Spinach Cheese Strata is a flavorful casserole made with layers of bread, spinach, cheese, and a rich egg custard. This retro recipe for strata has been a favorite in our home for over 35 years! This vegetarian strata recipe is so easy to make, and is delicious for dinner, or even brunch!
Spinach Cheese Strata
This is a great casserole recipe if you have some day old bread to use up, or just want to try something different. There is a lot of flavor in this strata recipe!
Cheese Spinach Strata is a great brunch recipe, and also makes a nice vegetarian dinner recipe option.
What is Strata?
- Strata is plural for stratum (a layer). It means multi-layered.
- In the world of food it means a layered casserole, most often using bread for the layers, but could be potatoes, etc.
The Best Bread to Use for Strata
- The best bread to use for a strata recipe is what you have on hand!
- If you are going to go out and buy some, French bread, thinly sliced is great. Day old is best.
- I like plain old white bread as well. It is really soft so it has a pleasant texture in the casserole.
- I haven't made this strata recipe with gluten free or wheat bread. I think if you like the bread, you will like the resulting strata.
How to Make Strata
This Spinach Cheese Strata is very simple to make. Here are the steps:
Resting/Soaking
Ideally the strata will rest in the fridge for 1 hour prior to baking so the bread soaks up the milk and egg mixture. If you can't wait an hour, try to at least let it sit a few minutes. The bread being saturated is the key to the puffy, golden results from baking.
The Best Cheese to Use for Strata
• I prefer Swiss. A lot of the flavor in this recipe will come from the cheese, so you want to use one that is flavorful and melts nicely.
• I have tried other cheeses and like provolone, Monterey jack, and Gruyere. A blend is also nice. But Swiss is my favorite!
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If you make this yummy strata recipe, please leave a comment with a star rating below. I'd like to know how you liked it!
Spinach Cheese Strata
Equipment
- 8"x8" Baking Dish
- Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons Butter divided
- 8 slices White Bread or thinly sliced French bread
- 1 small Sweet Onion diced
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 10-ounce pkg Frozen Chopped Spinach thawed, water squeezed out
- 1 teaspoon Dried Dill Weed
- 1 ¼ teaspoons Kosher Salt divided
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- 6 oz Shredded Swiss Cheese 1 ½ cups, divided
- 3 large Eggs
- 2 cups Milk
- ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese grated or shredded
Instructions
- Butter an 8"x8" baking dish with half of the butter.
- Place 4 slices of the bread in the bottom of the baking dish in one layer.
- Heat a frying pan over med-high heat. When it is hot, add the remaining 1 Tablespoon of butter and the olive oil. Then add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until there is some slight browning on the onion, and it is soft and translucent.
- Add the spinach, dill weed, salt, and pepper to the frying pan. Mix well to combine and remove from heat.
- Spread the spinach mixture evenly over the slices of bread in the baking dish.
- Sprinkle 1 cup of the shredded Swiss cheese evenly over the spinach mixture.
- Arrange the remaining 4 bread slices over in one layer.
- In a 4-cup measuring glass or bowl, beat the eggs, milk, and ¼ teaspoon salt together well.
- Pour the egg mixture over the bread evenly.
- Sprinkle on the remaining Swiss cheese and the parmesan cheese.
- Let sit in the fridge for 1 hour or longer before baking, if possible, so the bread soaks up the egg/milk mixture. See Notes.
- Heat oven to 375° F.
- Bake, uncovered for 35-45 minutes or until the strata is puffed up and golden in color. If it is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
- Remove to a wire rack. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Sara says
I can’t believe how tasty this was! I’ll make a pan for my husband when he gets back from deployment.