4 to 6 servings

You need

• 1 pound pasta (any shape)
• 2 packed cups baby spinach
• 1 cup basil leaves
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• Juice of ½ lemon and ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup pine nuts, walnuts or sunflower seeds (optional; blend them completely smooth)

Steps

1. Cook the pasta, saving ½ cup of the cooking water before you drain it.
2. Blend everything else until smooth.
3. Toss the pasta with the pesto, adding splashes of the pasta water until it coats every piece.

Who does what: a younger kid picks the basil leaves off the stems, a school-age kid runs the blender, and a teen tastes and adjusts the lemon and salt.

Mango pineapple green smoothie

For the mornings when breakfast happens on the way out the door. Blending the spinach with the milk first keeps it silky.

Good for: breakfast to go · Time: 5 minutes · Makes: 2 large glasses

You need

• 1 cup packed baby spinach
• 1 cup milk or coconut water
• 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• ½ cup frozen mango chunks
• 1 banana
• ½ cup Greek yogurt

Steps

1. Blend the spinach and milk until no leafy bits remain.
2. Add the fruit and yogurt and blend until smooth.
3. Drink it right away; it separates as it sits.

Who does what: a teen makes it start to finish, and a younger kid picks tomorrow’s fruit.

Then come the dishes the grown-ups end up stealing from.

Spinach meals for the whole table

These are the dishes nobody has to make a kid version of. Picture the hot dip from the appetizer menu, the creamy chicken you’d order on a night out, a tray of stuffed shells that feeds everyone twice. Each one takes a big pile of spinach, and each one is a meal the adults wanted anyway. Toddlers can eat right along with everyone, cut small; on dip night, give them soft bread in place of hard chips and raw carrots, which are both on CDC’s choking list.³

Hot spinach artichoke dip

The bubbling, cheesy dip from the appetizer menu, made at home with a whole box of frozen spinach.

Good for: game night or movie night · Time: 35 minutes · Makes: about 3 cups, for 6 to 8 people

You need

• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella, divided
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• To dip: pita chips, tortilla chips, bell pepper strips, carrot sticks, soft bread

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 375°F.
2. Stir the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise smooth, then mix in the spinach, artichokes, garlic, parmesan and half the mozzarella.
3. Spread in a small baking dish (about 1½ quarts) and top with the rest of the mozzarella.
4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbling at the edges and browned on top.

Who does what: a teen runs it start to finish, a school-age kid squeezes the spinach dry over the sink, and the youngest arranges the dippers.

Creamy Tuscan chicken

Golden chicken in a garlic and parmesan cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach wilted in at the end. Serve it over pasta or rice.

Good for: a weeknight that feels like a night out · Time: 30 minutes · Makes: 4 to 6 servings

You need

• 1½ pounds thin-cut chicken breasts (or regular breasts sliced in half)
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, plus salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• 3 packed cups baby spinach

Steps

1. Season the chicken and brown it in the oil over medium-high heat, 5 to 6 minutes a side, until it reaches 165°F.⁴ Move it to a plate.
2. In the same pan, cook the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes for 1 minute. Add the broth and scrape up the browned bits, then stir in the cream and parmesan and simmer 3 minutes.
3. Stir in the spinach until it wilts, then return the chicken and spoon the sauce over it.

Who does what: a school-age kid grates the parmesan and adds the spinach by the handful, a teen sears the chicken, and an adult checks the temperature.

Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells

Jumbo pasta shells filled with ricotta and spinach, baked in marinara under melted mozzarella. Make a tray now and another for the freezer.

Good for: a make-ahead dinner · Time: 1 hour · Makes: about 24 shells, 6 servings

You need

• About 24 jumbo pasta shells
• 15 ounces ricotta
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1½ cups shredded mozzarella, divided
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 (24-ounce) jar marinara sauce

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Cook the shells until tender but still firm, then drain and spread them out so they don’t stick.
2. Mix the ricotta, spinach, egg, parmesan, half the mozzarella, salt and garlic powder.
3. Spread half the marinara in a 9-by-13-inch dish, fill each shell with a heaping spoonful, and line them up. Top with the rest of the sauce and mozzarella.
4. Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 more, until bubbling and hot in the center (165°F for a casserole).⁴
5. To freeze, wrap a baked or unbaked tray well. It keeps best for 2 to 3 months and can go into the oven still frozen; plan on about one and a half times the baking time.⁶

Who does what: a 6-year-old stuffs the shells, a 10-year-old spreads the sauce, and a teen handles the oven.

Spinach and feta hand pies

Puff pastry triangles with a salty spinach and feta filling, in the style of Greek spanakopita (span-uh-KOH-pih-tuh). They’re crisp on the outside and good warm or at room temperature.

Good for: a weekend cooking project, and lunchboxes after · Time: 50 minutes · Makes: 8 hand pies

You need

• 1 box (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, thawed in the fridge
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• ½ cup ricotta
• 2 green onions, sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (optional) and a pinch of black pepper
• 2 eggs (one for the filling, one beaten for brushing)

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix the spinach, feta, ricotta, green onions, dill, pepper and one egg.
3. Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares. Put about 2 tablespoons of filling on each, fold into a triangle, and press the edges with a fork.
4. Brush with the beaten egg and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until puffed and deep golden. The filling holds egg, so bake until it’s steaming hot (160°F for egg dishes).⁴

Who does what: a younger kid presses the edges with the fork, a school-age kid spoons the filling, and a teen brushes and bakes.

Sausage, spinach and tortellini soup

One pot of tomato broth with sausage and cheese tortellini, and four cups of spinach stirred in right before serving.

Good for: a cold night · Time: 40 minutes · Makes: 6 servings

You need

• 1 pound mild Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 onion and 2 carrots, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
• 4 packed cups baby spinach
• Grated parmesan, for the top

Steps

1. Brown the sausage in a large pot, breaking it up, until it’s no longer pink and reaches 160°F.⁴
2. Add the onion and carrots and cook 5 minutes, then the garlic for 1 minute.
3. Add the tomatoes and broth and simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add the tortellini and cook as the package directs. Stir in the spinach for the last minute.
5. To freeze, freeze the soup before the tortellini go in (they turn soft in the freezer), and add fresh ones when you reheat. Soup keeps best frozen for 2 to 3 months.⁵

Who does what: a school-age kid adds the spinach by the handful and watches it wilt, a teen browns the sausage, and the youngest sprinkles the parmesan.

Sausage, egg and spinach breakfast burritos

A freezer full of hot breakfasts. Teens can grab one, microwave it and be out the door.

Good for: school mornings · Time: 40 minutes · Makes: 8 burritos

You need

• 1 pound breakfast sausage
• 10 eggs and ¼ cup milk, whisked
• 3 packed cups baby spinach, chopped
• 1½ cups shredded cheddar
• 8 large flour tortillas
• Salsa (optional)

Steps

1. Brown the sausage until it reaches 160°F, then move it to a bowl.⁴
2. In the same pan, scramble the eggs over medium-low heat until no liquid egg remains, folding in the spinach at the end so it wilts.
3. Let the filling cool for 10 minutes, then divide the sausage, eggs and cheese among the tortillas and roll them up tight.
4. Wrap each one in foil or plastic wrap and freeze in a freezer bag. They keep best for about 2 to 3 months.⁵
5. To reheat, unwrap, wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave 1½ to 2½ minutes, turning once, until steaming hot in the middle (165°F for leftovers).⁴

Who does what: a school-age kid sprinkles the cheese, a teen scrambles the eggs and rolls the burritos, and an adult runs the sausage.

Some of these call for fresh spinach and some for frozen, and knowing which is which is how a whole bag gets used in a week.

Fresh or frozen: which spinach for which recipe

If half a bag of spinach has ever gone slimy in your drawer, the fix starts in the freezer aisle. A 10-ounce box of frozen spinach weighs the same as a 10-ounce bag of fresh, packed into about 1¾ cups, and it waits in the freezer until dip night comes around.⁷⁸ Keep one box in the freezer and one bag in the fridge, and split the recipes like this:

• Frozen, thawed and squeezed dry, for the dishes that need a lot of spinach in a small space: the dip, the stuffed shells, the hand pies and the meatballs. Wring it out in a clean towel over the sink until it stops dripping; that’s what keeps the dip creamy and the filling from going watery.
• Fresh baby spinach, for anything it can wilt into: the soup, the Tuscan chicken, the mac and cheese, the burritos, the pizza, the orzo, the pesto and the smoothies. Leaves going a little soft at the edges are perfect here. Slimy or sour-smelling leaves go in the trash, and our guide to how to wash spinach covers washing and keeping the rest fresh.

Here’s how one bag disappears in a week: Sunday’s pesto pasta takes the first two cups, Monday’s and Wednesday’s smoothies take a cup each, Tuesday’s quesadillas two more, and Thursday’s soup finishes it off, so by Friday the drawer is empty and none of it went in the trash. On Saturday, the box from the freezer turns into a pan of dip.

With the spinach sorted, the jobs are easy to hand out.

Give everyone a part in spinach night

Spinach night goes better when everyone at the table had a hand in it, from the 4-year-old to the teen. Each recipe already has a job for every age, and these four ideas carry it past the cooking.

1. Set up a tasting board. Put out the same spinach three ways: a raw baby leaf, a spoonful sautéed with garlic, and a few leaves brushed with oil and baked at 350°F until crisp, about 10 minutes. Everyone tries what they want and rates each one. Nobody has to finish anything.
2. Pack tomorrow’s lunch together. A cold hand pie, a container of pesto pasta or two leftover meatballs go into lunchboxes the night before, and the kids do the packing.
3. Put the week on the fridge. Write down the spinach dishes you picked and let the kids check them off as they’re eaten.
4. Let the helper pick. Whoever helped cook tonight chooses next week’s recipe.

The jobs can start at the store, too. Grab the free TJ’s Grocery Challenge for a kid-run store mission, plus a taste-test tracker to fill in as the week’s dishes come out.

Spinach night deserves its own song. Out of the 400+ kids’ food songs in NutraBeats, this one was written for spinach, so put it on while the oven heats:

Spinach Power Anthem

For the nights in between, our free Family Mealtime Toolkit comes with three days of planned family meals, plus conversation questions that get the whole table talking.

Here are the questions that come up between the store and the freezer.

Spinach recipe questions

Is spinach good for kids?

Yes. Cooked spinach is especially rich in vitamin K, vitamin A and folate, and because it cooks down so much, a small scoop stirred into the sauce started out as a big handful of leaves.⁹⁸ Our guide to spinach benefits for kids covers what each of those does, and whether raw or cooked gives your family more.

How much fresh spinach equals a box of frozen?

Swap them about one for one: a 10-ounce bag of fresh spinach cooks down to about 1¼ to 1½ cups, and a 10-ounce box of frozen, cooked and drained, comes to about 1¼ cups. So when a recipe calls for one box, a whole bag of fresh, wilted and squeezed, does the same job.⁹⁸¹⁰

Can you freeze these spinach recipes?

Most of them, yes. Frozen food stays safe indefinitely, and the suggested freezer times are for best quality: about 2 to 3 months for casseroles like the stuffed shells, for soups and for egg dishes like the burritos.⁶⁵ Freeze the soup without the tortellini, and reheat leftovers to 165°F.⁴ Get leftovers into the fridge or freezer within 2 hours of cooking.¹¹

Can you taste spinach in a smoothie?

Not much, when it’s blended well with sweet fruit like mango, pineapple and banana. Blending the spinach with the liquid first, before the fruit goes in, gets rid of the leafy bits that give it away. The color still shows, so tell everyone it’s in there and let them see for themselves.

What can I make with spinach that's about to go bad?

Cook it today. Leaves that are soft but not slimy wilt into the tortellini soup, the mac and cheese or a pan of scrambled eggs in about a minute. Slimy, sour-smelling or moldy leaves go in the trash.

Do I need to wash bagged spinach for these recipes?

No, if the label says triple washed, ready to eat or no washing necessary: CDC says those greens don’t need another wash.¹² Everything else gets a rinse under running water first; our guide to how to wash spinach walks through it.

Spinach, out in the open

Put two of these on this week’s plan, maybe the pizza on a school night and the dip on Saturday, and buy one bag of fresh spinach and one box of frozen to cover both. Let the teen run the dip, give the 6-year-old the shells to stuff, and play “Spinach Power Anthem” while the oven heats. Somewhere between the first chip and the second batch, spinach stops being the thing you hide. If your family wants more foods with a story behind them, the NutraPlanet Gazette builds each of its issues around one food. Start with a free issue, and when everyone wants more, a Gazette library membership opens all 11 finished issues.

Every family is different, so if you have questions about what you or your kids should eat, your pediatrician or a registered dietitian is the best person to ask.

Footnotes

1. Spill et al. 2011: Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density (Penn State) ↩

2. Wardle et al. 2003: Increasing children’s acceptance of vegetables, a randomized trial of parent-led exposure ↩

3. CDC: Choking Hazards ↩ ↩²

4. FoodSafety.gov: Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

5. FoodSafety.gov: Cold Food Storage Chart ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. USDA FSIS: Freezing and Food Safety ↩ ↩²

7. USDA FoodData Central: Spinach, frozen, chopped or leaf, unprepared ↩

8. USDA FoodData Central: Spinach, raw ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. USDA FoodData Central: Spinach, cooked, boiled, drained ↩ ↩²

10. USDA FoodData Central: Spinach, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained ↩

11. USDA FSIS: Leftovers and Food Safety ↩

12. CDC: Listeria Outbreak Linked to Leafy Greens (consumer advice) ↩