Peter Luger Creamed Spinach
Prep time: 15 min | Cook time: 20 min | Serves: 4 as a side
Peter Luger’s creamed spinach is the fourth item on their famous table — after the porterhouse, the steak sauce, and the German fried potatoes. It has been on the menu essentially unchanged since Sol Forman’s era. The dish is straightforward, but most home reconstructions get the same two things wrong: they use a béchamel base, and they do not squeeze the spinach dry enough.
The Base: Cream Reduction, Not Béchamel
A béchamel uses flour as the thickener. It works — but flour produces a slightly starchy, gluey texture that is recognizably different from what you get at Luger. The authentic technique reduces the heavy cream directly until it has enough body to coat a spoon, then finishes with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for depth and additional structure.
The result is a sauce that is silky rather than paste-like, with a clean dairy richness that clings to the spinach leaves instead of pooling beneath them. The Parmesan also adds the kind of rounded, savory depth that makes you keep reaching for more.
The Blanch and the Squeeze
Most home versions wilt spinach in a dry pan and call it done. Peter Luger blanches — briefly into heavily salted boiling water, then immediately into an ice bath. The ice bath is what keeps the spinach vivid and bright green rather than turning gray or army-green on the plate. It takes three extra minutes and makes a visible difference.
After blanching: squeeze the spinach through a clean kitchen towel until bone-dry. Fresh spinach is 91% water. The water trapped in the blanched leaves will bleed directly into your cream sauce the moment the spinach hits the pan — a few tablespoons loosens the sauce, more than that breaks it. Squeeze until no water drips when you press the spinach ball against the sink. This is the single most important step.
The Complete Peter Luger Table
All four Peter Luger sides are on this site. The full experience at home:
- Appetizer: thick-sliced beefsteak tomato and raw onion rings, generously drizzled in Peter Luger steak sauce — no cooking
- Main: the porterhouse, broiler-seared and finished in butter
- Sides: German fried potatoes (cast-iron, beef tallow) and this creamed spinach
The creamed spinach and the German fried potatoes both finish in about 25 minutes and can be started while the steak rests — the timing naturally works.
More Peter Luger Recipes
- Peter Luger Steak Sauce — the anchovy-and-tamarind sauce that doubles as the tomato-and-onion appetizer dressing
- Peter Luger German Fried Potatoes — the parboil-and-beef-tallow method for a shattering crust
- Peter Luger Porterhouse — the broiler-sear method and butter finish
- Peter Luger Extra Thick Bacon — the single-slice appetizer bacon
Other Steakhouse Creamed Spinach, Compared
Creamed spinach is on nearly every steakhouse menu, but the base technique varies — and that’s what makes each one taste different:
- Ruth’s Chris Creamed Spinach — also a cream reduction (no flour), but built on shallots and garlic and served sizzling in a 500°F ceramic crock
- Morton’s Creamed Spinach — the flour-béchamel route, loaded with cream cheese and mozzarella and broiled until the top browns; richer and closer to a gratin
