Crumpets With Herby Cream Cheese And Spinach

I love fresh herbs. Our closest supermarket has a wide range of fresh herbs in quite large packets (100g packets as opposed to the smaller 20g or 25g packets most of the major supermarkets sell). I find it hard to resist adding them to my shopping basket, and then having to make sure I use them before they spoil. Basil, parsley and chives, and probably coriander too, will always be used, but other herbs I am less likely to use on a regular basis.

In this simple but tasty lunchtime snack, there is one herb that stands out – tarragon. It has almost an aniseed or licorice flavour (which I do like), and I found I had to add more than the Waitrose recipe listed of the other herbs to tame the tarragon enough for the others to enjoy.

INGREDIENTS

• 100g spinach
• 1tbsp chopped tarragon (consider halving the amount if you find it overpowering)
• 1tbsp chopped chives (I used 2tbsp of chives)
• 2tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 spring onion (I used 2 spring onions)
• 200g cream cheese
• 4 crumpets

METHOD

First of all prepare the spinach by washing it, and then placing the still wet leaves into a saucepan. Place a tightly fitting lid over the saucepan and over a medium heat, steam the leaves for a couple of minutes. You may need to give them a quick stir so they all wilt.

Once they are bright green and glossy, drain the leaves, squeezing out as much liquid as you can before roughly chopping.

Mix the chopped herbs with the spring onion and cream cheese and season to taste with black pepper and a little salt. Remember there is already a lot of flavour in those herbs. so go easy on the seasoning.

Toast the crumpets until they are golden and then spread a generous amount of the herby cream cheese mix over them.

Top with the steamed spinach leaves, and sprinkle seasoning if desired. I tried a little pul bibir which was very tasty.

A very delicious light lunch with a wonderful fresh taste from those herbs. Unless you enjoy tarragon, I would recommend being judicious in it’s use, as when I used the quantities the recipe suggested, the tarragon dominated all the other flavours.

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