Recipe: Spinach scones with cheddar cheese and garlic chives
Flaky and savory, these spinach scones celebrate spring. Debbie Arrington
It’s almost March and time for baking of the green – green variations of familiar foods in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
These easy, cheesy savory scones make the most of early-season spinach or other baby greens. It’s a way to use up garden thinnings – all those little plants that get pulled to make room for others to mature.
Chop the fresh spinach or greens by hand or pop the leaves in the food processor. It takes about 2 cups loosely packed leaves to make ½ cup finely chopped.
Green onions and chives are sprouting now, too. I used garlic chives; they also add a subtle garlic flavor was well as more bright green. Green onion tops (or thinnings) or other chive varieties are fine, too.
These scones have another plus – no eggs necessary!
This recipe freezes well. Make a batch now and be ready for any green occasion.
Spinach scones
Makes 8 scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter (1 stick)
½ cup low-fat milk
¼ cup cream
½ cup finely chopped fresh spinach
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic chives
½ cup cheddar cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Cut butter into cubes and add to flour mixture. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture.
Mix together milk and cream. Add to flour-butter mixture until just moistened. Fold in spinach, chives and grated cheese.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface. With floured hands, gently knead dough 5 or 6 times until spinach and cheese well distributed.
Pat dough into an 8-inch round about 1-1/2 inches thick. With a sharp knife dusted with flour, cut the round into 8 wedges.
Live a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the wedges onto the baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and transfer scones to a rack to cool for a few minutes.
Serve warm.
(Note: These scones freeze well.)
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Food in My Back Yard Series
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of April 20
Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!
* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.
* Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.
* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.
* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.
* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.
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