When you think of the Bossche Bol, you can almost taste the sweet taste of chocolate and whipped cream. But chef Danny Janssen dared to make a savory version. With the main ingredient, stick to it: spinach. During the opening of the Dutch Food Week, he rode his cargo bike through the streets of Den Bosch on Friday evening to let the residents of Den Bosch taste his spinach bun.
“Nice and spicy,” says an older lady as she takes a bite. Can he match the Bossche bol? “I even like it better. Because I don’t like sweets,” she says. “A young woman on a terrace also takes one. We ask her what she thinks of when she thinks of a spinach bun. “Not this,” she laughs. “This is really delicious.” A boy down the street also thinks it’s a tasty snack. “But it’s not a Bossche Bol, because the chocolate is missing.”
Danny made the dish on Wednesday in the TV broadcast of the Omroep Brabant program ‘Lekker van Streek’. It is a large choux shaped like a Den Bosch bun, but not dipped in chocolate. “I went to the farmer in Etten-Leur where we harvested spinach early in the morning,” says Danny. “We chopped it ourselves and made a delicious filling with cream cheese, peas and herbs in it.”
The taste of herb cheese dominates and it is very strong. But is the spinach bulb also healthy? “It consists of half spinach and half cream cheese. So he does have some social calories,” laughs Danny. “But he is vegetarian.”
Brabant drinks board
The Dutch Food Week was officially opened on Friday evening. In Brabant it kicked off with a Consciously Burgundian Borrelplank, which Danny rode through the city on his cargo bike. In addition to the spinach balls, there were more snacks on the snack board, all made by farmers, gardeners and chefs from Brabant. The episode of ‘Lekker van Streek’ in which Danny makes the spinach ball can be viewed on our website and on the streaming service Brabant+.