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This morning I harvested the most beautiful Poblano peppers. I just made the sauce and am using on enchiladas – amazing and easy. Thank you!
Cindy
Little message for your brain today 👇
Creamy spinach and roasted poblano sauce is a thing that you need.
And if you love Mexican food (which is, I think, a prerequisite for reading this blog – have I not made that clear yet?), you absolutely totally seriously must with this sauce. For a few reasons.
Reasons To Get Roasted Poblano Sauce In Your Life:
- Enchiladas of all kinds. covered in this sauce. Mic drop.
- Burritos. Smothered. Winning.
- Quesadillas saucified with spinach and roasted poblano goodness.
- Spicy breakfast potatoes and eggs blanketed in luscious, creamy, flavor-packed green.
- Roasted chicken with this sauce for dipping, served with a side of Mexican rice and beans, obviously, to mop up the extra sauce.
- (Any food in the universe) topped with, dipped in, or covered in this sauce.
- And finally, just because if we get right down to it, green sauces are generally pretty bomb. We saw this in 2015 through the introduction of things like Kale Pesto, Avocado Cilantro Dressing, and 5 Minute Magic Green Sauce. And now we can add one more to this list!
Its name is Creamy Spinach and Roasted Poblano Sauce.
At the base level with this sauce, we’re talking roasted poblanos, roasted garlic, and roasted onions. I mean… YEAH. Clear eyes full hearts can’t lose.
To the blender, we’re going to add some spinach and the combine the bright green ohmygoodness mixture with a creamy sauce base that we have bubbling on the stove, and the resulting sauce is a more subtle green with rocking flavor that is everything your Mexican food dreams are made of and more.
If I may be a tease for a hot second, this combo 👇 (breakfast enchiladas with chili potatoes, spicy turkey, eggs, tortillas, and cheese) is a PER-FECT example of what a person could do with such delicious sauce.
You’ll be seeing those breakfast enchiladas in full in tomorrow’s post, but for today, all hail the roasted poblano sauce that will bring your homemade Mexican food game to the NEXT LEVEL. 💯
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Creamy Spinach and Roasted Poblano Sauce
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: about 4 1/2 cups (roughly 10 half-cup servings) 1x
Description
The sauce for all your Mexican food wants and needs. It’s creamy, loaded with flavor, and totally versatile. So delicious! | pinchofyum.com
Ingredients
For Roasting:
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 poblano peppers, cut into large strips
For the rest of the sauce:
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 cups milk (warm)
- 2 cups chicken broth (warm)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup spinach leaves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wrap the garlic in foil with a little bit of oil. Toss the poblano and onion with the remaining oil. Place all three items on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes or until very soft.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour to form a thick paste. Cook for a few minutes. Slowly whisk in the warm milk and chicken broth. If they are cold, it will be more difficult to achieve a smooth texture. Whisk/simmer until smooth and thick, 5-10 minutes.
- Add half of the creamy mixture to a blender or food processor with the roasted vegetables from step one. Add the spinach. Pulse until mostly smooth. Taste and adjust with additional salt, pepper, or other seasoning.
- Transfer to the saucepan and combine with remaining creamy sauce base. Season with additional salt and pepper. Use on enchiladas, burritos, veggie bowls, quesadillas, eggs, breakfast hash, or anything else that you want. Sauce for life!
Notes
The longer you simmer the sauce, the thicker it will get.
I found that for leftover sauce (which gets pretty thick) or for sauce that needed to be a different consistency (thinner to pour over enchiladas, for example) it was really easy to just add a little bit of additional chicken broth or water to thin it out. You can just eyeball it to the right consistency based on what you are using the sauce for.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 11% Total Fat 8.8g
- Daily value: 7% Cholesterol 20.3mg
- Daily value: 20% Sodium 452.1mg
- Daily value: 4% Total Carbohydrate 10.5g
- Daily value: 6% Dietary Fiber 1.8g
- Sugars 4.3g
- Daily value: 8% Protein 3.8g
- Daily value: 21% Vitamin A 188µg
- Daily value: 36% Vitamin C 32.4mg
Keywords: poblano sauce, spinach and roasted poblano sauce
See also –> Blender Life Hacks! 👊 I can’t stop with this machine.
1000% yes. I went in for a taste test and realized that this is surprisingly (and dangerously) drinkable — it’s that good! Lindsay is the queen of making delicious green sauces (the basil sauce is one of my other all-time faves). Thank you!
Just made this to use some poblanos I just picked. My husband loved it and he’s Hispanic. I didn’t have garlic to roast, just used pre chopped garlic. But it still turned out great. Definitely a keeper, thank you!
This sounds really good. Do you know if you could cann this sauce?
We haven’t tried that before to know, but we’d love to hear if you give it a shot!
Was I supposed to leave the skin on the poblano? Mine did not turn out very green and has a bitter taste….maybe from the skin?
This is a good base recipe, but rather bland. I’d recommend punching up the amount of garlic (I doubled the veggies in the recipe and used a whole head), and adding a good variety of seasoning beyond salt. I believe I used chipotle, smoked sweet paprika, white pepper, a little onion powder, and some cumin. I’d also recommend using a whole bag of spinach and using half and half instead of milk. Also, it’s great to make ahead and let the flavors meld in the fridge.
I have never posted a comment on any site, but this is so perfect I just had to add to the accolades. I have been searching for a good Spinach sauce, my favorite at our local Mexican restaurant, and could not find one with great flavor. I had never cooked with Poblanos though they were on my list along with tomatillos to try.
This hit the mark! Delicious! I am going to freeze the leftovers!
Thanks so much for the comment, Susan! Glad you enjoyed it!
Let me just say… this is really good. I did make a few adjustments based on my tastes. I found it needed a bit more flavor, so I added an extra roasted poblano, two roasted jalapeños, a handful of cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice. I also only used about 2/3 of the béchamel, since it took away from the flavor a bit. Be generous with the salt. With all that said, it’s delicious on everything. Thank you POY!
So glad you enjoyed it, Allison!
I just made this. It’s incredible. I followed your recipe exactly as written.
Glad you enjoyed this, Brittany!
I have made this recipe before – but when I visted the shop yesterday, they did not have any poblanos, so since I am only shopping every 2 weeks because of the pandemic, I substituted Fresno Chiles. I think those were better than the poblanos.
Thanks for sharing, Julie! 😊
I wanna try it someday.
Creamy spinach poblano sauce
I made per your recipe last night and it just doesn’t have the zip flavor that you describe. Tastes creamy alright but just disappointingly bland. Double-checked my ingredients and procedures to yours and so I just gotta ask you, chef, for your suggestions to jazz flavor up to Mexicana marvel you described. Any ideas??
I added the juice from my pickled jalapeños jar. To me it needed acid. The juice helped and gave it tiny bit of zip. I still want to doctor it a bit more. Maybe a squeeze of lemon to brighten it up or I saw above someone added cilantro paste.
Super delicious. I removed a bit of the roux from the saucepan before combining the blended veggies, and also added some cilantro paste for more flavor. My oh my.
Great recipe. I do think that the béchamel could be reduced or the number of poblano increased– like tripled
I agree! Looking forward to any other ingredients to spark flavor..
This morning I harvested the most beautiful Poblano peppers. I just made the sauce and am using on enchiladas – amazing and easy. Thank you!
can you can this? or freeze it?
I liked this but I thought it was a touch bland. I saved half of it and I am going to roast half a Serrano and another poblano and add them to the sauce in the blender. To me it just needed a little more oomf
Best sauce I have ever made. I’m not a very good cook and I was stunned at how well I did. I’ve necer roasted anything to put in the blender and now I’m hooked. Put it on chorizo, egg & potato breakfast tacos and everyone went nuts! I have a lot left so can’t wait to use it on grilled chicken in the next couple days.
Yum! Glad you enjoyed it!
Great recipe! You are so right, this sauce can be used for so many things.
Suggestions:
-Use this for a wonderful roasted poblano soup. You can thin it with broth if needed, then top it with crema fresca and some chopped cilantro, serve with warm tortillas.
-Green eggs and ham. Top scrambled eggs with the sauce and some cojita cheese. Serve along side a ham steak.
-spice it up a bit. I added two, seeded jalapeños to the roasting pan. They added a nice little kick up in the heat level. Adjust to your liking.
-chicken poblano enchiladas.
I used this sauce for my enchiladas tonight.
1/2C sauce in bottom of an oiled 13×9 pan
2 C shredded chicken, 1.5 C shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and 1/2 C sauce for filling. Warm corn tortillas in oil, drain and roll roll with filling to make 12 enchiladas. Place in pan top with 2 C of sauce and more shredded cheese. Bake @ 375 for 30 minutes until bubbly. Top with green onions, cilantro and crema fresca.
I love poblano peppers and really want to try this! I’ve never used poblanos without removing the skin. I don’t need to remove it??? I’m going to make this vegan style. I’ll let you know how it turns out 😀
No need to remove it!
Does this sauce freeze well?
We haven’t tried freezing this sauce – since it’s milk-based, it probably won’t have quite the same texture as when it’s first made.
DELICIOUS. Seriously, so good. We added this as a sauce on top of some chicken and jalapeno enchiladas and it was perfect. We already loved the enchiladas, but adding this sauce made it over the top good! Your recipes never fail, so thank you!
Glad to hear it, Carolyn! Thanks so much!
Made this last night to smother our veggie enchiladas. Everyone loved the sauce. My pickiest was eating the sauce plain with a spoon!
That’s awesome, Lori!
i absolutely adore your site and cannot get enough of your recipes! question: do you think there would be any way to tweak your magic green sauce recipe into a sauce for these breakfast enchiladas?
Great question, Rachel! I’m not sure what MGS would be like if it’s cooked… we’ve never tried it. My thought is maybe try thinning it out a bit with broth or milk so the consistency resembles more of an enchilada sauce. Let us know how it turns out!
I just made this and…I’m not sure about it. :-/ Mine seems to taste very strongly of milk/butter/flour and almost no taste of the vegetables. Maybe my poblano peppers are falling down on the job! I’m hoping that as it cools the vegetable flavor will get stronger.
Making this to go with your slow cooker carnitas though and I’m excited for dinner!
Awesome idea to use this with the carnitas! Hope that sauce turns out for you!
Update: some time did the trick! It’s now a great sauce and the carnitas are awesome. Thanks!
Awesome! So glad to hear that. 🙂
We had the sauce served over oven-baked pork chops and black sweet rice. It was fantastic with the rice. Mixed reviews on how well it went with the chops, but we all agreed that it was a really good sauce. We like spicy food, so I added a small amount of red pepper flakes.
Thanks for the feedback, Ann! 🙂